For the last five years, staff and volunteers at the Oak Park and River Forest Food Pantry have tried to beef up operations to serve an ever-expanding population.
But it isn’t always easy. For a group that relies heavily on donations from the public, keeping food in people’s kitchens is a daunting task.
“The Saturday before Thanksgiving, we had 341 people come to us,” said Kathy Russell, the food pantry’s executive director. “We have never had more than 275 (on a single Saturday).”
Since 2005, the number of people coming to the pantry has grown. It now serves about 1,400 people on the West Side of Chicago and the western Cook County suburbs. Staff and volunteers waiting Monday morning for a shipment of 600 hams to give out for the holidays. For the sake of fairness and to keep within a limited budget, the food pantry gave out raffle tickets to people who came in recently, but the supply is only enough for less than half of their regular customers.
Russell’s goal is to keep growing. She hopes she can give out 1,000 hams next year to make sure more of the regular users get one. Although she says not everyone, like singles, wants or needs such a meal.
More people coming out to food pantries is not an uncommon trend since the recession began in 2008. Many new users have been coming out recently, a sign of lingering economic troubles. According to a recent survey of food pantry users, about 52 percent have only been going for the past six months. About 81 percent have been coming for less than a year. About 59 percent of all pantry visitors are unemployed, and more than half are at least 50 years old.
Part of this is by design, as the pantry was expanded significantly in 2005 to help serve the area. At the time, they only served about 160 people a month. Since the expansion and before the recession, the majority of the increase in traffic was the result of more marketing and fund-raising to raise awareness of their services. But things really started to pick up after the economy plummeted.
“Since 2008, we have seen a different kind of increase,” Russell said. “People lost their jobs, more people are on fixed incomes and there is more working poor.”
For the pantry, it remains a balancing act between serving the people while not stretching themselves too thin. For example, a household is only allowed one visit a month, and most people come as often as allowed. For example, 53 percent of all people used the pantry at least six times last year, and 82 percent came at least three times.
Russell said the reason they have been able to handle all the extra traffic is through the generosity of the Oak Park and River Forest community. While residents of the two villages only make up about one in every five customers, the majority of donations come from Oak Park and River Forest. Donations are almost the entire budget, with 68 percent of all income coming from individuals and 17 percent from congregations.
“Hunger is just a basic need,” Russell said when asked how donations have stayed so strong in a down economy. “You need nutrition so you can stay in your home, find a job, raise your kids and just be a productive member of society. How do you do any of that if you don’t have nutrition?”
The change has been drastic for the pantry, which now operates at a budget 10 times as large as it was in 2005, when it was $40,000. But there are limitations; in 2009, the pantry, working with the Greater Chicago Food Depository, where they purchase food, set up official boundaries. The intent was not to overload one pantry with too much traffic when there are other, more nearby locations people may not be aware of.
Russell said this is to ensure everybody gets some food.
“We have had a lot of community support, and we are trying to make sure everybody has food and doesn’t have to wait three hours in the elements,” Russell said.
