THE FULL PLATEF E E D I N G O U R H U N G R Y N E I G H B O R S SPRING 2013

Foods to

Encourage

I N T H I S I S S U E

Healthier options available to network partners

Packing HopeAbbott addresses childhood hunger in its neighborhood

®

T he other day I got asked a question that has been asked to me a hundred times. The question was “when does

everyone need food the most?” Being in the food banking business, the answer has always been easy, a no brainer really, but it did get me thinking. Do most people know the answer?

The answer is simple: our neighbors need food all year long.

In order to make this happen, we need your support all year long. We are grateful for the outpouring of support we see during the

holidays. We receive many generous food and monetary donations that we utilize quickly to feed our hungry neighbors.

However, starting in January, we see donations decline in both food and funds. It’s almost like hunger went into hiding for the winter. We know for certain that is not true.

Hunger happens every single day. It touches the lives of families from Freeport to Waukegan, Naperville to Hopkins Park, and Antioch to Kankakee. No city is immune to it.

We are working on a solution together with our network partners.

In November, many from our network of partner agencies attended a food sourcing seminar at our West Suburban Center in Geneva. The energy in that room was unparalleled to anything I’ve seen. The innovative ways in which they acquire food and get the community involved is astounding.

They plant-a-row of produce in Rockford. They engage the disengaged in Yorkville. They see a food delivery truck on the road, write down the company’s name and phone number and make a new contact in Woodridge.

Our goal has always been to get more food into the hands of those who need it 365 days a year. The food is there. The resources are there. We have the team to do it. Now it’s time to make it happen.

Sincerely,

Pete Schaefer, President and CEO

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We Need Your Support Spring 2013

Raising funds

For more details, please call 630.443.6910 ext. 125.

We are excited to announce that JEWEL-OSCO is again

serving as the presenting sponsor of A Taste That Matters, set for Thursday, May 9, Drury Lane Oakbrook Terrace. Last year’s event brought 30 restaurants and more than 700 guests together to raise funds to provide 1.9 million meals to our hungry neighbors. Join us for an evening of the area’s best food, a silent auction, and more. Tickets are $200 for individuals and $2,000 per table of 10. Sponsorships are available.

A Taste That MattersT H U R S DAY , M AY 9

HUNGER PARTNER - $10,000

HUNGER LEADER - $5,000

HUNGER HELPER - $2,000SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES:

Cal l or Emai l to Reserve Your P lace Today!

630.443.6910 ext . 125 | sthompson@northernilfoodbank.org

Save the T H U R S D A Y

D R U R Y L A N E , O A K B R O O K T E R R A C EM AY 9 , 2 0 1 3

6 : 0 0 P. M .

Date!

A C U L I N A R Y E V E N T B E N E F I T T I N G N O R T H E R N I L L I N O I S F O O D B A N K

Presented by

There are many ways for companies to get involved in feeding our hungry neighbors. Abbott has taken a hands-on approach to addressing

child hunger in Lake County. Every Wednesday, Abbott employees

gather at Northern Illinois Food Bank’s North Suburban Center in Park City to put together bags of kid-friendly food. The food is later put into backpacks and distributed by yet another group of Abbott employees each Friday to children at risk of hunger at a local school through Northern Illinois Food Bank’s BackPack Program.

The BackPack Program partners with 127

schools across many of our counties to provide food to chronically hungry children. In the backpack is enough nutritious food to provide breakfast, lunch and supper for Saturday and Sunday for the child and two family members.

“We have students that, unfortunately, when they go home have nothing to eat,” said Vanessa Campos, Principal at Carman-Buckner Elementary School in Waukegan. “The backpacks provided by Northern Illinois Food Bank, Abbott and the Abbott Fund add another level of support for our kids.”

Abbott and the Abbott Fund are charter sponsors of Northern Illinois Food Bank’s BackPack Program. Since the program’s

inception in 2008, the Abbott Fund has provided $275,000 in funding and product donations valued at $20,000. Abbott employees have provided more than 5,000 volunteer hours to support the local program. The funding has helped the program grow from 19 schools to 26 schools in Lake County this year, which means 100 more children are receiving much-needed food.

"Over the weekend, kids do not have access to school food programs, so they are at higher risk of going hungry. Abbott and the Abbott Fund support the BackPack Program to help fill this critical gap,” said Cindy Schwab, director, Global Citizenship, Abbott.

Packing HopeHands on Corporate Giving

For more information about corporate involvement opportunities, please contact Hester Bury, director of corporate and foundation giving, at 630-443-6910. ext 124.

The BackPack Program is

funded entirely through

private donations. A $15 donation

provides a backpack to a hungry

child. To learn more, log onto

www.SolveHungerToday.org

or call 630-443-6910.

www.SolveHungerToday.org

Better nutrition

inding food on a barebones budget is difficult. Achieving a healthy diet is even more of a challenge.

Northern Illinois Food Bank’s Foods to Encourage (F2E) initiative

strives to offer more fresh produce and nutrient-dense foods to our hungry neighbors.

“For many of our hungry neighbors, they are often unable to access or afford the variety and quantity of food needed for a healthful diet,” said the food bank’s Vice President of Nutrition and Network Programs Kelly Brasseur, MS, RD, LDN.

The USDA’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans recognizes certain food categories that constitute a healthful diet. Northern Illinois Food Bank now makes it easy for our network partner feeding programs to identify these foods when they are placing their orders, as the food categories – whole grains, low-fat dairy products, lean proteins and fruits and

vegetables – are marked with a special F2E icon on our “shopping list.”

The F2E initiative also focuses on nutrition education using the USDA’s MyPlate materials.

Northern Illinois Food Bank is currently researching our hungry neighbors’ needs and wants related to nutrition, tailoring information for specific audiences, and providing appropriate nutrition education.

These include hand-outs on how to substitute a F2E food for a more familiar item to help make informed decisions. There are also recipe cards that help families prepare a menu with the new product and increase the possibility of the family choosing that item the next time they visit the pantry.

The food bank purchases the majority of the F2E foods. Corporate and Foundation grants are needed to help offset the costs of the foods to our partner feeding programs.

F

Foods to

Encourage

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Organizations interested in sponsoring the F2E program should contact Hester Bury at 630-443-6910, ext. 124.

It’s happened to the best of us. We fill-up the bird feeder only to see a squirrel clean it out within minutes. Tom Degler had the same problem.

“When I retired, one of the jobs my wife asked me to do was to keep the bird feeder full,” Degler said. “I filled up the feeder before a football

game once and by half-time, it was half-empty because of a squirrel.”He purchased feeders that didn’t pass the test of keeping squirrels out. He

then decided it was time to do something about it and built one of his own. After a year, he settled on one that kept the squirrels out of his feed.

His design lulls the squirrel into a false sense of security. The spring mounting of the perch gives way due to the weight of the squirrel and restricts access to the bird feed.

He sells his design, the SquirrelAway Bird Café, at local retailers and the Kane County Flea Market.

Degler donates $10 of every squirrel-proof bird feeder purchased to Northern Illinois Food Bank which means every feeder provides 60 meals.

“When a person buys this as a gift for themselves or for others, they are actually buying 61 gifts,” he said.

Since 2008, Degler has been able to provide over 147,000 meals to hungry neighbors in northern Illinois through sales.

Innovation feeds

Fool a Squirrel, Feed a Family

You can get involved with Northern Illinois Food Bank in many different ways. Be creative. Start a lemonade stand or hold a concert at your school. There is no idea too big or small as every $1 donated provides six meals to our hungry neighbors.

Degler's design is sold locally and on his website.

www.SolveHungerToday.org

The mission of the after-school program of the York Community Resource Center is to make learning fun for at-risk children—but it’s hard to have fun and learn

on an empty stomach. That’s why the York Community Resource Center provides healthy meals and snacks during their summer and school-year programs.

The program, in Lombard, has been held at the York Center Church of the Brethren since 2005. Mariela Soejarto, Supervisor of the York Community Resource Center, is the heart of the children’s program. The center is open until 5 p.m. every weekday, arriving in the morning during the summer, and right after school during the rest of the year.

“The kids sometimes come early,” Mariela said. “If they see my car, they come in.”

School children of all ages are welcome; their parents just have to sign them up beforehand so Mariela knows how much food to order.

“We are able to do a program like this because we get the food from Northern Illinois Food Bank,” she said. “The kids have to eat. If we had to buy all that food ourselves, it would be so expensive.”

The center makes time for field trips, ESL classes, arts and crafts, games, and homework help. Mariela and other mentors and volunteers help out with reading, math, and spelling first thing after school.

There’s no homework in the summer, but everyone participates in a summer reading program through the Villa Park Library. “My goal is for them to do really well when they go back to school,” said Mariela.

She keeps track of each student’s time spent

reading, and everyone gets a prize in the end.With the help of the food bank, and through

Mariela’s presence as a teacher, encourager, and friend, more children in the community avoid risky behaviors and are successful in school—and they don’t go hungry, either.

Feeding the MindCommunity success

The mission of the

after-school program

of the York Community

Resource Center is to

make learning fun for

at-risk children.

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Northern Illinois Food Bank has 145 After-School Programs in our service area

6 / 7 T H E F U L L P L AT E

Mobile pantry

When Help Is Needed I t was an unusually warm morning for December. The seats in the recreational room of

St. John’s Lutheran Church had been quickly filling up since 5 a.m. Breakfast was being served, the coffee slowly sipped and individuals were sharing stories and making positive

predictions for the future. Katrina was sitting in one of these seats, waiting with others for the arrival of Northern

Illinois Food Bank’s Mobile Pantry. It was the fourth mobile pantry St. John’s Lutheran Church hosted this year to help meet the tremendous increase in the number of people seeking food assistance at the pantry. When the pantry opened in 2010, it served less than 100 people per month. By October 2012, that number grew to more than 1,000.

A young woman of 29 years, it was plain to see before Katrina spoke that she had a quiet determination to give her family a better life even through the heartache she has endured.

In the last year, both her mother and father passed away. Her husband lost his job and has been unemployed since May. One of her daughters has been diagnosed with Aspergers and the couple also received custody of her husband’s two sons from a prior relationship.

Due to these situations, the household size increased to over 10 people and now relies heavily on Katrina’s income as a childcare worker and the SNAP benefits (food stamps) they receive.

In her line of work, she helps families every day, but in order to make it through the month, her household visits three different food pantries to make sure there is enough food; something she never imagined she’d need to do to support her family.

“I don’t feel ashamed,” Katrina said. “But I do feel like I let my family down.”She went on to say the pantry experience has humbled her family and brought forth a

spirit of wanting to give back whenever possible in her children.“The older ones come with to help me and others while we are there,” she said. “It’s

teaching them to help others because you never know who might need it.”

The Mobile Pantry provides up to 300 families with produce, meat and dry goods. Program sponsors are needed to fund visits. To learn more, contact Hester Bury at 630-443-6910 ext 124.

Meeting Space Available

HungerScramble

Community rooms

www.SolveHungerToday.org

W e are especially looking for people to join us on weekdays with projects such as sorting,

evaluating, and packing food. If warehouse work isn’t for you, we also need help with a variety of office tasks, including database projects, filing and online research.

Our new online volunteer registration system at www.SolveHungerToday.org makes it easy to schedule a volunteer opportunity on a day and time that work for you.

You can view our volunteer shift calendar and instantly reserve your space. Volunteers will be able to access their profile 24 hours a day and modify their registration instantaneously, if necessary.

To learn more, please visit our Volunteer FAQ and Resource pages at SolveHungerToday.org, or contact us at volunteer@northernilfoodbank.org

Volunteers are needed year-round

New registration

Help us feed our hungry neighbors.

Having a meeting soon? Want that meeting to be a team-building exercise? There is an easy solution to that. Host your meeting at Northern Illinois Food Bank’s West Suburban Center in Geneva.

The food bank has a variety of rooms available for local business and community groups. Rooms are equipped with a built-in projector and screen.

When you are done with your meeting, help us feed more of our hungry neighbors by volunteering in our warehouse.

To learn more about meeting opportunities, contact Nichole Okapal, Meeting Space & Volunteer Coordinator at 630-443-6910 ext. 167 or nokapal@northernilfoodbank.org.

Upcoming Activities

MARCHYoung Professionals Board Development BreakfastMarch 8 (8 – 9 a.m.)Join us for our first in a series of professional development activities. Discussion: Professional Branding – create a passionate fan base for your business. Adam Parks, from First Command Financial Services will speak. No cost to attend.RSVP by March 4 to 630-443-6910 x118Location: West Suburban Center, Geneva

APRILYoung Professionals Board Networking EventApril 17 (6 – 8 p.m.)Mix, mingle, and connect with other young professionals. Feel free to invite your colleagues and friends! Location for the event will be announced at a later date. Location: TBD – RSVP to 630-443-6910 x136 $10 members / $15 non-members

MAYA Taste That Matters: A Culinary EventMay 9 (6– 9 p.m.)An amazing night of tastes from 30 local restaurants. JEWEL-OSCO again serves as the event sponsor for this second year event which attracted more than 700 people last year. Tickets are $200 for individuals and $2,000 per table of 10. Sponsorships are available. For more details, please call 630.443.6910 ext. 125.Location: Drury Lane Oakbrook Terrace

Sodexo’s 2nd Annual Charitable Golf OutingMay 24 Sodexo will once again hosting an event to raise funds to help feed more of our hungry neighbors. More details to come.Location: Prairie Landing Golf Club, West Chicago

®

NON-PROFIT ORG.U.S. POSTAGE

PAIDST. CHARLES, ILPERMIT NO. 233

273 DEARBORN COURT GENEVA, ILLINOIS 60134

See our complete calendar of events at www.SolveHungerToday.org

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Send comments/questions about articles in this issue to cstrupp@northernilfoodbank.org www.SolveHungerToday.org