Restaurants, community organizations and PTA groups rally to shore up food resources, including for seniors and needy families

Henry Fetta

By Anna Kim from the Chicago Tribune

At the Northfield Township food pantry in Glenview, staff members are dealing with a “frantic” flurry of people, an “unprecedented" demand, pantry director and Northfield Township Supervisor Jill Brickman said.

But local restaurants, PTA groups, community organizations — even a historic preservation farm — are finding creative ways to keep the pantry stocked and help families in need receive food, especially those with school-age children. Some people who need groceries have told Brickman they’ve recently been laid off. The food demands and job interruptions come amid concerns over spread of the novel coronavirus.

“I think it's the same thing as the grocery stores are seeing. People are nervous about not being able to get to food,” Brickman said. New Trier Township communications director Jack Macholl said the need at their food pantry has stayed consistent, but staff are planning for an increase in need if the shutdown continues.

As the shelter-in-place order continues, Macholl said “money may begin to get tight” for families who have lost work, especially those whose resources were strained already. He said it may mean the pantry will see an increase in demand the longer the shutdown continues

The township includes the North Shore towns of Glencoe, Kenilworth, Wilmette and Winnetka, and portions of Glenview and Northfield. Northfield Township Road District 9 officials helped the Northfield Township food pantry receive a donation March 17, 2020 after a volunteer group had to cancel due to concerns about social distancing

Northfield Township Road District 9 officials helped the Northfield Township food pantry receive a donation March 17, 2020 after a volunteer group had to cancel due to concerns about social distancing (Northfield Township Food Pantry)

As schools closed March 17, the Northbrook School District 27 PTA realized that a week’s worth of food was about to go to waste. There are no cafeterias at SD27 schools, and parents order kids’ lunches for delivery from local restaurants, often prepaying for them weeks or months in advance through the PTA.

In an act of solidarity with community members in need, the PTA asked parents to continue to pay for meals, keeping revenue flowing to local restaurants, and the meal ingredients would instead be donated to the pantry. The first delivery was March 19, when Piero’s Pizza of Highland Park brought 35 pizzas, 35 pounds of uncooked pasta, sauce and 165 cookies.

“It was almost 3,000 lunches that were donated, which was a lot of money,” said Robin Bear, who runs Lunch Solutions, the company that coordinates SD27′s lunch deliveries. “This is really hitting the restaurants in a tough way, so we were trying to give them some business as well.”

As the pantry can’t accept hot meals, restaurants like Grill House in Northbrook and Yummy Bowl in Highland Park are giving individually packed ingredients like rice, uncooked hamburgers and chicken breast, which add up to the same dollar amount as the lunch money revenue, said Bear, who is coordinating among the PTA, pantry and restaurants. Dan Jariabka, the founder and president of the Hunger Resource Network, picked up donated food at Sunset Foods in Northbrook March 25, 2020.

The PTA groups of Glenview School District 34 have also stepped up to help, raising money through their websites. The Springman/Attea middle school PTA has donated $14,475 to the Northfield food pantry as of March 25, PTA Co-President Dana Nate-Doffin said.

The money will be matched by the pantry and go to a fund specifically for families with children who qualify for free and reduced-price lunch. In addition to groceries from the pantries, the families will receive a gift card to Aldi. Nate-Doffin said it’s been difficult to find items like toilet paper and sanitizers in stores as people stock up, and she hopes a gift card will help people buy what they need.

In addition to delivering ingredients to the pantry from SD27′s lunches, Grill House came up with it’s own way of keeping people fed: offering coupons for free meals to kids who qualify for free and reduced-price meals. The coupons were distributed by officials to 1,000 kids at SD34, Northbrook School District 28 and West Northfield School District 31.

Owner Nick Drivas said community support for his restaurant makes it possible to offer the service.

“If the community doesn’t come together, and if we all don’t do our part, then what’s gonna happen?” Drivas said. “It was within our power to be able to do this and it was kind of the only way that we knew how to give back and help the community and the kids that are not as fortunate.”

Even Historic Wagner Farm, located in Glenview, one of the last working dairy farms in Cook County and offers education about farm heritage, joined the wave of support. The farm, which is closed to the public for now, donated 30 fresh eggs to the pantry. Fresh eggs grown at the Historic Wagner Farm in Glenview were donated to the Northfield Township food pantry March 25, 2020. Fresh eggs grown at the Historic Wagner Farm in Glenview were donated to the Northfield Township food pantry March 25, 2020.(Glenview Parks District)

New Trier Township agreed to give an additional $10,000 grant to Meals on Wheels in the North Shore area. Meals on Wheels is a nonprofit organization that delivers food to seniors. Township leaders also reached out to see if the organization needed volunteer support. The township food pantry is looking into the possibility of providing food bags along with the meals homebound seniors are receiving during the pandemic, Macholl said.

A number of people have reached out through social media and called to ask to donate to the pantry, Macholl said. Divine Mercy Parish, in Northfield, is organizing a donation drive for the pantry and for A Just Harvest, a soup kitchen in Chicago, according to a release from the Archdiocese of Chicago.

“I am very impressed by the generosity of people in the township,” Macholl said. “It’s incredible actually how generous people really are." As organizations see both a surge in volunteer efforts and in need, the coronavirus closures and social distancing concerns have created some challenges.

On April 8, a Northbrook-based food rescue organization, Hunger Resource Network, was supposed to move a donation of 126,000 pounds of frozen chicken to other organizations in need. That would require 200 volunteers working in immediate proximity, Director Henry Fetta said. The organization is still deciding if there’s a safe way to move the food, but the event may have to be postponed or canceled.

Since demand at grocery stores has been emptying shelves, there hasn’t been as much food to donate from those stores, said Daniel Jariabka, president of Hunger Resource Network.

Sunset Foods, which has several locations in the north suburbs, has been donating food for over 40 years, Fetta said. “They’ve been so inundated with shoppers that there’s usually no bread left, usually no blemished vegetables, so that has actually decreased because it’s going out the door rather than being left there to donate the next day to agencies,” Jariabka said. Dan Jariabka, the founder and president of the Hunger Resource Network, picked up donated food at Sunset Foods in Northbrook on March 25, 2020. Dan Jariabka, the founder and president of the Hunger Resource Network, picked up donated food at Sunset Foods in Northbrook on March 25, 2020.(Brian OMahoney / Pioneer Press)

But concerns about social distancing haven’t slowed a volunteer-driven supplementary meal effort, as the organizations can still pack meals for students from low-income families from their homes and drop them off at centralized locations, Fetta said. “Now that the schools are closed, we are receiving an overwhelming amount of support," Fetta said. "People are saying, ‘how can we help these kids during this challenging time?’”

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The Importance of Protein

By Marcy Kirshenbaum • October 22, 2023

By addressing food insecurity and promoting adequate protein intake, we can improve the overall health and well-being of individuals and communities. This requires collaborative efforts from governments, non-governmental organizations, community-based initiatives, and individuals to create sustainable solutions and break the cycle of food insecurity. Efforts should focus on improving access to nutritious food, promoting sustainable agriculture, fostering economic opportunities, and empowering vulnerable populations. Food insecurity has profound consequences on physical health, cognitive development, and overall well-being. When individuals or households experience food insecurity, they often struggle to access an adequate and diverse range of nutritious foods, including those rich in protein. Inadequate protein intake contributes to malnutrition and its associated health consequences. Protein is essential for growth , development, and maintenance of the body's tissues, as well as for numerous physiological processes. It plays a crucial role in building and repairing muscles, producing enzymes and hormones, supporting immune function, and maintaining healthy hair, skin, and nails. Protein intake has an additional benefit of reducing feelings of hunger because it metabolizes at a slower rate than carbohydrates thereby promoting fullness. Insufficient protein intake can lead to muscle wasting, increased illness, delayed wound healing, and decreased overall health and well-being.