Who We Are

The mission of NIFB is to provide nutritious food to all those in need through our own efforts and those of over 600 partner agencies in the following 13 counties - Boone, DuPage, DeKalb, Grundy, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, Ogle, Stephenson, Will and Winnebago. NIFB acquires, gathers, handles, and distributes approximately three million pounds of donated, government, and purchased food each month through local food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, youth activity centers and other food assistance sites.

NIFB provides food for an estimated 502,400 different people annually, and 61,600 different people in any given week. Almost half (48%) of the members of households served by NIFB are under 18 years old. (Hunger in America Study 2010) This is a significant increase of 65% over the past four years, reflecting the skyrocketing demand caused by the recent recession and high levels of unemployment. Nine of the thirteen counties comprising NIFB’s service area have unemployment rates higher than the Illinois rate of 9.9% (August 2011) and three counties are ranked in the top five for unemployment in Illinois (Winnebago, Boone and Ogle ). Even more alarming is the situation being faced by children in our communities. The Map the Meal Gap: Child Food Insecurity 2011 study, released in partnership with Feeding America, found that 1 in 4 kids in our service area do not have regular access to nutritious food or do not know where their next meal is coming from.

In the past fiscal year NIFB distributed 34.8 million pounds of food. We have 14 trucks on the road every day delivering a wide variety of food including non-perishable items, frozen meat, fresh fruits, vegetables and bread to partner agencies and picking up donations throughout our 7,000 square mile service area. Agencies pay a shared maintenance fee of approximately 13 cents a pound and receive no-cost delivery of food directly to their agency. On average our partner agencies receive 70% of the food they distribute from the Food Bank. We are one of the few food banks in the country offering no cost delivery to our partner agencies saving them money which they can then spend on food rather than transportation.

NIFB’s programs include Food Recovery picking up frozen meat, produce, bread and bakery goods from a total of 143 retail stores on a weekly basis. In the past year we recovered 8.6 million pounds of food of which 3.7 million pounds was protein-rich meat. The Mobile Pantry, a traveling food pantry carrying 10,000 pounds of food provides direct distribution of food in under-served areas or for agencies with limited storage and the Senior Food Box and Emergency Food Box Programs increase the amount of food available for targeted populations.

NIFB’s consistent commitment to service and high operating standards has earned us recognition for our innovative approach to feeding hungry people. We are proud of our achievements, especially our recognition by Feeding America as the 2010 Food Bank of the Year. In addition, we have earned eight consecutive years of a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator, a feat only achieved by 1% of all charities rated nationwide. To learn more about that great honor and how NIFB achieved this recognition click here.