FOOD BANK FEATURETTE: EDWe're featuring folks from our community during Hunger Action Month. Today, meet Ed.Ed got his first taste of volunteering with the Food Bank about nine years ago in a rural town in Grundy County.“The year I retired, we had our big, annual managers meeting and we always did something for the community as a group, as part of the meeting. We were in a little tiny town, you know, less than a thousand people. We went to help at a food pantry.” He remembers the numbers. “We gave out 8,600 pounds of food that day to 100 families. That shocked me. So many people in such a small town? That’s when I really started to become aware of food insecurity.”“One of the families that came that day was an employee of ours. She brought her mom, who was in a wheelchair. I remember looking over at the truck and it said Northern Illinois Food Bank, Geneva. And I thought, that’s my hometown. I need to get involved.” After retiring from a career in managing hotels, Ed came to the Food Bank and started helping at the warehouse and with food rescue. “When I started nine years ago, we had a goal of serving 12 million meals. Last year, the goal was 80 million — we ended up distributing over 100 million meals.” Ed shakes his head. “But there’s people who still don’t know about the level of need.”Now a volunteer supervisor, Ed leads the volunteers in Geneva distribution center. But his real passion is working food distributions such as the Mobile Market in Elgin. In May, he convinced his family to join him at the pop-up in Six Flags Great America, Gurnee, where they served more than 1,900 families.“When you see the appreciation on people’s faces, it feels so good.”Ed finds allies everywhere. “I was out on the golf course recently and happened to get paired up with some guys who were organizing a fundraiser for a local pantry. After the game, we were sitting down, enjoying an adult beverage, and our toast was ‘to ending hunger!’”Cheers to that, Ed! ... See MoreSee Less
We thanked our hard-working volunteers last night with Drive-in Movie Night, complete with catered barbecue, an ice cream truck, popcorn, and movie candy. At dusk, we showed "Cool Runnings" on the side of our building in Geneva and cuddled under blankets for the full drive-in movie experience. ... See MoreSee Less
Thanks, Starbucks, for your support in helping us expand our refrigeration capabilities at our South Suburban Center in Joliet.We receive daily deliveries of sandwiches and baked goods from Starbucks stores that are passed on to our member food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters and group homes in the Joliet area. In the past eight months we have received 223,000 pounds of food that have been passed on to our neighbors.The cooler/freezer expansion is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year. ... See MoreSee Less
