The great people of the city of Chicago have a long history of giving. From the Chicago Community Trust to post-Great Depression and Civil Rights initiatives, among others, Chicagoans have always looked after each other. And we look to continue in that tradition.
Last year (2024) marked the fifth full year that the Woodlawn Community Food Pantry (WCFP) — and its predecessor, the Woodlawn Community Mobile Produce Distribution Site for the Greater Chicago Food Depository (GCFD) — has served the food needs of Chicago’s Woodlawn, Hyde Park, Grand Crossing and South Shore communities. These areas are in what is known as a “food desert,” where access to affordable, healthy food options is limited or nonexistent because grocery stores are too far away.
In addition to emphasizing healthier food options such as fresh produce, healthy proteins and low-sodium and sugar canned goods, we provide educational materials and demonstrations on how to prepare nutritionally balanced meals. We firmly believe nutritional education, along with healthier diets, will help reduce complications such as diabetes, hypertension and kidney disease.
We pick up the donated food from four “rescue hubs” around Chicago and redistribute it to our four locations around Woodlawn — Margaret’s Village, New Bethlehem Church, Christ Temple Church and the Edwin G. Irvin Achievement Center — where it is available to those in need.
The significance of WCFP's efforts within the communities served is evident, with an average household size of 3.5 people. Operating from easily accessible locations, the organization serves 200 households per week, totaling 800 families monthly, feeding nearly 3,000 people per month. To put it in perspective, from January 2021 through January 2025, through our Food Pantry and Food Rescue the WCFP ordered and distributed more than 1,440,000 pounds of food. That is nearly 720 tons of much-needed and healthy food for the community’s residents. And that figure is only going to increase.
In addition to the overall positive impact the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation’s (IICF) grant has on the WCFP, it greatly benefits the needs of immigrants who have resettled in the surrounding communities. Specifically, WCFP was able to cover the cost of having our client intake questionnaire and other documents translated into Spanish. This dramatically reduced any language barrier-related delays. It also enabled us to make additional purchases of culturally familiar and healthy food items.
One grateful recipient of the WCFP’s efforts said, “It helps to supplement my income. I receive Social Security as a minimal amount of a stipend, so it allows me to live decently and enables me to pay my bills, taxes, health insurance and have food. This is quality food that we receive, and I love that we receive it at no cost.”
To even better serve the community, WCFP will soon begin a new service – weekly delivery of groceries to multi-unit senior residence apartment buildings. Additionally, WCFP and UChicago Medicine have collaborated on a variety of community health initiatives, including a COVID-19 vaccination event and free kidney screenings in Woodlawn and surrounding communities alongside the National Kidney Foundation.
As we enter IICF’s Month of Giving, please consider how valuable your support is to organizations such as ours. For additional information about The Woodlawn Community Food Pantry, please visit www.woodlawncommunityfoodpantry.com.
Click through the slideshow above to see some of the work being done by The Woodlawn Project and its volunteers.
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