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November/December 2008 - Vol. 3, Issue 2 |
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 $30 Provides a Holiday Meal Box to Feed a Family of Eight this Holiday Season. NIFB Needs to Feed 27,000 Families this Year. Make Your Donation Today! |
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Hungry Families Need Help This
Holiday Season:
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Sponsor a Holiday Meal Box Today: Bring Hope to a Local Family
NIFB's Holiday Meal Box Program is generously sponsored in part by the Sara Lee Foundation. Support from the following Holiday Meal Box Partners also makes this year’s program possible: CROSSMARK, Jewel-Osco, Massimo Zanetti Beverage USA, George Weston Bakeries Inc., and The J.M. Smucker Company. Lunches generously provided by Panera Bread, Sweet Baby Ray's, and Connie's Pizza on Saturday volunteer days! To learn more, click here.
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What if you could help a hungry family in your community? What if you could give a family a full turkey meal that not only represents food but hope? Many of you are doing just that when you help provide a Holiday Meal Box to a hungry family. Each box contains a 12-14 pound turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, vegetables, dessert, and coffee, and can feed a family of eight. This year, 27,000 families will receive a Holiday Meal Box and will be able to truly celebrate the holidays. Preparing a holiday meal for
27,000 families is no easy task, but thankfully, NIFB has many
helping hands to make it possible. Each week, hundreds of
volunteers pour into the Food Bank to assemble
Click here to sponsor a Holiday Meal Box today! |
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Hunger Action Month Highlights: September Activities Fight Hunger!
Jewel-Osco & FOX Chicago "Stuff the Truck"
Throughout the entire month of September, Jewel-Osco
BP Charity Golf Event Benefits NIFB
NIFB's 10th Annual Hunger Scramble
NIFB's 1st Annual The Art of Giving
Thank you to everyone who supported
Hunger Action Month!
You can support the Northern Illinois Food Bank's mission to provide nutritious food to all those in need through our own efforts and those of our non-profit partners. Click here to make a donation TODAY!
ShareFest Sets New Record:
Lake County Food Drive Collects 46 Tons!
Northern Illinois Food Bank is a Member of:
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Call the NIFB location nearest you to get involved!
Tellabs Takes the Challenge: Employees Collect Food & Funds for NIFB!
You can support the Northern Illinois Food Bank's mission to provide nutritious food to all those in need through our own efforts and those of our non-profit partners. Click here to make a donation TODAY!
Ford-Newman's Own
Contribute:
New Truck Donation Helps the Hungry!
On Wednesday, October 15, the Newman's Own Foundation and Ford Motor
Company held a
A total of 82 trucks have been donated through Feeding America to
food banks serving rural communities since the partnership's
founding in 2001. We are grateful for this partnership!
Jewel-Osco Helps Area Pantries:
Hunger Relief Grant Provides Funding!
“This
grant program will help deliver much needed operational resources to
local pantries,” said Keith Nielsen, president of Jewel-Osco. “This
is a great example of how our close working relationship with the
food banks has enabled us to better understand and address the
growing hunger relief issue across our service area.”
More than
60 of Northern Illinois Food Bank's member food pantries received a
total of $100,000 from this program! These funds will go a
long way in strengthening the food safety net for our hungry
neighbors.
QUOTE OF THE MONTH: There has to
be at least one day of the year to remind us that we're here for
something else besides ourselves.
(1912 - 1992)
Call the NIFB location nearest you to get involved! |
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Providing a holiday meal to
27,000 families is a community effort. Every $30 donated sponsors a
box that provides a nutritious, traditional holiday meal for eight.
PLUS, Holiday Meal Boxes provide hope to these hungry neighbors.
Individuals, companies, churches, and community groups are
encouraged to donate to the program by sending contributions of any
amount to Northern Illinois Food Bank, 600 Industrial Drive, St.
Charles, IL 60174 or
As
the holidays fast approach, many of us will be planning large
get-togethers with our loved ones. Invariably, these gatherings
include a traditional holiday feast to celebrate all the year's
successes. Everyone is able to celebrate during the holidays, aren't
they? Sadly, thousands of families right in our community do
not have that option. In fact, the only feast they may have
will be a simple sandwich; not enough for the whole family to come
together.
these
boxes. Judy Schaefer, Director of the Sara Lee Foundation and NIFB
Board Member, said, "Sara Lee Foundation has long been a supporter
of the Holiday Meal Box Program because we believe that no family
should go hungry, especially during the holidays.” When asked why
Sara Lee employees come out to assemble the boxes, Schaefer, who
admitted that she was “under the weather” on their volunteer day,
said, “Our employees are dedicated to the Food Bank’s mission, and
I, personally, wouldn’t miss this for the world!” Northern
Illinois Food Bank could not do this program without the generous
support of the whole community. Thank you to everyone who
makes the holidays a little easier for hungry neighbors!
Last
September marked the first nationwide Hunger Action Month with a
variety of awareness and fundraising activities occurring to drive
the public into action against hunger. This inaugural
month-long event
raised support for the 287,303 individuals living on the brink of
hunger in northern Illinois. Read about some of the highlights
below:
FOX
correspondent Nancy Loo encouraged viewers each Thursday morning to
visit the Jewel-Osco store and "Stuff the Truck"! For the live
remote on September 18th, nearly 10,000
pounds of food was collected at the Jewel-Osco in Westmont
with the Mayor of Westmont, Bill Rahn, the Westmont High School
marching band and cheerleaders, and Ronald McDonald all in
attendance. Even more amazingly, Jewel-Osco employees
collected over $225,000 at their registers throughout
the month to benefit the food banks!
vendors
traveled from all over the country, including Connecticut, Maryland,
Florida, Texas, and Oklahoma, to participate. A slightly rainy day
greeted over 140 golfers on September 3rd at Tamarack Golf Course in
Naperville, but not even that could dampen their spirits. When
the day was over, more than $100,000 had been raised!
Northern
Illinois Food Bank hosted its 10th Annual Hunger Scramble golf
outing just two days after BP's, and 140 golfers again came out to
support the Food Bank's mission. Mill Creek Golf Course in
Geneva hosted the outing once again. Sponsors included West Suburban
Bank, Van Kampen, Acosta, Dominick's, Weist Foundation, George
Weston Bakeries, Jewel-Osco, Hub One, and Thing 1-2-3. This
support generated nearly $25,000 to help our hungry
neighbors!
A
beautiful fall day set among the backdrop of Cantigny Park marked
the 1st Annual The Art of Giving. Nearly 200 guests came out
in support of this first time event with more than 25 artists
displaying artwork for sale to benefit the Food Bank. In
addition, local vintners, including
Foster's
Wines, Diageo, Tasting de Vine, and Cabernet & Co., poured samples
of wine paired with delicacies prepared by the chef at Cantigny to
the delight of all in attendance. Oberweis Dairy served as the
event sponsor with supporting sponsorships by West Suburban Bank and
Boldt Construction. More than $10,000 was raised
for this inaugural event, and people were already asking about next
year's event!
Each
year, Catalyst, a coalition of Lake County churches, coordinates a
massive food drive effort, Called ShareFest, to benefit food
pantries in Lake County. Volunteers canvas the county to
organize drop-off sites for food donations and encourage residents
to support this unified front against hunger. With over 50,000
people facing hunger each day in Lake County, including more than
17,000 children, it becomes abundantly clear that help is needed.
This food drive started five years ago and last year was the first
time that it covered all of Lake County. Last year's efforts
resulted in over 63,700 pounds of food, and organizers were
determined to best that number. Sure enough, the community came
together in support of ShareFest and collected over 92,000
pounds of food, or 46 tons! This massive food drive
will benefit Lake County food pantries and the people they serve.
Tellabs’
Naperville location took the Peanut Butter & Jelly Challenge to
benefit Northern Illinois Food Bank. Teams collected peanut butter
and jelly, which turned into a heated (but friendly) competition.
Team Jelly collected an amazing 1,800 pounds of jelly, but it was
not enough to best Team Peanut Butter's 2,300 pounds. In the end,
NIFB was the winner, receiving more than two tons of valuable food.
"The
Partnership for Hunger Relief began eight years ago when Paul Newman
asked me if Ford would join with his company and Feeding America in
addressing the growing problem of hunger in rural America," said
Bill Ford, executive chairman, Ford Motor Company. "While the effort
has produced significant results, the need is even greater today,
especially given the current economic environment."
Jewel-Osco
recently committed a grant of $250,000 to Chicago land area food
pantries under its annual Hunger Relief Grant Program to support a
wide array of pantry operational needs, from obtaining needed
equipment to securing food credits at the area food banks. The
Jewel-Osco Hunger Relief Grant Program was designed and implemented
in partnership with the Greater Chicago Food Depository, Northern
Illinois Food Bank, and the Food Bank of Northwest Indiana.