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November/December 2009 - Vol. 4, Issue 2 |
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 28,800 Number of families that will receive a Holiday Meal Box this year. |
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HELP US PREPARE FOR OUR LARGEST
HOLIDAY MEAL:
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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 Sweet Baby Ray's, Vienna Beef and S. Rosen's, and dessert by Panera Bread on Saturday volunteer days! To learn more, click here. |
With the holiday season just weeks away, people everywhere will begin making plans to gather with their families and enjoy a traditional holiday meal. Unfortunately, for hundreds of thousands of people who live in poverty and those out of work in northern Illinois, partaking in a holiday feast seems like a distant dream. Northern Illinois Food Bank is determined to make this dream a reality for over 28,800 families this holiday season by distributing Holiday Meal Boxes to each of them.
This has been a trying year for so many people.
Even with the recent announcement from the Bureau of Economic
Analysis that the GDP grew at a 3.5% annual rate over the summer,
the fastest
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. Preparing meals for up to 230,400 people can be quite a challenge, but donors and volunteers from all sectors of the community have been more than willing to help. In addition to the many individual volunteers and church groups, corporate volunteer groups include Sara Lee, Grocery Merchandising Association, CB&I, Jewel-Osco, CROSSMARK, Nalco, AT&T, UPS, and Exelon/ComEd. To make sure that all the volunteers had enough energy to pack 28,800 boxes, Sara Lee Corporation donated pastries, coffee and tea. Thank you to all of the volunteer groups!
Click here to sponsor a Holiday Meal Box today!
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Hunger Action Month Highlights September Activities Fight Hunger!
Last September marked the second nationwide Hunger Action Month with a variety of awareness and fundraising activities occurring to drive the public into action against hunger. This month-long event raised support for the individuals living on the brink of hunger in northern Illinois through more than 20 activities. Read about some of the highlights below:
Jewel-Osco & FOX "Give a Little, Feed a Lot"
Throughout the entire month of September, Jewel-Osco
Panera Bread Cereal Drive
BP Charity Golf Event Benefits NIFB
Come Together with Macy's
NIFB's 2nd Annual The Art of Giving
Thank you to everyone who supported Hunger Action Month!
The Biggest Loser
Fights Hunger:
Join
the Pound for Pound Challenge!
Watch the season finale of The Biggest
Loser: Season 8 on December 8th to learn more or go to
www.northernilfoodbank.org after the finale for more info!
Northern Illinois Food Bank is a Member of:
Call the NIFB location nearest you to get involved!
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Kraft Makes a Delicious DifferenceSupports NIFB with Grant and Volunteers!
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!
Walmart Drives Hunger Out:
Truck Donations to Benefit Food Banks!
Thank you, Walmart, for helping to feed the hungry!
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 75
of Northern Illinois Food Bank's member food pantries received a total
of $122,000 from this program! These funds will go a long way
in strengthening the food safety net for our hungry neighbors.
QUOTE OF THE MONTH:
Behold! I do not give lectures on a little
charity. When I give, I give myself.
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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
growth in more than two years, the news was followed by
unemployment rates reaching 10.2%, the highest in 26 years.
Clearly, our communities will be hurting for quite some time. It is
so important that we help these families this holiday season. The
Holiday Meal Box provides a 12-14 pound turkey with stuffing,
vegetables, mashed potatoes, coffee, and dessert for a family of
eight. The Holiday Meal Boxes do more than just provide food for a
family; they also provide hope when it is needed most.
encouraged viewers each Thursday morning to
visit the Jewel-Osco stores and "Give a Little, Feed a Lot"! For the live
remote on September 10th in Glendale Heights, store director Tom
Hong brought out the whole community, including Village President
Linda Jackson, the police and fire departments, and area high
schools and grade schools. Even more amazingly, Jewel-Osco employees
collected over $210,000 at their registers throughout
the month to benefit the food banks!
Macy's teamed up with Feeding America and food banks all over the
country through their Come Together campaign! You may
have seen TV commercials featuring celebrities such as Martha
Stewart, Emeril Lagasse, Donald Trump, and Jessica Simpson
encouraging the public to collect funds by hosting dinner parties or
going to Macy's to make a donation. The entire campaign raised
enough funds to provide 10 million meals across the country!
A
beautiful fall day set among the backdrop of Cantigny Park marked
the 2nd Annual The Art of Giving. Nearly 175 guests came out
in support of the event with more than 25 artists
displaying artwork for sale to benefit the Food Bank. In
addition, local vintners, including Diageo, Tasting de Vine, and
Gibby's Wine Den, 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 Community Bank Wheaton/Glen Ellyn.
Approximately $10,000 was raised
for and people were already asking about next
year's event!
For
the second consecutive year, Feeding America will partner with
General Mills, The Biggest Loser and other corporate partners to
encourage Americans to lose weight through the Pound for Pound
Challenge. Built around the incredible success of NBC’s The Biggest
Loser, the program allows anyone to shed pounds along with the
contestants by pledging their weight-loss goals. For every pound
pledged, General Mills and other partners will donate 14 cents to
local food banks up to $1.5 million! YOU can participate and know
that you'll be helping our hungry neighbors as you work toward a
healthier you! Last year, more than 3.5 million pounds were pledged
in the Pound for Pound Challenge!
Kraft employees spent the
week of October 5th-10th helping others for “Make a Delicious
Difference Week” in 33 countries benefiting roughly 500,000 people.
NIFB was one charity that really benefited from their generosity.
Almost 250 Kraft employees volunteered nearly 700 hours at NIFB over the course of three days. The volunteers divided their
time between the Park City Branch in Lake County and Headquarters in
St. Charles.
Explained Dave Brearton, Executive Vice President, Operations and
Business Services, “The volunteer spirit of our employees combined
with the expertise of organizations, like Northern Illinois Food
Bank, is a winning recipe to help fight hunger. Knowing our efforts
are an important ingredient in our first global week of service
makes this experience even more powerful.”
This commitment went even further when Kraft Foods awarded a
$100,000 grant to Northern Illinois Food Bank to help more
neighbors in need! Thank you, Kraft Foods, for your continued
commitment! 
As Walmart and the Walmart Foundation continue “Walmart Gives Back,”
a holiday giving initiative that will provide $32 million in
monetary and in-kind donations to charitable organizations across
the U.S., NIFB benefiting with a refrigerator truck donated by the
Walmart Foundation. The truck is one of 35 that departed from
Madison, Wis., earlier this month headed to Feeding America food
banks in local communities across the country.
In addition to the new truck, valued at $85,000, 12 pallets of Great
Value-branded products and fresh apples were also donated to feed
local families. Feeding America estimates the new trucks will help
food banks transport up 52.5 million pounds of food per year.
“In this economy, families and seniors across the country who rely
on food banks have been hit especially hard,” said Margaret McKenna,
president of the Walmart Foundation. “As Walmart stores continue to
be the price leader on groceries, our partnership with Feeding
America is helping us do our part to put more food on the dinner
table. Our business and our charitable giving are united in the
commitment to eradicate hunger in America.”
Jewel-Osco recently committed a grant of $300,000
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. Now in its second year of operation, the Jewel-Osco Hunger
Relief Grant Program is conducted in partnership with three major food
banks, including NIFB, the Greater Chicago Food Depository and the Food
Bank of Northwest Indiana.