With Thanksgiving here, many donors wish to alleviate hunger with turkeys and the trimmings.
But chicken, also a poultry protein needed year-round, was the focus of philanthropy at a November distribution event in Northbrook, providing approximately 16,000 pounds of chicken allocated for Lake County agencies including Highland Park, Barrington, Waukegan, Lake Forest, Mundelein, Buffalo Grove, North Chicago and South Barrington.
The Northbrook-based Hunger Resource Network (HRN) held its autumn Poultry to Pantries Community Outreach Day on Nov. 16 accommodating a queue of vehicles in a Northbrook commercial business district. The distribution was an organized process, involving volunteers who helped to direct traffic with local police presence seen assisting.
An estimated 40 volunteers helped to distribute about (in total for all recipients) 80 tons of fresh frozen dark meat chicken quarters and drumsticks benefiting regional food pantries, soup kitchens, churches, agencies and shelters in locations that also include Evanston, Winnetka, Glenview and Niles.
The Poultry to Pantries event took place on a 44-degree overcast Saturday morning in the parking lot of Action Plastics Inc. (3995 Commercial Ave.), a business owned by Dan Jariabka of Northbrook, president of Action Plastics Inc. and HRN president/director.
Jariabka said agency vehicles often arrive before sunrise to queue before distribution begins at about 7 a.m. Some drivers coordinate with other agencies that cannot afford to rent trucks or do not have motorists to pick up the chicken.
The collaboration results in more recipients obtaining the donated poultry due to fellowship to assist neighbors in need.
Nearly 70 vehicles representing about 100 agencies from the Indiana to Wisconsin borders, into western counties such as Kane and DuPage, collected their chicken allocation. Forklifts were used to load skids of chicken onto the back of trucks. Helping hands were also seen loading boxes of chicken into minivans.
Hunger occurs at, "not just the holidays," Jariabka said. "They're struggling all the time, wish we could do more but right now, we're doing the best we can."
According to https://www.hungerresourcenetwork.org/about, Hunger Resource Network has an all-volunteer board as a 501(c)(3) organization, "dedicated to the alleviation of hunger by making connections between those who have surplus food and those who need it."
Hunger Resource Network (HRN) was founded in April 2009.
"If we can feed the people that need the food with protein, there's going to be less medical expenses for them as they get older and it's going to help all of us with our taxes and quality of life and everything else," Jariabka said.
Rick Greenswag of Buffalo Grove is new to the role of HRN vice president.
"I'm very involved in Lake County," said Greenswag, who has a history of serving Lake County agencies assisting people in need.
"One of the most wealthy counties in the country," Greenswag said about Lake County, "has a huge homeless population and hungry people.
"Northbrook is also a very wealthy community," Greenswag added, pointing out the significant number of children on free or reduced lunches in schools.
"There's a local need," Greenswag said. "Think globally, act locally."
Sino Avella of Lake Barrington drove the truck to collect chicken for Willow Creek Care Center of Willow Creek Community Church of South Barrington.
"There's a lot of folks out there that need food assistance," Avella said. See https://www.willowcreekcarecenter.org/.
Cuba Township Food Pantry Coordinator Mary Magro of Tower Lakes came to pick up 25 boxes of frozen chicken for the pantry located in Barrington.
The impact is, "huge," Magro said. "Everybody wants chicken all the time.
"Every person that comes to our food pantry wants chicken."
Magro added, "We've had more and more families coming in...and having food and protein available for kids to eat is really important.
"The times are hard and there are a lot of people in Barrington that can't afford to have food, they'll come to our pantry and we feed entire families.
"There are a lot of people who are struggling, people you don't realize are struggling, and a lot of seniors and now more families ... they can't pay their electrical bill," Magro said.
"The holidays are a hard time, it's a struggling time for anybody," Magro said. "They want something just to put food on the table."
See https://cubatwpil.gov/food-pantry/.
SaLT of Highland Park, made up of all volunteers, was there to pick up a skid of frozen chicken, by SaLT cofounders Brad Swanson of Highland Park and Ida Fiore of Lake Forest, who grew up in Highwood and attended (HPHS) Highland Park High School.
Both are former educators in Highland Park, Fiore said.
Swanson, who grew up in Elgin and attended Larkin High School, was a HPHS principal and held school district positions serving Libertyville, Glenview, Northbrook and Skokie.
SaLT, "stands for service and learning together," Fiore said, "and we're a relationship-based food pantry and have been serving families since May 2020, for what we thought was four weeks (at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic). See https://www.saltservice.org.
"We started with 25 families and we have 577 families.
"We've seen an uptick with senior citizens and we have had lots of new families enter our program recently," Fiore added.
"It just makes you feel so good," Fiore said of the feedback received by families served. "If we're able to give a little bit of security to our families, we're doing our part."
Swanson said, "The need is greater than people realize and many times people don't realize that there's a significant need in their own community, down their own street, simply because it's hard to acknowledge that or understand that it's true.
"But every community has significant need and it's pretty inspiring when a community kind of pulls together their own resources to make a difference," Swanson said.
"Sometimes we forget how much we can do if we bond together and make a difference for the neighbors that are in our own space."