Vicki Edwards of St. Charles recently retired but didn’t need much time to find something else to do that she really enjoys.
“I’ve been here about three months after I finally retired and needed something to do and thought this was a good place to start,” Edwards said as she worked with a host of other volunteers packing food boxes on Thursday morning at the Northern Illinois Food Bank in Geneva. “I’m here every Thursday morning and afternoon. This certainly makes you feel good about helping other people.”
Scores of other volunteers as well as company sponsor representatives were also at the food bank Thursday as it continues the massive effort of preparing food boxes for those in need for the upcoming holiday season.
In a press release, officials said this year marks 25 years of the annual Holiday Meal Box program at the food bank, “ensuring all neighbors can enjoy a special holiday meal with their loved ones.”
“This year, thanks to the generous support of sponsors and volunteers, the food bank will be providing 50,000 holiday meal boxes to neighbors facing hunger across 13 counties in rural and suburban Northern Illinois,” the release said.
Thursday’s effort featured both morning and afternoon sessions including more than 40 volunteers in the morning and 75 in the afternoon.
Ken Madden, program manager for the Northern Illinois Food Bank, noted that the price of food keeps going up.
“The cost of food continues to go up, but we are still receiving a lot of donations. The issue is a lack of resources and we have seen more neighbors reaching out to our network than we ever have before,” he said. “We have the cost of food going up – the cost per turkey is about $15 and we order 25,000 and that cost is pretty high.”
Packing the containers for the holiday meal program has been underway for a while with “volunteers packing dry, non-perishable boxes since the beginning of October,” Madden said.
“Both Thursdays and Saturdays are typically our biggest volunteer days. We expect to have the 50,000 boxes done by the middle of November,” he said.
Madden said while the contents of the food boxes are essentially the same as last year, “We spoke to some of our agencies who requested dried beans and rice in the boxes.”
Volunteers were cranking out the boxes of food assembly line style Thursday morning with some folding and taping containers while others grabbed whatever food items were stacked nearby.
Ken Bruzek of Lombard said he has been coming to the food bank to help out about twice a week “for about 13 years” and has packed many holiday boxes.
“This is a lot of fun and knowing where the food is going and to the people that need it, that makes this special,” he said. “Going hungry is especially bad at the holidays and there is a group of us that have worked together regularly. There’s kind of a club here and it makes it fun.”
Diane Lewinski of St. Charles said she has worked as a volunteer for more than a decade at the food bank.
“This gets you in the holiday spirit and it’s a good thing to do. I like that it’s not paid. I mean, we’re volunteers and it feels good,” she said.
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
