“And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone.” 1 Thessalonians 5:14 (NIV)
By Robert O’Connor
The line formed early outside the mobile pantry. More than 300 people waited for their monthly supply of food. They had earlier drawn numbers to see who would go first and waited patiently for their numbers to be called. For those who came, the food they collected would have to last the entire month.
The tables snaked around the white delivery truck in the center of the parking lot and as the line made its way around, volunteers with sweaters emblazoned with “Creighton University” across the front helped carry their food. They helped people to their cars and also helped organize food into the shopping carts that some of the needy had brought along.
Father Bob Lombardo, who stopped by, dressed in a gray Franciscan robe and a white plaid scarf, was greeted warmly by everyone. He is the friar who has brought programs, like the food distribution program where people stood in line, to the Our Lady of the Angels mission in Humboldt Park. The Mission of Our Lady of the Angels mobile pantry is one of the 600 member agencies of the Greater Chicago Food Depository, which provides the much needed food through its mobile food pantry program.
Lombardo says he came to Chicago in 2005 at the request of Cardinal George, the Archbishop of Chicago. Lombardo had previously helped found the Franciscan Friars of Renewal in New York, in which the friars would live among the poor, not earn a salary and live on donations. He is now doing the same thing in Chicago, at the Our Lady of the Angels mission, 3808 W. Iowa St.
Our Lady of the Angels had been a school until it was destroyed by a fire on Dec. 1, 1958, killing 92 students and three nuns. Their pictures were printed on the front page of the Chicago American on December 5, under the headline “Chicago Mourns.” The school was rebuilt in 1960 with donations from around the world, but was closed by the Archdiocese after the class of 1999 graduated due to under enrollment. The other buildings of the parish had been closed in 1990.
The current mission is using what used to be an apartment building for its convent and rectory. Recently, after the food distribution, which takes place on the first Saturday of each month, Lombardo took the volunteers on a tour of Kelly Hall, which was the recreation building for the destroyed school and reopened January 15, after extensive renovations by donors and the YMCA, which partially owns it.
“It’s named after one of the nuns who died in the fire,” said Lombardo. “We’d like to remember the history of what happened here.”
Lombardo sits on the Board of Directors of the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago. The Mission of Our Lady of the Angels is run under the auspices of the St. Francis of Assisi Parish a few blocks away.
Our Lady of the Angels’ Kelley Hall houses after-school programs for young people in the area and the mission’s food pantry, which is also a member agency of the Greater Chicago Food Depository, in addition to the mobile pantry.
Our Lady of the Angels is also a member agency of the Greater Chicago Food Depository, which provides the food for its monthly food drive. In 2006, the GCFD and the University of Illinois conducted what they called an “unmet needs study,” which identified areas of Cook County that were underserved by soup kitchens, food pantries and other services for the homeless.
“Our members looked at who was coming and told us which places needed help,” said Megan Parnell, a spokeswoman for GCFD.
Humboldt Park was one of the 10 neighborhoods that had unmet needs. It was also found to be a “food desert” with a deficit of supermarkets and grocery stores in a 2006 study by Mari Gallagher Research Group for the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning.
After the study was completed, the Depository started their mobile pantry service for those identified communities, supplying nutritious food for those in need.
Parnell said that in cooperation with Feeding America—the nation’s largest hunger relief organization—a second unmet needs study is being compiled, and is expected to be released sometime next year. The Food Depository is the nation’s largest hunger-relief charity, supporting food agencies across the country, including member agencies across Chicago.
Last November, Kraft foods and Feeding America started a national mobile pantry program and donated one of its 25 mobile pantries to the Food Depository. At the time, Kate Maehr, executive director of the Food Depository noted the rise—as much as 30 percent—in demand for food across Chicago.
Not much apparently has changed, according to Parnell.
“We have also seen an increase in people who used to donate food now relying on us for food,” she said.
By Robert O’Connor
The line formed early outside the mobile pantry. More than 300 people waited for their monthly supply of food. They had earlier drawn numbers to see who would go first and waited patiently for their numbers to be called. For those who came, the food they collected would have to last the entire month.
The tables snaked around the white delivery truck in the center of the parking lot and as the line made its way around, volunteers with sweaters emblazoned with “Creighton University” across the front helped carry their food. They helped people to their cars and also helped organize food into the shopping carts that some of the needy had brought along.
Father Bob Lombardo, who stopped by, dressed in a gray Franciscan robe and a white plaid scarf, was greeted warmly by everyone. He is the friar who has brought programs, like the food distribution program where people stood in line, to the Our Lady of the Angels mission in Humboldt Park. The Mission of Our Lady of the Angels mobile pantry is one of the 600 member agencies of the Greater Chicago Food Depository, which provides the much needed food through its mobile food pantry program.
Lombardo says he came to Chicago in 2005 at the request of Cardinal George, the Archbishop of Chicago. Lombardo had previously helped found the Franciscan Friars of Renewal in New York, in which the friars would live among the poor, not earn a salary and live on donations. He is now doing the same thing in Chicago, at the Our Lady of the Angels mission, 3808 W. Iowa St.
Our Lady of the Angels had been a school until it was destroyed by a fire on Dec. 1, 1958, killing 92 students and three nuns. Their pictures were printed on the front page of the Chicago American on December 5, under the headline “Chicago Mourns.” The school was rebuilt in 1960 with donations from around the world, but was closed by the Archdiocese after the class of 1999 graduated due to under enrollment. The other buildings of the parish had been closed in 1990.
The current mission is using what used to be an apartment building for its convent and rectory. Recently, after the food distribution, which takes place on the first Saturday of each month, Lombardo took the volunteers on a tour of Kelly Hall, which was the recreation building for the destroyed school and reopened January 15, after extensive renovations by donors and the YMCA, which partially owns it.
“It’s named after one of the nuns who died in the fire,” said Lombardo. “We’d like to remember the history of what happened here.”
Lombardo sits on the Board of Directors of the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago. The Mission of Our Lady of the Angels is run under the auspices of the St. Francis of Assisi Parish a few blocks away.
Our Lady of the Angels’ Kelley Hall houses after-school programs for young people in the area and the mission’s food pantry, which is also a member agency of the Greater Chicago Food Depository, in addition to the mobile pantry.
Our Lady of the Angels is also a member agency of the Greater Chicago Food Depository, which provides the food for its monthly food drive. In 2006, the GCFD and the University of Illinois conducted what they called an “unmet needs study,” which identified areas of Cook County that were underserved by soup kitchens, food pantries and other services for the homeless.
“Our members looked at who was coming and told us which places needed help,” said Megan Parnell, a spokeswoman for GCFD.
Humboldt Park was one of the 10 neighborhoods that had unmet needs. It was also found to be a “food desert” with a deficit of supermarkets and grocery stores in a 2006 study by Mari Gallagher Research Group for the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning.
After the study was completed, the Depository started their mobile pantry service for those identified communities, supplying nutritious food for those in need.
Parnell said that in cooperation with Feeding America—the nation’s largest hunger relief organization—a second unmet needs study is being compiled, and is expected to be released sometime next year. The Food Depository is the nation’s largest hunger-relief charity, supporting food agencies across the country, including member agencies across Chicago.
Last November, Kraft foods and Feeding America started a national mobile pantry program and donated one of its 25 mobile pantries to the Food Depository. At the time, Kate Maehr, executive director of the Food Depository noted the rise—as much as 30 percent—in demand for food across Chicago.
Not much apparently has changed, according to Parnell.
“We have also seen an increase in people who used to donate food now relying on us for food,” she said.
No comments:
Post a Comment