Expanding Our Facility to Build Hundreds of Futures

Dear Friends,

You know that feeling after a long, hard day, when you finally kick off your shoes and sit down at your kitchen table, happy to be home but find yourself faced with the never-ending predicament: What to do about dinner?

It’s one of life’s forever problems we’re all familiar with. For most of us, combing through a full pantry and fridge to assemble a meal, ordering an emergency pizza, or shuffling back out the door to a restaurant solves the issue. But for too many in our community, the answer isn’t so simple: The cupboards are bare. There’s no money in the coffers, so families skip dinner to keep the lights on, or parents forgo breakfast to afford medication for their children.

Food for Greater Elgin is one of the largest food pantries in our 13-county service area, serving over 130,000 people last year. And right now, we are facing three clear problems:

1. How can we provide food to everyone who lives with food insecurity?
   Our numbers have soared, from 81,439 in 2021 to 130,607 in 2022. Put another way: We spent $36,000 on food in 2020; projected numbers for 2023 are $200,000.

2. How can we empower people to escape poverty?
   The people who come to us for food do not come with hunger as their only problem.

3. How can we operate in a more sustainable manner?
   We depend on donations, but these supplies come either as feast or famine: Free peanut butter is never available at the same time as jelly; spaghetti sauce is not available at the same time as noodles. 

We have been given a tremendous opportunity that could solve all three problems: Expanding our physical footprint by occupying 100% of our existing building. This extra space will allow us to serve more shoppers, efficiently store food, and host other community social services that will empower our guests to ultimately escape poverty.

If you would like to help fund the renovation of this crucial space, please contact us for details or send checks to:

Food for Greater Elgin
1553 Commerce Drive
Elgin, IL 60123

With our sincerest gratitude,

Michael H. Montgomery, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Food for Greater Elgin