The Hyde Park & Kenwood Hunger Programs
“Every Healthy Community Has a Safety Net.”
Temporarily operating under the fiscal management of Hyde Park Union Church
5600 S. Woodlawn Avenue  Chicago, IL  60637

Please become a supporter of the Hyde Park and Kenwood Hunger Programs. Select one of the options below to make a donation through PayPal today.

$1,000: A Week at the Food Pantry

$150: A Day at the Soup Kitchen

Other Donation Amount

Every Healthy Community Has a Safety Net.
Since 1981, the safety net in Hyde Park and Kenwood has included the Community Food Pantry and, since 1983, the Soup Kitchen.  For the jobless and the underemployed, the homeless, the disabled, seniors, and children – our neighbors – these two programs are difference between sustenance and hunger.  The difference between paying the rent and eviction, between having money for medication and risking one’s health, between having bus fare and losing one’s job.  The Food Pantry and Soup Kitchen are the difference between hope and despair.

The Community Food Pantry serves 500 people every month; the Soup Kitchen serves 175 people every day except Saturday.  Hosted by Hyde Park Union Church and Kenwood United Church of Christ respectively, both hunger programs are fiscally managed by Hyde Park Union.  With the exception of part-time bookkeeping and security personnel, these two programs are staffed entirely by volunteers.

It costs $110,000 a year to operate the Food Pantry and Soup Kitchen. Food is obtained through a variety of sources including the Greater Chicago Food Depository, federal government food programs (USDA, TANF, and FEMA) and generous discounts and in-kind donations from local businesses and individuals. 

Grants occasionally cover the costs of a new stove or refrigerator, but day-to-day operations are met only by donations from the community. Less than one-tenth of the budget is contributed at the annual Community Thanksgiving Service; the rest comes from the members of our local religious congregations and from caring people throughout the neighborhood.

We can’t do it without you.  Please help us maintain the safety net in our community.

The Community Food Pantry:
Who Is Served?
The Community Food Pantry provides groceries once a month to needy families and individuals living in the area bounded by Lake Michigan west to Cottage Grove, 39th Street south to 60th, however a first-time visitor is never turned away regardless of residency.  About 25% of the recipients are elderly; over 30% are under 18.  A number are developmentally or physically disabled; some work, some do not.  Many are under-employed as part-time or day laborers.  Although some food is restricted by federal law to people of certain ages or income levels, there are no income limits at the Food Pantry.  A person of moderate income may go through a period of financial crisis (e.g. paying medical bills) and need temporary assistance from the Pantry.

A typical per person food allocation includes:
1 box spaghetti            
1 jar spaghetti sauce   
1 jar peanut butter  
2 sleeves of crackers           
1 can of fruit              
2 cans of pork & beans
2 cans green beans
4 cans of soup
2 envelopes dry milk
2 boxes macaroni & cheese
1 serving USDA chicken or ground beef, if available

At their option they may also select:
1 box cold cereal  
1 can fruit juice                       
1 bag rice                    
1 box rolled oats
USDA dried fruit
1 bag dried beans     
Other donated items, as available

Who Works at the Pantry?
The Food Pantry is staffed by dedicated volunteers. Behind the scenes, volunteers unload one and a half tons of food a month and pre-pack over 100 grocery bags. Every Saturday morning tables and chairs are set up, and for three hours volunteers greet and serve pantry visitors, filling out government paperwork and preparing additional bags of food. The pantry is cleaned regularly by volunteer crews, and there is even a "czarina of the freezer" who monitors the temperature of the freezer and refrigerator.

The Soup Kitchen:
Who Benefits?
The Soup Kitchen serves a hot meal at noon every day except Saturday and everyone is welcome. At the beginning of the month crowds are smaller, but by the end of the month the Soup Kitchen serves as many as 200, mostly men in their 30s - 50s. The number of women, however, is growing, up from 1% to 7% in one year. Whenever school is out of session, children (who might normally receive breakfast and lunch at school) are also served. Some of the Soup Kitchen guests are homeless; others may be living in single rooms or staying with relatives or friends. Many have mental illness. Few work regularly. A number of them struggle with addiction to drugs and/or alcohol.

The meals at the Soup Kitchen are nutritious and filling, but Soup Kitchen guests often have additional basic needs.  A volunteer physician, nurse and nurses’ aid see as many as thirty soup kitchen guests every Friday following dinner, dispensing free medication as needed, and helping monitor diabetes, hypertension and other chronic illnesses.  In cold weather, donated coats, gloves, socks and shoes are also available.

The Soup Kitchen Staff
The guests themselves set up, clean up and serve the food.  There is almost a feeling of family-pride in serving.  Four neighborhood congregations pre-cook Monday’s meal, giving the volunteer cooks time to order food, receive deliveries, gather donations from local businesses and plan and cook the week’s meals.  As with the Food Pantry, some of the volunteers work to fulfill required community service hours for school or another obligation, but for most volunteers it is a commitment of the heart.  Volunteers serve because they believe in every person’s human right to food; they serve because they want to live in a healthy community.

Is the Need Increasing or Decreasing?
Increasing. Expenses for the Hunger Programs in Hyde Park & Kenwood have almost doubled in the past year, in part because the number of recipients has increased, and in part because the amount and type of government food subsidy is decreasing, so that we are forced to buy more from retail vendors (at wholesale prices) in order to preserve the nutritional standards of our programs.

The Food Pantry and the Soup Kitchen order first through the Greater Chicago Food Depository, which distributes federal food subsidies from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) and FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), as well as food donated by regional retail suppliers.  Federal food is free with a $.03/pound delivery charge; donated food costs $.07/pound with delivery.  The Soup Kitchen also receives some prepared food through Food Depository’s Food Reclamation Program, which collects donated food from caterers and restaurants.

Supplies from the Greater Chicago Food Depository and federal government are highly variable.  The Food Pantry and Soup Kitchen must routinely supplement CGFD orders with food from local suppliers, obtained at wholesale cost with free delivery.  And, of course, the Food Pantry and Soup Kitchen regularly incorporate donated items from schools, condos, and other neighborhood groups throughout the year.

Sometimes people assume that communities like Hyde Park and Kenwood, with rising real estate values, do not have low-income residents. In fact, the 2000 census revealed 8% of families in Hyde Park living at or below the poverty line; 17% of families in Kenwood.  Our neighborhood has a fair share of subsidized housing for low-income residents.  We also have retired residents on fixed incomes and single parent families with intermittent or no child support, as well as families who have outlived their lifetime benefits under TANF but have not found full-time employment.  In Hyde Park and Kenwood, real estate costs and rental rates have risen while the median income has remained constant, so that residents have been forced to spend an increasing amount of their money on housing, leaving less for other necessities, and even less to deal with a crisis.  We can’t do it without you.  Please help us maintain the safety net in our community.

Press Release For Immediate Release
15 September 2006

Community Food Pantry & Soup Kitchen, in Dire Need, Come Under New Management

Since 1981 the Hyde Park & Kenwood Interfaith Council has operated the Community Food Pantry, which provides 500 people a month emergency groceries.  In 1982, it also opened the Open Kitchen, which presently serves 150-200 people a noon meal six days a week.  Now in its 95th year, the Interfaith Council is taking at least temporary leave of these enormous responsibilities.  Hyde Park Union Church will provide temporary fiscal management for the hunger programs for a two-year interim period beginning September 15, and an expanded Hunger Programs Committee will raise funds, and plan for the hunger programs’ future.

The Interfaith Council, organized in 1911, has grown from four Protestant congregations to over forty interfaith organizations.  Its programs have increased and diversified, but in some ways its resources have diminished over the years.  This last year, with decreases in the amount of USDA and other food available through the Greater Chicago Food Depository, and with an increased number of clients as many people exhausted their lifetime TANF benefits without finding adequate employment, the burden of the Food Pantry and Soup Kitchen began to erode the remaining financial assets of the Interfaith Council.   Last month the Interfaith Council was forced to lay off its staff and find another way to meet the needs of the Hunger Programs.  Hyde Park Union Church, host congregation for the Food Pantry, offered to provide fiscal management for both programs, and Rev. Susan Johnson is organizing a community-based committee to broaden the base of support.

“These Hunger Programs are the safety net for our neighborhood,” said Rev. Johnson.  “It’s hard to imagine Hyde Park and Kenwood without resources for people who would otherwise go hungry – especially seniors, families with young children, people with physical and developmental disabilities or other barriers to employment.”  She is optimistic about the Hunger Programs revitalization effort, though.  “It’s a cruel world, but this has always been a compassionate community.  We can do it, I’m sure.”  The two programs have a joint annual budget of $87,500.  Donations should be made payable to “HPK Hunger Programs.”

The Hyde Park & Kenwood Interfaith Council will use the interim period to revitalize itself as well.  “Interfaith relations have changed in the last 95 years,” Swami Varadananda, President of the Interfaith Council, acknowledged.  “We will use this valuable hiatus to reexamine our priorities and programs and prepare for our 100th anniversary.  Inter-religious dialogue and cooperation have never been more important in the world than they are right now.”

For more information, call Rev. Susan Johnson, Hyde Park Union Church, 773.363.6063