Former basketball star finds new niche
Riverdale native now overseeing healthy living food pantry
Governors State University’s inaugural men’s basketball season took place in 2015-16 and the roster featured sophomore Jalen Miller.
The team had its expected first-year struggles, going 8-21. But two seasons later, the Jaguars turned things around and were 25-9. They won the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference championship and earned a berth in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Division II national tournament.
Miller, a Riverdale native who played at Rich Central High School and Prairie State College, helped that team considerably as he was voted CCAC Player of the Year and became the first player in program history to earn All-America honors as he was named to the NAIA All-America second team.
Now Miller, 25, is in the working world with a job title as team member of a big project in Joliet.
One of his duties with the Holsten Human Capital Development nonprofit social service agency is overseeing the Healthy Eating and Living Pantry and Food Garden at the new Riverwalk Homes on the West Side near the Des Plaines River.
The Riverwalk project will likely not be running at full capacity until after 2021, but it is already serving more than 500 residents who are below the poverty line, according to a news release.
While at GSU, he was an intern and volunteer with Holsten Human Capital Development and said he jumped at the chance when full-time work was offered in May. His basketball career stalled after a brief career with the London Lightning in Canada, and he said he realized a dream of making it to the NBA’s development league wasn’t in the cards.
“You know that you can’t play basketball forever,” Miller said. “But it was a hard transition knowing that basketball would only be for fun from now on. But it’s a transition where
you are helping people in such a difficult time in the world right now. I think I’ve been lucky to not only find a job but to find a job that helps people who need it.”
The food pantry, which provides free food and fresh vegetables, opened its doors in the summer of 2019 and is open to all residents of Will County.
Liz Protich, the program manager of the Riverwalk project, said Miller is a perfect fit because the goal is to have people feel better when they walk out.
“When you meet Jalen, you can just feel how sincere and genuine he is,” she said. “The minute you are in his presence, that’s what you feel. His heart is in it and you know that he really cares. His energy, enthusiasm and caring for people comes across and it’s really appreciated.”
Protich said Miller there are not a lot of young people clamoring for this line of work.
“It takes a lot of dedication and it takes a lot of hard work. I don’t think people know what it takes to run a food pantry. They think you are distributing food and that’s it,” she said. “There is a lot of back work that goes with it. You have to unload trucks. You have to inventory. There is a lot of physical labor and a lot of preparation that goes into it. Jalen never shied away from hard work.”
Aside from working at the Joliet site, Miller has pitched in at other sites in the Chicago area. Holsten Human Capital Development has 12 sites and serves more than 3,000 residents and works with adults, seniors and youths in residence and family services, workforce development and community building.
Miller said he has had many special moments in his job, but one jumped out of him recently during a holiday party at the Lawson House in Chicago.
“We gave out 200 Christmas meals and handed out 200 bags of gifts including toiletries,” he said. “One person got very emotional. She was not expecting any gifts this Christmas. It was a very nice feeling.”