Southland food pantries are ready
Local agencies are braced for a spike in clients if the shutdown resumes
“We won’t turn people away.”
— Steve Bailey, general manager for Operation Blessing in Alsip
When President Donald Trump and congressional leaders reached a tentative deal Friday to reopen the government for three weeks, local food pantries across the Southland were already braced for a spike in new clients.
The short-term deal reopened the government while negotiations continue over the president’s demands for money to build awall at the U.S.-Mexico border.
During what became the longest shutdown in U.S. history, an estimated 800,000 federal workers went unpaid nationwide, prompting food pantry operators locally and across the country to stock shelves.
Should the shutdown resume, they say they want the public to know they’re ready to help.
“We’re starting to see it,” said Steve Bailey, general manager for Operation Blessing in Alsip.
“We’ve had a couple of TSA workers come in,” he said. If the shutdown resumes, he said, “We’re expecting even more as we head into February.”
Some pantries have geographic or income restrictions; others do not.
Bailey said Operation Blessing is a warehouse as well as a pantry. It receives some 150,000 pounds of food a month, he said.
“We’ve got plenty,” he added.
Anyone can stop in once, he said. Regulars should live in the geographic area of 79th Street to 175th Street and Halsted to La Grange Road, he said, but exceptions can be made on an individual basis.
“We won’t turn people away,” he said.
Susana Perez, food pantry supervisor for Bloom Township, said, “I think a major impact will start next month.”
Located in Chicago Heights, the pantry typically services 1,000 to 1,200 people a month.
“But a lot of people who receive (Illinois Department of Human Services) SNAP benefits got their February allocation early, in January,” she said.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits for February were issued to Illinois customers on or before January 20, according to a statement from the Illinois Department of Human Services. Typically, benefits are issued in the first few days of the month.
SNAP is a federal program administered by the United States Department of Agriculture and distributed through the Illinois Department of Human Services.
Perez said, “We’re hearing that many (recipients) think the early February allocation was a bonus because of the storm, but in reality they got February’s allocation — in reality it’s because of the shutdown.”
Which means, come February, SNAP recipients may find themselves coming up short.
The pantry is prepping for an increase in SNAP recipients stopping by as well as furloughed government workers, should Trump and Congress fail to reach a long-term solution and the shutdown is resumed, she said.
“We’re preparing,” she said. “We partner with the Greater Chicago Food De- pository. There are certain items we can get for free. So we’re making sure we’re stocking those very heavily, getting the maximum quantity of things we can get .”
Stocked up, too, is the pantry at St. Christopher Church in Midlothian.
Sister Laurinda Hefel, who runs the facility, said thanks to the hardwork and donations of several local organizations, including Bremen High School, the pantry is ready for the expected increased need.
In partnership with Berkot’s, the Bremen students collected 11,240 pounds of food and distributed it to pantries serving the Midlothian, Posen and Markham areas.
As a result, St. Christopher’s pantry has an abundance of food to share, Hefel said.
In 2018, the pantry gave out 2,300 bags of food.
“The need is far greater this year,” Hefel said. “We
already had a lot of people coming. That’s why we’re here.”
Recently, she said, “an elderly lady came knocking at the door, crying and crying. She said, ‘I know you’re only open on Mon-
day and Thursday but I don’t have any food and I’m hungry.’ She tore at my heart. So I gave her a nice healthy bag of food. I said any time you’re hungry, you can come back. We don’t want anybody to go hun- gry.”
At nearby St. Stephen Lutheran Church, also in Midlothian, food pantry director Susan Mickelson said, should the shutdown resume, she wants government workers who aren’t getting paid to know they can come in and get help.
At the Orland Township food pantry in Orland Park, December’s numbers were down by 60 families over November’s, said Robin Kassis, food pantry coordinator.
But the pantry had received at least two calls from people identifying themselves as being affected by the shutdown, she added.
“We average around 300 families amonth,” she said.
If there’s a spike in need, she added, the pantry will rise to it.
Al Riley, supervisor at Rich Township, said the food pantry, located in Richton Park, serves about 300 families aweek.
“We have had three inquiries from people selfidentifying as government workers,” Riley said.
“Our bigger concern is for those people who are always in need,” he said.
Riley said the pantry and other social services are ready for any type of eventuality—“and certainly (the shutdown) is a very unfortunate one because they should keep the government open.”
He estimated “there are about 7,000 federal workers in the 2nd Congressional District that we’re in. That’s a lot of people but at same time, the district consists of about 850,000 to about 900,000 people.
“Of bigger impact is those people who have lost their jobs,” he said.
“Frankly,” he said, “even though the furlough is a very important tragic social situation, there are people whoare always in need who don’t know there’s a job for them that eventually they’ll get to go back to.”