Last week on Sunday morning, before church services, there was a knock on the back door at Community Christian Church in Waukegan. Outside was a family with three small children. The husband had lost his job and their house was in foreclosure. The father timidly asked, "Do you have any food to give to us? My family and I are hungry." Carol Krerowicz, who is in charge of the church's food pantry, brought them inside and proceeded to fill a box with what they had left in their closet. Carol reports that this is an all too common story in their community, just 30 minutes away from Libertyville.
Community Christian Church has operated a food pantry for almost 10 years. About 5 years ago, Love, INC. asked us to partner with Community Christian to reinvigorate their important ministry. Dwight met with their Pastor Tim and we have been an integral part of their food pantry ever since.
Community Christian serves hungry families weekly, on Tuesdays, from 9 a.m. to 12 noon. Residents of Lake County register annually and are eligible to receive food once a month. Boxes of food are prepared based on how many are in the family. People can also come weekly to receive bread and fresh produce. The food pantry is supplied by surplus food items from local businesses, which they purchase at greatly reduced prices from the Northern Illinois Food Bank. The foods they typically have on hand are cereals, peanut butter, spaghetti and sauce, canned fruit and vegetables, tuna, Hamburger Helper, and dry milk. They also have bread goods, lettuce and frozen meats.
According to the Northern Illinois Food Bank, the number of families seeking food assistance in northern Illinois increased by 35% in the last year. At Community Christian, the average number of people served on Tuesdays was around 200 last year. This year they are seeing about 280 weekly and up to 400 on busy weeks. Carol would like to have $300 weekly to supply the pantry properly. When she doesn't have the money, Carol has to cut back the quantity and the quality of what she can buy. Last year Libertyville Covenant contributed almost $5,000 to this ministry. Carol said without our help, they would not have a food pantry.
In addition to our donations we have a dedicated volunteer team that helps to distribute food on Tuesday mornings, we make a bread pickup every 3 weeks, and have paid for and unloaded a whole semi-truck full of food. Coincidentally the semi we bought last year was delivered and unloaded on a dark and cold night in December when the temperature was 8°! These truckloads of food can be purchased at any time for only $650. The contents are whatever surplus items the food bank currently has on hand (like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get).
In April we are taking an offering dedicated to the food pantry. There is a tremendous value received for our donated dollars. I encourage everyone to reflect on the hungry right here in Lake County, and make a generous donation.
"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' " – Matthew 25:44-45
I offer a sincere thank-you to our dedicated food pantry volunteers: Dick and Eileen Fehlberg, Dwight and Kathy Nelson, Marilyn Murray, and Ann Frost.
