At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, many community members saw the severe lack of food security in Evanston and, in various ways, made contributions to fight this problem. Those efforts persist today.
While the broader Chicago community has taken considerable action to fight food insecurity, one in every four children in Cook County is still at risk of hunger. Unsurprisingly, poverty and food insecurity are linked, and even people with earnings above the federal poverty level income threshold can often be food insecure. Many food-insecure households also do not qualify for federal nutrition assistance programs.
Racial inequity is also proven to significantly impact food insecurity. Poverty and hunger disproportionately affect people of color, and the pandemic and its economic fallout, including high inflation rates and a shrinking federal safety net, only worsened these disparities for people of color.
A 2020 Chicago Health Atlas map shows the percentage of people experiencing food insecurity in each Chicago neighborhood. The percentage of residents at risk of hunger increased by nearly 5% from 2018 to 2020. According to the 2023 research from the Greater Chicago Food Depository, one in five households in the Chicago area face food insecurity, and a national report found that 17 million households were food insecure at some point in 2022.
Every statistic tells the same story: Food insecurity is hurting a large percentage of Americans, Chicagoans and Evanstonians. And while an all-encompassing solution may not be available yet, many Evanston residents have done what they can to help those in need.
C&W Market and Ice Cream Parlor
Since March 2020, Clarence and Wendy Weaver, owners of C&W Market and Ice Cream Parlor, have given away groceries every other Saturday from 9-10 a.m. at the corner of Church and Dodge. Families facing food insecurity line up on the sidewalk to pick up a free bag of groceries that includes fresh produce, nonperishables, meat and eggs. Even after the COVID shutdown ended, the Weavers noticed there were still a lot of families in need.
Clarence Weaver said he and his wife were inspired by the amount of families in Evanston who needed food, especially during the COVID-19 shutdown. Weaver said on average the biweekly groceries feed families of four and typically last two to three days; however, Weaver said he always makes sure to include rice, beans and other stretch foods that can sustain the family for whatever time period they need.
Families do not need to meet any criteria to qualify for C&W’s free groceries. Weaver said they will support anyone who comes in and says they have a need. The market is supported by the Evanston Community Foundation, Rotary clubs, private donors and other organizations that come together to assist C&W.
“We have resources that come together to assist us with what we need in order to continue through our foundation to address food insecurity and workforce development,” Weaver said. “It’s an ongoing effort and the entire community is behind it.”
While there are many families in need, Weaver said they are meeting the demand they see. He said if more people come their way, the market will do more to help those families.
“If there’s a need, the only way to meet the demand is to add more resources and we’re in a position where, if the need grows, we can grow to meet the demand,” Weaver said.
For families who are unable to come on Saturday mornings that have an immediate need, C&W has a food pantry available on-site that the Rotary Club of Evanston, Evanston Lighthouse Rotary Club and college students helped install in late 2022.
Rotary clubs of Evanston
Bryant Wallace, the immediate past president of the Lighthouse Club, also helps with C&W food deliveries every other Saturday morning. Wallace helps manage around 45 deliveries, and the Weavers said they provide for about 180 families. Wallace is often in charge of coordinating the drivers and planning their routes.
Wallace, who already had a relationship with the Weavers, was among the program’s first volunteers. He said that this is the perfect example of the “magic of Rotary.” Because of his relationship with the Weavers, he was able to later recruit some of his fellow Rotarians, to really “jumpstart the initiative.”
When Wallace and other community members set out to make these deliveries, they are not only distributing food throughout the community. Wallace said they have recruited many students who have actually gotten some of their first driving experience while completing deliveries for C&W. According to Wallace, many of the students have had a positive experience volunteering with the program.
“Here they are, being people of action while learning how to drive,” Wallace said. “There’s something special about a kid looking at their neighbor and saying ‘What can I do to help?’”
Wallace said the families they are serving on Saturdays know the food is coming and that this hope is what helps people get through the week. He also emphasized how this opportunity has brought the community together.
“The Evanston community has a variety of people who don’t cross paths very often and I like to think that this program has gotten people to connect on a different level,” Wallace said. “Some people who are making deliveries are going to parts of Evanston they have never traveled to before, and the person receiving these goods sees that the community cares about them.”
In the case of a missing driver, Wallace said a Rotarian is typically available to pick up the shift as a sub. In addition, the Rotary Club of Evanston has a delivery route that the Rotarians split among themselves.
This collaboration between the Lighthouse Club, Rotary Club of Evanston and C&W has created a beautiful partnership.
“My goal was to think of ways to collaborate with the other Rotary clubs and the community,” Wallace said. “What the Evanston Lighthouse Rotary Club and the Evanston Rotary Club have been able to do together is an example of what can be done, and I think it’s also the stepping stone of what there is to do next.”
Rotarians helping bag groceries for C&W Market. Credit: Courtesy of Helen DicksonHelen Dickson, the president of the Rotary Club of Evanston, said that in 2018 the club went through a “visioning process” where it decided its goals were not focused enough. The club did a needs assessment in the community, surveying a number of nonprofits, before ultimately settling on building food security. In the last five years, the Rotary Club of Evanston has given more than $45,000 to build food security in Evanston.
In addition to helping out with C&W’s initiative, the club has helped with the Campus Kitchen at Northwestern, which is focused on reducing waste and conserving leftover food from Northwestern dining halls. They have also recently served dinners with Connections for the Homeless and help with Meals on Wheels once a month.
Dickson said it was much easier to identify needs during the pandemic. During lockdown, the club partnered with restaurants that couldn’t physically have people inside and hired them to make meals for people in retirement homes and people who did not have access to grocery stores. Dickson said Rotary funded around $10,000 worth of meals from Soul & Smoke, Jennifer’s Edibles and Chef Q Ibraheem.
Dickson wants to loop in some of the larger companies that have helped in the community and connect them with local nonprofits.
“The most unique thing about Rotary is, because we are this large network, we can then put that network out into the community and help nonprofits,” Dickson said. “Our goal, in addition to the service work and helping Evanston families, is to make people aware of Rotary, so we have more opportunities as a club to make strides in the community.”
Dave Stumpf, community service co-chair and past president of the Rotary Club of Evanston, said reducing food waste and food insecurities go hand-in-hand. He wants to bring awareness to organizations that are limiting waste such as Campus Kitchen and hopes more restaurants, including the Rotary cafeteria, make strides to become more sustainable.
While Evanston’s Rotary clubs have made big contributions so far, Dickson wants them to be even more focused going forward and Stumpf recognizes the reality of the problem.
“Unfortunately, we’re always going to have to fill a need for folks who are experiencing food insecurity and malnutrition,” Stumpf said.
Evanston Community Fridges
On top of all that they do with their respective groups, Stumpf, Dickson, Wallace and the Weavers also regularly drop off food in one of the many community refrigerators around Evanston. Founded in 2021, Evanston Community Fridges is a mutual aid network rooted in collective community care through access to free food.
Anna Grant-Bolton, lifelong Evanston resident and outreach organizer for Fridges, helped co-found the organization. Now a rising senior at Trinity College, Grant-Bolton mostly works behind the scenes, operating the nonprofit’s social media, facilitating partnerships and managing finances.
There are four fridges in Evanston, each with a pantry connected to it: The Childcare Network of Evanston Fridge is at 1335 Dodge Ave., hosted by CNE; the Sunrise Fridge is at 620 Madison St. and is hosted by Reba Place Church; the Freedom Fridge is at 619 West Howard St. and is hosted by Palmhouse 619; and the Soul Fridge is at 1601 Payne St. and is hosted by Soul & Smoke.
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The first fridge, the Childcare Network of Evanston Fridge, is located at 1335 Dodge Ave. Credit: Courtesy of Anna Grant-Bolton -
The Soul Fridge is on 1601 Payne St. and is hosted by Soul & Smoke. Credit: Courtesy of Anna Grant-Bolton -
The Freedom Fridge, located at 619 West Howard St. and hosted by Palmhouse 619. Credit: Courtesy of Anna Grant-Bolton -
The Sunrise Fridge at Reba Place Church, 620 Madison St. Credit: Courtesy of Anna Grant-Bolton
“It’s a community-led effort to address food injustice and food insecurity in Evanston and so we are all about bringing neighbors together to support each other and ensure everyone has their food needs, especially people who fall between the cracks of other food aid programs,” Grant-Bolton said.
She said the organization does everything it can to be as accessible as possible, so they are unable to collect data, but she estimates the fridges have helped connect hundreds of people with free food.
On an hourly basis, community members place food in the fridges, making sure they are stocked at all times. Each refrigerator has a manager who regulates the fridges to make sure the fridge is operating at a safe temperature, the food has not expired, and everything is labeled with a date and ingredients.
Fridges’ wide network of people who donate food communicates via the Support of Community Fridges in a Facebook group. Carol Muskin and Chuck Pierret, two of the community members in the group, have been volunteering for the project since its inception. The couple lives near the Sunrise Fridge, where they donate food often.
For the last two years, Muskin and Pierret – both Northwestern graduate school alumni – have served as liaisons between Fridges and Northwestern University. Last summer, they picked up donations from the Norris University Center, often bread and leftover items from the building’s many kitchens. Northwestern University’s Food Recovery Initiative donates large amounts of prepared food every week.
Muskin said this summer, the opportunities with Northwestern have expanded even more. They recently connected with “Chef Deby” who prepares food for “Nona Jo’s,” the student-athlete dining hall in the Walter Athletics Center at Northwestern. For the past few weeks, Muskin and Pierret have collected large trays of food, and it has grown “leaps and bounds” each week. They package it into three-compartment trays for individual meals. The first week they had 80 meals, the next week 100 and the week after 120. Muskin and Pierret said they believe it will keep growing during football season.
In the spring of 2022, Fridges launched a grocery shopping reimbursement program that pays community members for buying groceries for the refrigerators. This allows people who do not have the money to donate but have the time, to contribute. Reversely, this pairs shoppers with people who have the money but cannot find the time to deliver groceries to the refrigerators.
Looking ahead
Grant-Bolton said Fridges wants to grow and is on the lookout for a fifth fridge, specifically for downtown Evanston. She said, however, that it is already an all-hands-on-deck effort to maintain the four refrigerators and expansion would be challenging. She said more and more people are relying on the refrigerators for food, and the organization is struggling to keep up with the demand.
“We have more need than we have supply, and that’s always our biggest challenge,” Grant-Bolton said.
When Grant-Bolton went to Hartford, Connecticut, for college, she knew she wanted to stay connected to Fridges. She said it is an initiative she cares deeply about and has helped her feel connected and grounded to Evanston, a place she “loves so much.” Her love for Evanston connects to her commitment to sustainability.
“It’s solving two problems with a single solution,” Grant-Bolton said. “Pairing folks who are looking for additional food with organizations or businesses that have a surplus of food. In doing so, we’re able to reduce the environmental impact of that food waste while also feeding people.”
Hunger and food insecurity are not going away anytime soon, but Grant-Bolton, Wallace and every other volunteer making an effort to help the community have Evanston on the right path.
“I don’t want the community to think that we have to do this big, old monumental task to make an impact,” Wallace said. “These fridges, these deliveries and all the little things we do, they add up and make a difference.”
To donate to Evanston Community Fridges and learn more, visit their donation page.
This article was originally published by a evanstonroundtable.com . Read the Original article here. .