Journal & Topics Media Group

Food Pantry Numbers Spike

Village Sees 46% Increase In Usage Due To Virus

The food pantry on the second floor at village hall is currently stocked well to deal with the increase in need by families.

Should the coronavirus pandemic continue at least through the end of April, Mount Prospect’s food pantry could be stretched thin.

Human Services Director Julie Kane said the village pantry typically assists 40-50 families on a monthly basis.

“In comparing the first few weeks of February to the first three weeks of March in regard to the number of families we assisted, we are seeing a 46% increase,” Kane said. “We are doing new assessments this week for people that have never used the pantry before who are now reaching out.”

As of Monday, March 23, already 51 families have been helped this month. Kane expects between 70-75 families to seek food assistance by the end of March.

“We suspect that moving into April, with people still out of work, those numbers could increase,” she said.

Kane said if the pantry eventually reaches 100 families, the village will need to evaluate how often to help families, seek other food donations, or maybe even have staff shop for those in need.

“Right now we are giving out four bags of groceries, depending on the family,” Kane said.

The newest people to join the pantry are individuals laid off from work, Kane said.

“We have heard from people who said they work in the restaurant businesses and their hours were already being reduced in early March and then suddenly they were laid off without any pay,” Kane said.

Due to an abundance of donations during the holiday season, Kane said the food pantry on the second floor of village hall is well-stocked and overflow items are situated in the basement at village hall. Once the pantry becomes depleted, workers will bring items up from the basement to restock.

“We do know that if this goes on for 3-4 more weeks, and we continue to distribute as we are, at some point we are going to go completely through the stock,” Kane said.

With village hall closed to the public and employees practicing social distancing, some employees are working remotely from home. To ensure no one contracts the virus at village hall, Kane and Human Services is asking people to not donate food at this time. Instead, they are requesting that if someone wants to help out, they can donate a $15 or $25 gift card from grocery stores.

Overflow of goods are being currently housed in the basement of village hall.

“People need perishable items and if we begin to run low on certain things, a gift card can be used for that person or family to purchase things that we might no longer have,” Kane said. 

Those gift cards could be mailed to Human Services at village hall, 50 S. Emerson St., or people can come to village hall and place the gift card in an envelope and slide it through the depository where water bill payments are dropped off. 

“At some point, we might need to do a big food drive to restock everything when this virus comes to an end,” Kane said. 

In addition to the food pantry, Kane and her staff continue to check on vulnerable clients who have health issues. She said no one has reported being diagnosed with the virus as of Monday, March 23. 

Some of those individuals who are homebound are seeing food pantry deliveries made to their homes. 

 

Support local news by subscribing to the Journal & Topics in print or online.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.