More Volunteers Needed To Patch Social Safety Net

By Christopher Pratt of The Urban Coaster

July 27, 2009 – More than 800 people per month are being served by a Rogers Park food bank, a number that has doubled since last summer, and an already busy crew of volunteers and human-services workers will be asked to give more time to provide for those in need.

“Primarily, the food bank is a volunteer operation,” says Monica Dillon, a Registered Nurse who works at the Howard Area Community Center and oversees operations there. Volunteers are the backbone of the food bank and are responsible for bagging donated food, ensuring adequate storage, filling out paperwork and greeting volunteers. If there is a shortage of volunteers, agency staff fills the void.

Dillon says, any time that staff spends doing work normally done by volunteers takes away from the critical work they have been trained to do.

She has worked in public health for 20 years and the last few months have been a “zoo” at the food bank. “It’s been hard to keep the shelves full,” says Dillon, as she multi-tasks throughout the morning, making copies, thanking volunteers and processing future food orders.

“This time last year we were serving 350, at the most 400 people.”

This month, on Monday and Thursday mornings, more than 800 people were expected to get a bag of groceries from the food bank located at 7648 North Paulina St. On a recent Monday morning, 32 people signed their names on a clipboard in order to get some canned green beans, hamburger patties,  pancake mix, Ramen noodles and maybe some fresh fruit.

More than 70 new people were expected to sign in four days later. Food-bank patrons are only supposed to come once per month.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, a household is considered food insecure if one or more members was hungry at some time during the year because the household couldn’t afford enough food. A government study released last week found that 12.4 million children, or 17 percent of all children in the United States, live in food-insecure households.

The report, “America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2009” was released by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. It measured a cross-section of government data, but only through 2007, and does not shed light on how the food insecure are coping with the most recent economic downturn.

Dillon says, “It used to be the cyclically poor, mentally ill and developmentally disabled” who sought help from the food bank. With the state’s unemployment rate above 10 percent, she has begun to see changes in those seeking assistance in recent months.

That change in the food bank demographic reveals itself in the shy smile of Kathryn Chlapcik, who politely greets guests. She’s warm, friendly and courteous.

One could envision her doing something similar at a Starbucks or Wal-Mart. As the phone rings and the different languages and tongues of Rogers Parkers fill the food bank with chatter, Chlapcik politely offers Danishes to those waiting for a brown bag.

Chlapcik says she was an interior designer, but has fallen on hard times in the current economy. “I started coming here for food, and just started volunteering.”

The agency, she says, “basically just needed a traffic cop and information person.”

Bob Dolgan, a spokesman for the Greater Chicago Food Depository, which provides food to 600 area food banks, soup kitchens and food shelters, says there is some anecdotal proof that more food-bank patrons are looking to be volunteers.

Dolgan says that his group has seen a 35 percent increase in demand for food compared to last year, and that they will distribute more than 58 million pounds of food this year.

Dillon says anyone interested in volunteering at the Howard Area food pantry is encouraged and welcomed.

Those interested in volunteering should contact Monica Dillon by phone at 1-773-262-6622, or by e-mail at mdillon@howardarea.org. Donations of fresh produce, deodorant, toothpaste and laundry detergent are also requested.

Food pantries are set up to serve residents by zip code. Those in need of food, or wanting to find their designated food bank, should call the Greater Chicago Food Depository at 773-247-FOOD (3663), or they can visit them online at the Web site: www.chicagofoodbank.org.