HCS Family Services has found a school to host a new food pantry. It will be Anne M. Jeans Elementary School in Willowbrook.
The Burr Ridge Elementary District 180 Board unanimously approved the project at its meeting Aug. 8, district superintendent Tom Schneider said.
HCS, a social services agency based in Hinsdale, will partner with the Northern Illinois Food Bank to operate the pantry in a large storage room that was used for food and other lunch supplies at Anne M. Jeans School, on 91st Street, just west of Route 83.
Since the storeroom already held a freezer and refrigerators, school officials expect the electrical system will be adequate for the appliances and equipment the food pantry needs. The room was cleaned out and the contents moved to a different room.
“We shuffled some storage rooms around, which we were able to do quite easily,” Schneider said.
HCS executive director Deborah Baker said the space, about 800 square feet, is right off the gymnasium, which doubles as the school’s cafeteria.
The gymnasium will provide room for the HCS staff to connect the people coming to the pantry with other services for themselves or their children. District officials will make arrangements with the Community House, which uses the gym for an after-school day care program.
Baker sees a benefit of having a food pantry available where parents can grocery shop when they come to pick up their children.
Only families with children 18 or younger who attend Hinsdale High School District 86 or one of its elementary and middle school feeder districts will be allowed to receive food from the pantry.
The Northern Illinois Food Bank will cover the costs of setting up the pantry, Baker said.
The pantry will be open after school one day a week and provide food to about 100 different families, Baker estimates. She hopes to have the food pantry ready and operating in September.
Earlier this year, HCS, which operates the food pantry in the basement of Hinsdale’s Memorial Hall, and the food bank requested permission to open a food pantry in Hinsdale South High School in Darien, to serve similar clients. The proposal had the support of Principal Stephanie Palmer, but not of some community members and the District 86 Board, after it had been discussed at meetings in April through June.
Residents had concerns about security at the school, traffic, whether there was adequate space, and the appropriateness of using a publicly funded school for a food pantry.
District 180 had a completely different reaction to the idea, Baker said. District officials contacted her to suggest one of their schools house the pantry, after District 86 took a pass.
“We reached out to them,” said Paula DuPont, president of the District 180 Board. “We know we have community members in need.”
HCS and the food bank have been operating a mobile food pantry outside the Resource Center at Hinsdale Lake Terrace in Willowbrook. The mobile unit will make its last visit to that site Aug. 17, Baker said.
Starting in October, the mobile pantry will regularly visit a municipal parking lot in Darien near the Village Hall and police station, she said.
“We are really excited about that,” Baker said.
Twitter @kfdoings
