Due to federal budget cuts this year, the Aurora Area Interfaith Food Pantry faced a Thanksgiving crisis.
The pantry traditionally prepares boxes of Thanksgiving meals for families who would otherwise go without. That meal includes turkey and all the trimmings.
But Katie Arko, Aurora Area Interfaith Food Pantry director, said while the pantry could afford the 900 turkeys for the boxes, it could not afford the things that go with them.
Enter Aurora’s faith-based community.
Arko talked with the Rev. Brandon Perrine, senior minister at New England Congregational Church, who organized churches to step in and help collect some of those things that make up a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.
“We were the trimmings,” Perrine said.
New England Congregational, along with St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, St. John Neumann Catholic Church in St. Charles, New Hope Advent Christian Church, Wesley United Methodist Church, Temple B’Nai Israel and Our Saviour Lutheran Church, pledged to collect enough of those trimmings to take care of 100 boxes.
At last count, between the food and an additional $3,600 collected toward the effort, the churches’ collection will cover more than 100 of the boxes. The trimmings for each box cost about $25, Perrine said.
“So we far exceeded it,” he said.
“This is an incredible effort that will mean so much to our community,” said Heather Short, the pantry’s development and communications director.
The effort from Aurora’a faith-based community in indicative of what takes place during the annual November Aurora Holiday Food Drive. It is often a number of smaller food drives that dovetail into the big one, and churches are among the community organizations that pitch in.
Perrine smiled when he said it is not unusual for churches and other faith-based organizations to join together.
“We care about people,” he said. “It motivates us. If everyone just does some thing, it all adds up.”
Aurora is in the midst of the 18th Holiday Food Drive, which is designed to fill shelves at the Aurora Area Interfaith Food Pantry. The drive runs through Nov. 26, the day before Thanksgiving. The pantry serves more than 1,500 families a week, and Arko said that will rise during the holiday season.
Part of the food drive is also getting volunteers, some to work two-hour shifts at one of the grocery stores handing out flyers to promote the sale of bags at the stores, and also to collect food.
One area where the pantry needs volunteers is for its delivery service, which has increased. The pantry will assemble bags and deliver them, but to do so means more volunteers to make the deliveries.
The basic drive still works essentially like it always has. People can buy $5, $10 or $15 bags of groceries for the drive at the participating grocery stores whenever they shop.
The stores involved are: Prisco’s Family Market, 1108 Prairie St., Aurora; Cermak Fresh Market, 1250 N. Lake St., Aurora; and Food Market La Chiquita, 1525 Douglas Road, Montgomery.
People can also donate to the drive online, through the food pantry website, www.aurorafoodpantry.org/holidayfooddrive/
The food drive is sponsored by a number of Aurora businesses and individuals, including: Dolan & Murphy; Sue Scheuerman; CyrusOne; Konen Insurance; Aetna; Gerald Subaru of Naperville; Aurora Bank & Trust; Douglas Carpet One; Jakes, Inc.; Ald. Jonathan Nunez, 4th Ward; Sam’s Club; Factor; Old National Bank; Bob’s Discount Furniture Charitable Foundation, Inc.; Aurora Generation; Aurora Fastprint; Mercy Medical Center; and Mendel Plumbing & Heating.
Steve Lord is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
