As the Aurora Holiday Food Drive continues, the Aurora community is coming together to make it a happy Thanksgiving for those in need.
Members of the West Aurora School District teachers association, and West Aurora office professionals, recently packaged more than 250 boxes of food designed to complete a full Thanksgiving dinner.
The boxes – which included green bean casserole, stuffing, corn, cranberries and even brownies – were designed to go with more than 900 turkeys the Aurora Area Interfaith Food Pantry obtained to give to clients.
“Each building focused on one item,” said Stacy Krisch, an office professional in the principal’s office at Greenman Elementary School, where they focused on the brownies. “We packaged more than 250 bags of food.”
The food pantry had the 900 turkeys, but Aurora Area Interfaith Food Pantry Director Katie Arko said budget cuts limited the number of side dishes the pantry could afford.
Different organizations mobilized to collect those Thanksgiving “fixings” so the pantry could distribute 900 full dinners.
Aurora’s faith community, led by seven different churches, collected about 150 boxes of the side dishes, and the West Aurora educators have now pitched in 250 more.
Heather Short, the pantry’s development and communications director, called word of the West Aurora donation “wonderful news” and an “incredible donation.”
While these recent donations are specifically for the Thanksgiving dinners, it illustrates the nature of the Holiday Food Drive, which is in its 18th year. It is designed to help replenish the shelves at the Aurora Area Interfaith Food Pantry for the coming year, and is often a number of individual drives by organizations under the umbrella of the bigger drive.
The drive runs through Nov. 26, the day before Thanksgiving. The pantry serves more than 1,500 families a week, and Arko said that rises during the holiday season.
Part of the food drive is also getting volunteers, some to work two-hour shifts at one of the participating grocery stores handing out flyers to promote the sale of bags of food 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 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.
