September is Hunger Action Month, a campaign created by Feeding America to raise awareness about food insecurity.
Locally, three Chicagoland Food Banks have joined its mission, hosting volunteer events and fundraising goals to take action in the fight against hunger.
“The Northern Illinois Food Bank is serving 570,000 people every month. The need continues to grow,” said director of volunteers Shannon Thompson.
The Food Bank serves 13 counties in rural and suburban Northern Illinois, according to its website.
Last year, volunteers donated 149,000 hours of time packing and distributing food, the equivalent of more than 70 full time employees.
“I originally started when I came with my daughter for a Girl Scout outing,” said volunteer, Brook Noring. “Fell in love with it.”
Noring, a mother of four, has been volunteering for four years and is now a supervisor.
“Everyone eats food, it’s necessary for everyone. For me, it just felt like home here, so this was my calling,” she said.
Dennis Finney, a retiree, has been donating his time for 14 years.
“Wonderful people, you meet wonderful people. They have good hearts and they want to be here,” he said.
Tuesday is one of the biggest volunteer days of the year for the organization, as it marks Hunger Action Day. At the Food Bank in Geneva, more than 100 volunteers packed “Volunteer Hall” to sort, evaluate and repack fruit, vegetables, dairy, meat and more.
The food comes from manufacturers, wholesalers and grocery stores and is repurposed to feed a network of 900 food pantries, soup kitchens and feeding programs.
In addition to volunteer events, the Greater Chicago Food Depository, which serves Cook County, is hosting an “86 Hunger” campaign, in which a portion of proceeds from dining out at participating restaurants goes to its mission.
It has also posted advocacy steps online to encourage supporters to communicate with legislators directly.
“We believe food is a basic human right, and we want to make sure that everyone has access,” said Camerin Mattson, the communications manager, for Greater Chicago Food Depository.
According to Mattson, one in five households with children in Chicago suffer from food insecurity.
“More than 25,000 people volunteered with us in the past year,” said Mattson. “Those volunteers served nearly 100,000 hours and packed more than seven million pounds of food.”
The Food Bank of Northwest Indiana is hosting a “Hunger Hike” fundraiser on September 21 at the Lake County Fairgrounds.