Funding Opportunity: Preventing and eliminating hunger through food acquisition, access and distribution
An estimated 9.5% of Illinois households are “food insecure,” while approximately 750,000 persons use food stamps. The Chicago area has a well-developed system that delivers food to hungry persons, touching an estimated 600,000 per year. The system is anchored by two institutions, the Greater Chicago Food Depository (GCFD) and the Northern Illinois Food Bank, which distribute food to more than 800 local kitchens and pantries, generally run by volunteers who distribute food to needy persons. Networks in most parts of the city provide various types of support to local distributors. The system is highly efficient, making it rare for anyone in the Chicago area to literally starve; and it is relatively inexpensive because of the high number of volunteers who staff it.
The greatest challenge facing the system is acquiring more food. Private sector food producers and retailers are becoming increasingly efficient in their production and ordering, leaving less excess food available for donation. As a result, the GCFD and other organizations seek new sources. New strategies to secure fresh food include developing direct relationships with growers, particularly in Illinois, developing collaborative purchasing, merging food banks to make processes more efficient and supporting neighborhood growers.
Grant making in Hunger supports Community Goal #2: Securing conditions for healthy, safe, just and caring communities.
Outcomes Sought
- A functioning pantry/kitchen network in every neighborhood of the city as verified by the Greater Chicago Food Depository and interviews with neighborhood residents.
- Monitoring of public health data for signs of malnutrition among Chicago residents; reduction of malnutrition by 2015 and action steps to address disparities.
- The food security system benefits from a significant increase in the number of pounds of food obtained from new sources and purchased directly from Midwest farmers.
Our Funding
The Trust will directly solicit proposals to support system-wide food acquisition and expanded access to food for distribution to low-income persons, and to conduct planning and support distribution of food to pantries across Cook County.
The Trust will issue a request for proposals to provide support for a community-based system of food distribution networks in the areas of transportation, technical assistance, facility development or needs assessment. Successful applicants will need to demonstrate how their services are essential to maintaining anti-hunger programming in their neighborhood and how they have acted to address unmet need.
Requests for Proposals
There will be no RFP process for system-wide food acquisition.
Contact Us
Please direct all inquiries to Juanita Irizarry, Program Officer at
