Food Insecurity in Cook County
In Cook County, about one in five families face food insecurity. And many families that face food insecurity do not qualify for federal programs or assistance. This is where the Greater Chicago Food Depository comes in. The depository helps feed about 232,100 households each year.
Dedicated to making an impact in their community, a team of our Chicago-based colleagues visited the Greater Chicago Food Depository to lend a helping hand.
Laura, associate technical consultant, and Mark Dobberstein, senior solutions architect, organized the day. The team met at the Chicago office for lunch and some team building before they went to the depository. Mark, along with Matt McGillan, vice president of field operations, and Jeff Smith, general manager, carpooled the volunteers and food donations. Rachel Ramos, Erin Turley, Kate Feltman, Garret Starke, Antonio Lopez, Nancy McNamara, and Katherine Lin rounded out the team!
Incredible Results
They arrived at the food depository with open hearts and cars full of donations. To get the day kicked off, the volunteers split up into teams of four and had a friendly competition to see which group could package the most bags lentil beans! The teams powered through so many bags, they ended up losing count of how many each team packaged. Even though the competition didn’t work, everyone walked away having done an incredible job.
Colleagues helped repackage 2,368 bags of lentils along with 11,880 pounds of oranges and 6,699 pounds of apples. As a result, they packaged a total of 21,403 meals for their neighbors.
“It felt rewarding to give back to our greater community and spend time with the people we work with but not necessarily interact with each day,” Laura said.
Helping in the community isn’t something new for our Chicago-based teammates. They often find the time to help in the community where they can, and have a good time doing it. You can read about their recent office event helping the Anti- Cruelty Society of Chicago here.
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