Category: Neighbors & Networks

A Message from Our New Board Chair

It has been my privilege to serve on The Friendship Center board for more than twelve years, and during that time, our organization has grown and evolved in ways we could not have imagined. We have expanded our boundaries, changed locations, grown our programming, and even added pets to the list of clients we serve. We have been overwhelmed watching our neighbors and supporters respond each time we see a need or new opportunity to help those in need.

One day, I hope that organizations like ours will no longer need to exist. Food insecurity is a burden that no family deserves to experience. Not knowing where your next meal is coming from weighs heavily on your daily life and affects how you make decisions for yourself and your family. Our work is not just focused on providing food but also on providing the peace of mind that comes with having your family’s basic needs met. That is why at The Friendship Center, we have remained steadfast in our mission for more than 50 years.

As we reopen our doors on our beautiful, newly renovated space this month, we are incredibly grateful for the opportunity to expand our reach and continue to serve our community. The dedication of our staff, donors, and volunteers gives us the confidence to keep dreaming, growing, and serving clients each day.

This summer, we invite each of you to join The Friendship Center in fulfilling our mission by volunteering, making a gift or donating to our “Restock Our Shelves” food drive which ends June 17th. The Friendship Center depleted our inventory in preparation for our renovation, but now that we have reopened, we need your help to restock the shelves for our food insecure neighbors. Any non-perishable food donation is appreciated, and can be dropped off at the following locations before June 17th:

Davis Theater, 4614 N Lincoln Avenue

Fresh Street, 6191 N Lincoln Avenue

33rd Ward Alderwoman Rossana Rodríguez‘s Office, 3001 W Irving Park Road

Now more than ever, we understand how unpredictable life can be, but together we can assure our neighbors that we will always be here to help.  

-Sarah Zimmerman, TFC Board Chair

About the Author:

Sarah Zimmerman works as the senior associate director, annual giving at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. With more than 15 years of experience in nonprofit fundraising and management, she is responsible for driving strategy for the Law School’s annual fund and legal clinic. As a member of the board, Sarah supports The Friendship Center’s fundraising strategies, communications and strategic planning efforts. 

Food Waste Reduction Efforts at The Friendship Center

Earth Day is April 22, and Stop Food Waste Day is April 27, so it seems like a perfect time to highlight the issue of food waste and the ways that The Friendship Center is working to reduce wasted food while improving service for our clients.

Food waste has enormous environmental, ethical, and economic impacts. According to ReFED, a whopping 35% of all food in the U.S. was either unsold or uneaten in 2019, representing $408 billion worth of food. When food is wasted it also wastes all the land, water, energy, labor, and love that goes into producing it. And when food decomposes in landfills, it generates greenhouse gasses that contribute to climate change. In fact, food waste accounts for 4% of total greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

This level of food waste is happening at the same time that 1 out of 6 Americans struggle with food insecurity. Within The Friendship Center’s service territory, 1 in 3 people, or 66,000 of our neighbors, are food-insecure.

While there are many systemic reasons for this disconnect, food waste is a solvable problem. The EPA’s Food Recovery Hierarchy suggests that beyond source reduction (prevention), the best option for reducing food waste is to Feed Hungry People, which, of course, is our mission at The Friendship Center.

The Friendship Center currently rescues and redistributes unsold, high quality food from a handful of local retailers to augment our inventory. Donations include meat, fresh produce, dairy, baked goods , and shelf-stable items.

Even more exciting is that with our new grants from Swedish Covenant Hospital and the Greater Chicago Food Depository, The Friendship Center is currently renovating our facility.  Increasing our cold storage capacity and acquiring a new van will allow us to significantly expand our food rescue efforts and increase the amount and variety of culturally-relevant foods we can offer our clients.

Farther down the Food Recovery Hierarchy is composting, which is one more way that The Friendship Center is working to reduce food waste. Composting is a way of recycling food scraps and turning them into a nutrient-rich soil amendment. Foods in our inventory that go past their prime, as well as food scraps from our hot meals prep, are placed in toters out back and collected weekly by a compost collection service.

The Friendship Center is looking forward to expanding our food rescue efforts in the future– for the health of our neighbors and the health of our planet.

 – Susan Casey

About the author:

Susan Casey has served on The Friendship Center board since April 2021. She is the Zero Waste Schools Program Manager at the nonprofit Seven Generations Ahead, where she works with K-12 schools to reduce waste. Susan is a member of the Wasted Food Action Alliance and the Illinois Food Scrap Coalition.

The Intersection Between Hunger and Nutrition

March is National Nutrition Month, which is a time to reflect and learn about making informed food choices and developing healthful eating and physical activity habits. Developing healthful eating habits, however, is often on the backburner or an unrealistic goal for families facing hunger. A growing body of research shows that food insecurity increases risk for poor nutrition and diet-related diseases, as well as imposes barriers to chronic disease management.

Food insecurity is often associated with a lower nutrient intake as well as a lower intake of fruits and vegetables.

Hunger is linked to poor nutrition for various reasons, including:

  • limited resources to obtain healthy foods
  • a lack of access to healthy, affordable foods
  • a lack of kitchen equipment to preserve and cook food
  • cycles of food deprivation and overeating
  • high levels of stress, anxiety, and depression
  • fewer opportunities for physical activity

While adequate food intake is important for everyone, it is especially important for children, whose bodies are still developing. A 2021 study compared the nutritional status of food-secure children and food-insecure children aged 1-18 years. It was found food insecure children had a lower quality diet with an increased intake of sodium, saturated fat, and added sugars than the recommended amount. Additionally, food insecure children were at higher risk for inadequate intake of vitamin D and magnesium.

Knowing that we must consider our patient’s unmet social needs in order to improve their overall health, Swedish Hospital’s Food Connections programs partners with The Friendship Center to remove food access as a barrier to health.

The Food Connections programs provide emergency food to patients in need, works to connect patients to community resources such as The Friendship Center for long term food support, and provides free nutrition education to food insecure patients, staff and community members. Together we are ensuring that everyone has access to sustainable, healthy food sources and improving their long-term health. 

-Amanda Kritt, RD LDN

About the Author:

Amanda Kritt is the Food Connections Coordinator at Swedish Hospital.

Handing someone a meal today could turn into a lifetime of generosity and potential tomorrow.

As a young child, my favorite foods were a pita pocket with a slice of American cheese or Campbell’s chicken noodle soup. It’s not unusual for kids to be picky eaters, but for a time in my life, these were the only choices I had.

My mother was and is an amazing, strong, and independent woman, and as a teenage mom, she did her very best at solo parenting. While we eventually rose above the poverty line with the help of family, friends, and largely my mother’s own perseverance and grit, there was a period of time where we lived on food stamps. We also spent time living in a shelter with other young women and children who did not have a place to go.

I remember a story my mother told me of one day entering a room in the shelter where toys and home goods had been donated from the community. My mom was told to choose whatever she needed, and I could pick whatever I wanted from the toys. This simple act of generosity overwhelmed my mom with tears of gratitude and joy. Someone was rooting for us. Someone cared.

Experiencing poverty and food insecurity at a young age and watching the courage of my mother to provide the best for us set the stage for my future career. Because I had received so much from the kindness of strangers, it was ingrained in me that one day I would return that favor and pass along whatever gifts I had to give.

Today I am proud to be serving on the board of The Friendship Center. My day job also brings me joy serving as Director of Development for One World Surgery, a global healthcare nonprofit that ignites the spirit of service to provide high-quality surgical and primary care to underserved patients in Honduras and the Dominican Republic through local clinical staff and international partnerships. Before joining One World Surgery I worked with Covenant World Relief and Development (CWRD), an organization that supports locally led community development projects in over 30 countries, including women’s empowerment, agriculture, and clean water initiatives. 

On my first trip to Honduras with CWRD, I was amazed by the thoughtful and sustainable way local leaders were creating nutrition programs to help mothers in rural areas grow their own healthy food and not have to depend on buying the only choices available at the roadside shops – mainly chips and soda. That road to sustainability began with one person reaching out to another with a gift that they could offer – a banana tree or a mustard seed.

Food insecurity is a topic that really hits home for me. And while each country has its own unique challenges, the US is not exempt. According to Feeding America and the USDA, more than 38 million people in the United States, including 12 million children, are food insecure. The pandemic has increased food insecurity among families with children and communities of color, who already faced hunger at much higher rates before the pandemic.*

Being able to serve on the board of The Friendship Center is a gift. Our incredible staff is dedicated to serving our clients with the utmost dignity and respect. Handing someone a meal today could turn into a lifetime of generosity and potential tomorrow. I am grateful for each staff member, volunteer, and donor who partners with The Friendship Center to bring hope to a child, a family, a community. Thank you for transforming lives, one meal at a time.

* https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america

-Catherine Werner

About the Author:

Catherine Werner has served on The Friendship Center board since 2015. Catherine first connected to The Friendship Center as a volunteer while living in the Albany Park neighborhood. For more than 12 years Catherine has worked with nonprofits to end poverty, violence and inequality both nationally and globally. She and her husband, Matt, live in Chicago.

Catherine’s mother is currently a health and wellness copywriter based out of the Twin Cities and is grateful to now be able to personally donate to the Greater Boston Food Bank, another Feeding America partner who helped her and her daughter in times of need.

The Link Between Hunger and Mental Health

The first week of October is Mental Health Awareness Week, and as we work to improve access to food in our community, it is worth taking a moment to reflect on how hunger and mental health issues intersect in the lives of those we serve. 

Recent research confirms that hunger and mental health have a “bi-directional relationship”. For clients with chronic mental illness, the ability to access food can be a major challenge. New studies are shedding light on the devastating impact food insecurity can have on families and children. 

Mothers of school-aged children who face hunger are 53% more likely to suffer from severe depression than the general population. Teachers have been telling us for years that kids can’t focus and achieve their potential when they are hungry, leading to behavioral issues in the short term, and significant long-term setbacks in academic and emotional development. Dr. Drew Ramsey of Columbia University wrote that diet is “one of the most powerful interventions that a therapist can have on a client”.         

According to Feeding America, 50% of children facing hunger will need to repeat a grade. 

Leaders in the health care sector – like our partners at Swedish Hospital – are investing in local food systems  because they understand that providing healthy food resources is one of the most effective early intervention strategies for improving community health. 

While this focus on the link between hunger and mental health is a reminder of the challenges we face, it is also exciting to consider the opportunity we have to make an impact on the lives of young people. We are doing more than just “filling bellies” for a day or a week. We are helping parents and children in difficult circumstances continue to learn, grow, and improve their lives.  

At the beginning of a new school year in the middle of a wildly unpredictable moment in our history, I’m so thankful to be doing this work, and thankful to you for the support that makes our mission possible. 

               Ross Outten, Director of Strategic Programs

It’s a Grind!

coffee mug with heart
Photo by March Verch (cc)

During COVID, we were getting LOTS of coffee donations due to a citywide drop in demand at coffee shops. Usually, these donations are 5-lb bags of whole beans. Grinding down the beans and parceling them out into Ziploc bags was a major project, and we’ve been borrowing equipment from local coffee shops to get the job done.

Luckily for us, our friends at Beans & Bagels offered to convert their loan of a commercial coffee grinder into a donation! We now own our very own grinder, and the place smells great on “grind day” when we parcel out all of the donated coffee for our clients. Thanks, Beans & Bagels!