Four Creative Ways Chicago Community Groups Combatted Food Insecurity During the COVID-19 Pandemic

With the help of a volunteer, a guest packs her car with groceries at the Blue Cap food pantry, a Food Depository, in Blue Island, Illinois. (Photo credit: Nancy Stone)

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Megan Bennett and her team at the Greater Chicago Food Depository (GCFD) considered food insecurity the “silent pandemic.” During the height of the pandemic, Bennett and her colleagues worked tirelessly to provide the GCFD’s more than 700 community partners with 117 million pounds of food, which amounts to roughly 97.5 million meals. In the organization’s 42-year history, the GCFD has never provided so many meals.

“When people are not forced to worry about whether they can put food on the table for their families, it enables them to focus their energy and finances on other important aspects of their life,” Bennett says. “A healthy community starts with consistent access to nutritious food.”

Feeding America, a national network of food banks, estimated that more than 600,000 people in Cook County, which encompasses Chicago and surrounding suburbs, will live in food-insecure households in 2021. This puts Cook County third highest in the nation. In 2020, the numbers were higher: 798,130 people were living with food insecurity, a 48 percent increase from 2019. According to Bennett, these numbers are starting to gradually decrease, but it will take some time—months, even years—to return to pre-pandemic levels.

Bennett recalls one woman, a food service worker, who came to a food pantry recently with her six-year-old daughter. Bennett says that the woman has gone through three different jobs in the last year as businesses rotated through the cruel carousel of opening and closing. For one of her jobs, she worked at the airport but was laid off. Like so many others, she has found that the pandemic affected her ability to feed her family.

This woman’s story echoes what happened to millions around the world. In Chicago, community groups tried to solve the food security crisis and creatively combat this “silent pandemic.” Here are four ways Chicagoans brought relief to disadvantaged community members at risk of hunger during the COVID-19 pandemic.

1. Hot meals to go

In addition to the higher rates of COVID-19 they have experienced, communities of color were severely impacted by the economic crisis, and low-income communities were affected the most: Job losses in the US were highest among low wage workers. “When one community catches a cold, communities of color catch pneumonia,” says Rev. David Bryant, pastor of the Allen Metropolitan CME Church in the southside Roseland neighborhood of Chicago.

In response to the pandemic, the church replaced its usual dine-in soup kitchen on Wednesday evenings with hot meals to go. When the pandemic hit, church leaders realized people couldn’t safely dine indoors anymore. To-go meals reduced the risk of exposure to COVID-19 for those working and dining. “We had to make an adjustment quickly,” Bryant says. “This is part of the fabric of our church.”

The Feeding the Multitudes ministry was designated an essential service by the city, which meant the church would stay open to provide hot, nutritious meals. In June, church volunteers prepared more than 3,000 meals to go for the community. They also helped children adjust to remote learning and provided vaccinations onsite to try to close the education and health care gaps that are interconnected with food security. “If you are experiencing food insecurity, it’s an indication that there are other needs in the home as well,” Bryant adds.

2. Meal delivery to seniors

While the church delivered meals to senior centers before the pandemic, the ministry ramped up after COVID-19, Bryant says. The church delivered fresh meals to seniors who lacked mobility and were at higher risk of COVID-19. The ministry delivered more than 200 meals every Wednesday to senior centers and the homebound.

“Food is one of the basic necessities of life,” Bryant says. “It is a right.” In combination with the hot soup kitchen and meal delivery, the ministry has provided more than 30,000 meals to the neighborhood since October 2018.

Bryant plans to continue these COVID-19 relief services. “Even though the COVID-19 numbers are coming down, people still need meals in the home,” he says.

3. Grocery vouchers to college students

In another southside neighborhood of Chicago, the University of Chicago provided its students with grocery vouchers and on-campus dining options. The grocery vouchers allowed students to buy $50 worth of groceries at local Hyde Park grocery stores. The on-campus dining program provided struggling students five swipes at on-campus dining halls. Students were able to use these services up to three times per quarter.

Providing grocery vouchers may be more beneficial than providing vouchers for restaurant home-delivery services (such as DoorDash), an approach tried by a New York community group. Researchers who studied the New York program point out that many individuals and families still needed stable access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Grocery vouchers would have provided opportunities to purchase these essential foods. Another idea that researchers in New York want to explore is providing grocery delivery services directly to people in need.

4. Lunch benefits to children and families

Nationwide, Cook County has the third-highest number of children projected to live in food-insecure households in 2021, according to Feeding America. Approximately 209,120 children will be threatened with food insecurity this year. Last year, the number was even higher: 232,550 children were at risk of hunger during the height of the pandemic.

Families in Illinois that benefited from the free and reduced-price lunch programs during pre-pandemic times still needed the extra help during COVID-19. However, one social service program particularly benefited disadvantaged children. Under the National School Lunch Act, the Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) gave children who received free or reduced-price school lunches $6.82 each school day to buy lunches during the remote learning period of the pandemic.

Feeding America projects that one in eight Americans will face food insecurity in 2021. In addition, one in six children will experience food insecurity this year. The economic instability of the pandemic impacted many families across the country, and it widened the already-present racial disparities. In contrast to the one in nine white individuals facing food insecurity in the US, one in five Black Americans struggle to put food on the table in 2021, according to that same Feeding America report.

The wide reception of outreach services during the pandemic has shown advocates that the work they are doing matters. “The pandemic shed a light on how important these services are,” Bennett says.