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Thirty years ago, the hurdles and obstacles facing food pantries, shelters
and soup kitchens in Chicago
were nearly insurmountable. Each had to find funding, a building, the right
staff, and a reliable source of food donations. There was little or no
communication between agencies. Many found it impossible to survive in this
atmosphere. In 1976, the Church Federation of Greater Chicago decided to
see how they could help. They developed a directory that identified 70
agencies and began a program that would find food to feed the hungry. The
Federation began to raise funds to purchase food in bulk for the pantries,
soup kitchens and shelters. Chicago's
emergency food community now had a place where they could pay an annual
administrative fee and receive fresh food on a regular basis.
In 1990, the Church Federation decided it could no longer offer the
service. They were about to shut the program down, cutting off supplies to
more than 125 pantries and soup kitchens, when Beverly Decker, the program's
coordinator, decided that the program should not disappear. She started the
Chicago Anti-Hunger Federation, a membership nonprofit serving Chicago area
emergency feeding sites. Today, the greatly expanded program continues to
meet the needs of Chicago's
emergency food community.
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CAHF distributes food to emergency feeding facilities, soup kitchens,
pantries and shelters. (more)
Chicago Anti-Hunger Federation is proud to serve its diverse roster of 156
member agencies. (more)
The Sara Lee Foundation is a
major sponsor
of the emergency food program.
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If you are an emergency feeding facility in Chicago or you have the desire to
commit yourself to helping the hungry and homeless, we can help you
become a member of our federation or assist you in starting your own
facility. (more)
Fraternité Notre Dame, an international religious and humanitarian
organization that helps any person in need without regard to race, sex or
creed, opened its Chicago-area mission in the depressed westside
community of Austin
in 1998. (more)
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