Connected for 45: Celebrating Communities, Fighting Hunger.

Beyond Hunger originated with a big idea from some young people. A local girl scout troop under the direction of troop leader, Pat Funke, recognized hunger was a problem in Oak Park. So they began providing holiday food baskets to local families in need. Soon, they recognized that people needed support beyond the holidays. 

Pat Funke recruited Joe Savino of Oak Park Township Youth Services to help support the project. The collaboration, called the Hunger Task Force, lasted several years and was housed in Willard Church, which later became Cornerstone Methodist.

Pictured below: Pat Koko packing boxes, a director of the program from 1984-2001.

Pat Koko assumed leadership of the Hunger Task Force and guided its growth and development for 17 years. They started by serving 75 families, which quickly grew to 400 by the time she left. She would recruit a different landlord each year to provide space September-December to store non-perishables and toys.

Seeing an increase in the community's need for consistent groceries, Pat connected with the Greater Chicago Food Depository in the mid-90's to become a Member Agency. This allowed our organization to receive USDA food for the first time.

By 2003, the pantry was located in a storefront on Harvey and South Boulevard with Karin Petrini and Leah Beckwith at the helm. Paying $600/month for storefront space, the pantry hours were on Saturdays, though space was limited. Most of the food distributed were nonperishables from the Greater Chicago Food Depository as well as food drives with the US Postal Workers and the Girl Scouts.

As member of First United Church of Oak Park, Karin and Leah appealed to Reverend Mark Ramsey to house the mission. He gladly opened up space in the basement of First United, providing greater capacity to serve more residents. The team moved into First United Church and renamed the Task Force to Oak Park River Forest Food Pantry. Karin and Leah turned over leadership to Kathy Russell and Anne Wakely. They began to incorporate seasonal food items along with basic non-perishables.

During this year the pantry served 2,522 families (8,451 individuals).

Many were hit hard during the financial recession of 2008, and the demand for pantry services skyrocketed to 6,180 families (24,106 individuals).

Working with an annual budget of $71,000 the pantry team hired its first 2 staff members at 15 hr/week: Kathy Russell and Michele Zurakowski. The USDA permitted us to create service boundaries for the first time. We decided to serve 28 ZIP codes rather than all of Cook County.

The Great Recession raged on and we served 11,088 households (40,442 individuals), a 64% increase from the previous year. We hired our first Benefits Coordinator through the AmeriCorps Program, who worked to connect those we serve with federal benefits such as SNAP.

OPRF Food Pantry became a standalone 501(c)3 nonprofit with a mission to "work together as a community to reduce hunger locally through direct hunger relief services, hunger awareness education, and advocacy to influence anti-hunger policy." We implemented a new service model -- "client choice" -- that invited clients to shop for food.

With grant funding, we began offering Nutrition Education services on a trial basis. These were so warmly received by pantry shoppers that we incorporated it as an ongoing program.

For the first time, we attended the National Anti-Hunger Policy Conference and began advocating for anti-hunger issues at the state and national level.

In the aftermath of the Great Recession, we served the greatest number of households in food pantry history: 16,180 families (50,044 individuals) -- a record that would stand until FY2024.

In partnership with Greater Chicago Food Depository and other regional food pantries we devised new service boundaries: 12 ZIP codes.

We began our Summer Meals for Kids program in collaboration with West Cook YMCA. We now partner with Oak Park River Forest High School, Oak Park Elementary School District 97, and Oak Park Education Foundation's BASE CAMP.

We offered our first Cooking Classes, providing participants with important skills like knife and safety techniques, food safety, and healthy recipes.

We also implemented our Surplus Project in collaboration with RUSH Oak Park Hospital, repackaging surplus prepared foods into individual meals for our food pantry shoppers.

Our Board of Directors determined to allocate funds specifically for fresh produce so all families receive even more nutritious food. An emphasis on the value of fresh produce remains a hallmark of our purchasing program.

We added Hines Veterans Freedom House to our service area, bringing our total up to the current 13 ZIP codes.

We launched a Home Delivery program in partnership with the Township of Oak Park to meet the needs of homebound older adults and disabled persons. Our pilot program served 20 individuals.

Our Board of Directors embraced Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion as a value and engaged in a series of trainings.

Now operating with a $2.5 million annual budget, our team made an official pledge to our current mission statement: Harnessing the power of communities to end hunger.

Home Delivery served 80 households, our Summer Meals Program provided 11,500 meals & snacks to kids & teens, and in our food pantry volunteer nurses provided 967 health screenings.

A new name and logo marked a historic change for our agency in 2019. The name Beyond Hunger reflects the steadfast dedication and collaborative spirit of the Oak Park River Forest Food Pantry, while more accurately expressing our mission to end hunger in all 13 ZIP codes we serve.

Everyone was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, and hunger-related needs significantly increased along with a demand for our programming. We pivoted our service model to meet specific needs for all:

Instead of our in-person community market, we offered a drive-thru pantry system where folks never had to leave their car to receive groceries.

We began our Despensa program, a referral-only program for recently immigrated families.

Home Delivery services tripled, servicing 350+ households. We expanded our Home Delivery team to our Chicago Office thanks to the generosity of New Moms, allowing us to provide more healthy options for participants in the program.

Beyond Hunger committed to the Good Food Purchasing Pledge.

We began our Health Ambassadors program.

Our Board of Directors refreshed our 3-year strategic plan to focus on becoming an anti-racist organization, recognizing racism as a root cause of hunger.

During FY2023 our operating budget of $4.5 million supported a staff of 20 people serving 52,000+ individuals (the most individuals we have ever seen), rescued and redistributed 130 tons of food, and provided each household with 18.2 pounds of fresh produce at each visit. 

Our Health Ambassadors reached over 1100 individuals through community engagement.

Volunteers donated the equivalent of 11 full-time staff.

This year we are excited to celebrate 45 years of feeding our communities with hunger-relief programs that extend far beyond the shelves of our pantry.

We have never lost sight of the generosity and gratitude that our founders carried with them, and have made it our mission to embed this philosophy into all of our initiatives. We are certain that the next 45 years and beyond will only continue to better serve our community and fight to end hunger.