Our Chicago: The Greater Chicago Food Depository & Digs With Dignity
CHICAGO (WLS) -- During this season of giving, ABC7 spoke to representatives from two Chicago organizations that work to help people in need year round.
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One of them is the Greater Chicago Food Depository which works with partner organizations at hundreds of sites.
Last year, the depository provided more than 101 million meals to people in need across Chicago and Cook County.
Those numbers remain high: 1 in 4 households with children in the Chicago metro area are facing food insecurity.
"Those are levels similar to what we saw at the beginning of the pandemic," spokesperson for the Greater Chicago Food Depository Man-Yee Lee saod. "The reason for that is really the cost of living. Rent, gas, food prices remain elevated and families continue to struggle to put food on the table."
Lee added that it's older adults who are on limited income.
"We're also seeing a lot of people, participants of public assistance benefit programs such as SNAP," she said.
For those who need help, Lee said the Greater Chicago Food Depository has been working hard in recent years to make sure there isn't any stigma with seeking assistance.
"Everybody needs help," she said. "We are all, if you think about it, one health bill away or one family crisis away from needing a food pantry. And our food pantries make it really, really easy. We don't have any complicated forms or anything like that to sign. We don't ask for proof of income or legal status. All we ask, is that sometimes, some pantries ask for proof of address just to make sure that we're in the service area that's allowed."
Anyone who is able to help support people facing food insecurity, can do so in a number of ways.
Another organization, Digs With Dignity, helps people who've experienced homelessness, veterans, domestic abuse victims and others who are settling into a new place.
Often times, they don't have many belongings to furnish a new home.
Founded in 2019, the organization takes donated items and uses them to turn houses into homes. They connect with those in need through social service agencies.
"What's really hard for these families is that you're living in an empty space. And you have nothing around you that makes you feel good and safe and comfortable," Co-founder and Executive Director of Digs With Dignity Kim Hannay said. "Where Digs comes in is that with the donated goods that we collect from the community get to custom design and furnish these spaces for these families in a way that feels really meaningful and powerful for them."
The organization tries to help a family each week. Digs works most often on Chicago's South and West sides.
"They jump up and down, they're screaming, they're excited. And you get some families who are just quiet," Hannay says what's really been impactful is going back and learning the impact after the fact.
For more information on the Greater Chicago Food Depository:
https://www.chicagosfoodbank.org/
For more information on Digs With Dignity:
