Thanks to all of the teams and individuals who hustled their families, friends, and colleagues to FUNdraise in 2022, the Chiditarod Foundation was able to give out $86,000 in Community Grants for both programs and infrastructure projects.
After another mind-blowing year of fundraising, this year’s grant cycle was able to help more new organizations than ever before. Twenty-one organizations are benefiting from the generosity of donors who have given so much to the cause to help solve food insecurity in the Chicagoland Area.
Blessed Maria Gabriella
The group is committed to bringing together people of diverse backgrounds in service to the community through its faith and values.The CHIditarod grant will help to reopen the food pantry with a goal of welcoming anyone in need of food and help the group serve 250 families from over 25 city and suburban ZIP codes on distribution days
Care for Real
Care for Real is a source of food for thousands of neighbors each year. Distributing food six days a week through locations in Edgewater and Rogers Park, Care for Real provided 2,046,297 pounds of food during the last fiscal year. Care for Real helps vulnerable neighbors and families facing food insecurity with dignity.
Care for Friends
The CHIditarod grant will further support youth experiencing homelessness and food insecurity and their families by investing in their grocery delivery program, a youth program they launched in 2021.
Dignity Diner
Dignity Diner plans to use its CHIditarod grant to further remodel the building in order to better serve members of the Chicagoland community experiencing food and housing insecurity
Glenwood Sunday Market
The market’s mission is to make sustainable, regionally grown and produced foods accessible to its whole community. Thanks to CHIditarod and 49th Ward grants in 2022, the organization provided matching grants toward purchase of all Link/SNAP approved foods, and this year’s grant will continue the matching program.
Green City Market
CM for All welcomes and matches SNAP spending. In 2022, GCM increased its match amount from $15 to $25, and due to other grants can now increase that match to increase a shopper’s $25 SNAP benefits to $75. This CHIditarod grant will provide 200 food-insecure Chicagoans with an additional $25 worth of fresh, local food, matching growing demand from neighbors facing food insecurity.
Dion’s Chicago Dream
Dion’s Chicago Dream focuses on identifying and combating food insecurity throughout the Chicagoland area, using nutritional philanthropy as a catalyst to build community and transform lives. Their direct-to-consumer fresh produce service provides families with five days’ worth of healthy food options for consumption every week at no cost.
Ecosystems of Care-Market Box
Market Box has grown into a volunteer-led food distribution project that bulk buys food from Midwestern farms and delivers it for free to 500 south side households each month. The CHIditarod grant will supplement its growing base of recurring donations, allowing the organization to maintain the quantities of fresh produce that communities depend on, as well as continuing to support local farmers.
Gardeneers
Gardeneers works with Chicago’s south- and westside schools and communities to contribute positively to the larger food system. They measure success in the number of young people trying new fruits and vegetables in their gardens, in pounds of produce harvested by and distributed to students, families, and community members, and leaders developed as advocates for food justice and security.
The Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance
The Garfield Park Community Council’s Garden Network, which includes 10 community vegetable gardens, have partnered to grow fresh, organic produce to help meet some of the community’s need.
Global Garden Refugee Training Farm
Global Garden Refugee Training Farm is 100 refugee families who turned a one-acre vacant lot in Albany Park into a green oasis where they have grown food for themselves and their neighbors since 2012
Growing Home
Growing Home fosters deep and inclusive ways of partnering and collaborating to deliver a year-round Food Access Program and Employment Training Program in Greater Englewood communities. Their partnership with the Greater Chicago Food Depository provides 150+ bags of produce on a weekly basis to local food pantries.
Urban Autism Solutions
Urban Autism Solutions is a Chicago-based nonprofit organization whose mission is dedicated to changing outcomes for young adults with autism. Their program Growing Solutions Farm (GSF) is a 1.2-acre community farm in which young adults are employed and gain workforce experience. This grant will help stock ‘kitchen boxes’ that include pots and pans, utensils, kitchen linens and simple cookbooks and recipes to help establish the home kitchen.
Inspiration Corporation
Inspiration Corporation connects people and creates opportunity through access to social services, job training, housing and food. This grant will help re-expand restaurant-style meal service post-pandemic at their Uptown location.
Lola’s Community Kitchen
Lola’s Community Kitchen believes it takes more than food to address food insecurity. They strive to support communities in transition with resources necessary to establish a useful and functionally appointed home kitchen where meals can be prepared and shared
North Side Housing and Supportive Services
North Side Housing provides a wide variety of services. They are committed to assisting over 800 clients each year in becoming and remaining stably housed, healthy and employed. This grant will help expand the food pantry and increase food availability to day support clients as well as permanent supportive housing clients to supplement their nutritional needs.
Outreach, Inc.
The mission of The Outreach Program is to provide safe water, food, medical care and education to those in need, at home and abroad. Outreach events each year in the Chicago area, and this $5,000 grant from CHIditarod will fund 14,000 meals at a local event
The Outreach House
The Outreach House provides compassionate and effective assistance to individuals and families in the York Township area with dignity and without judgment. Their four programs are First Things First, Food Pantry, Clothes Closet and Walk-in Assistance. This grant will help acquire nutritious food for over 200 families each week
Infrastructure Grants
These grants provide organizations with urgent, emergent, and one-time expenses such as new shelving; refrigeration
equipment; vehicles; irrigation equipment; building repairs for safety, accessibility, or code
compliance, and so on
Garfield Park Community Council
The CHIditarod Foundation for the investment of
infrastructure that will support the Garfield Park Garden Network and Neighborhood Market
to store and use a new mobile produce cart. This investment will support food security and
hunger relief programs in East and West Garfield Park, which have a combined population of
38,000.
A Just Harvest
A Just Harvest needs 100 new chairs and a food service holding cabinet to properly equip the dining room for in person meals. AJH in preparation to re-open this fall needed the chairs replaced after years of use and an upgraded cabinet for food service.
The Chicago Chesed Fund
Chicago Chesed Fund’s grant will contribute significantly to the purchase of an urgently needed forklift for their food pantry, benefiting thousands of Chicagoans in need. Helping move and organize the food they are helping feed the community.