South Side food pantries band together after losing power in wake of Monday storms to keep going
Power outages after Monday’s storm caused one of the worst losses of food that Gwendolyn Sampson has seen in the 52 years she has been working at All Things Through Christ Outreach Ministries in Englewood.
“I think this is probably one of the worst in a long time,” Sampson told the Sun-Times on Wednesday afternoon on her way to the food pantry at the church, where she serves as assistant pastor. “That neighborhood was totally shut down. … Everybody lost food.”
At Sampson's pantry, which her mother founded, about 60 packages of beef, chicken, turkey, fish and pork — were lost along with about 70 cartons of eggs.
More than 20 tornadoes ripped through the Chicago area Monday, leaving more than 220,000 ComEd customers without power — 430,000 had service affected at some point during or after the storm.
Sampson had been expecting a shipment of food Wednesday, but her church was among the 44,000 ComEd customers still without power, so she canceled the order. Power was restored after 10 p.m. Wednesday. Now the pantry has to wait until July 25 to restock.
The pantry opened Saturday for its usual 9 a.m. food distribution, handing out dry goods from its stock to more than 100 people. Nearby pantries shared their stores.
“Folks are missing food, so we’re trying to be able to accommodate them," Sampson said.
Chosen Bethel Family Ministries, another pantry less than two miles from All Things Through Christ, dropped off a shipment of more than 200 sandwiches Wednesday afternoon to help bridge the gap.
Walter Gillespie, senior pastor at Chosen Bethel Family Ministries, said he was “blessed and grateful” that the church wasn’t badly affected by the storms and lost power for only a few hours overnight. He said the church was able to serve the 300 people who come to the pantry on Mondays and Thursdays and that, as a man of faith, it felt “tremendous” to be able to help another pantry.
“It's a mandate from God to feed those who are hungry,” Gillespie said. “He blessed us with a surplus.”
On Saturday, people arrived at Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church to get food from Sampson's church. Many of them had lost food during the storms. Edgar Tixelema, who has lived in Englewood for the last year, lost power Monday, leaving his family of six without refrigeration until Wednesday afternoon. He said it was a "relief" to be able to have a place to go for food.
Jamie Hawkins, her husband and five kids were without power until Wednesday afternoon. They too had to throw away spoiled food.
She said helping people get food after a storm shouldn't fall on food pantries, which are often hard-pressed after storms and power outages. Recipients of federal food assistance can apply to get their food replaced, but they have to go through a process within 10 days through the Illinois Department of Human Services and offer proof that an outage occurred.
"It's still good, of course, to have stuff like this as an emergency backup plan," Hawkins said.
Another Englewood food pantry, Greater Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church, also lost power, leaving 300 to 400 pounds of frozen chicken at risk of spoilage. Through the Greater Chicago Food Depository, the church was able to offer the chicken to Coppin Community Center in Washington Heights, which houses and serves asylum-seekers and others in the community.
Frankye Parham, director of Coppin Community Center, said it was complete "luck of the draw" that the center had distributed its food the day prior and had room to take in more.
“Luckily we have a big network, so in times of crisis, we’re able to mobilize quickly and make arrangements so none of this wonderful food intended for our neighbors goes to waste,” said Man-Yee Lee, a spokesperson for the Greater Chicago Food Depository.
Gillespie said his church has worked with the depository for nearly two decades.
It’s all part of the “network” they have tried to form through the years in case of an emergency to ensure those looking for food can connect with those with a surplus.
“It’s not just the people in our area who need food,” Gillespie said. “We want to serve as many people citywide as we can, so we share as much as we can with each other. … Some [pantries] aren’t as big, but they’re all serving someone.”