URBANA, Ill. (WCIA) – If you take a walk through the Eastern Illinois Foodbank, you’ll find aisles and shelves stacked with canned goods along with fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, and dairy products. And money from the Illinois Equitable Access Towards Sustainable Systems (IL-EATS) program is helping fill the need for local, freshly produced foods.
“We have seen a 90% increase in the number of people seeking our services since 2022 so the need out there is really high,” Amanda Borden, the food bank’s vice president of development, said.
In March, Governor Pritzker announced nearly $29 million in grant money for the program to 15 food organizations including the Eastern Illinois Foodbank, which received $1.5 million. They serve about 55,000 people on average every month through 18 counties in East Central Illinois.
“We’re able to provide really high quality, nutritious protein, fresh produce to our neighbors who are experiencing food insecurity,” Borden said. “These products are not always easy to acquire as a food bank and so being able to get them through this program has been tremendous in our ability to serve the community.”
Through the program, the state buys food from socially disadvantaged farmers. Then providers distribute the food.
Data from the Illinois Local and Food Farm Task Force shows around 95% of the food consumed in the state was bought outside Illinois.
"The average grocery item travels 1,500 miles to get here, and frankly, that’s kind of ridiculous, especially when you know that Illinois has some of the greatest soils in the world," Ed Dubrick one of the famrers involved in the IL-EATS program, said. "Illinois farmers can feed Illinois. Unfortunately, over the last 70 years, we’ve lost a lot of the infrastructure in our state that helps build that local food system."
Dubrick, a first generation farmer in Cissna Park, bought his small farm, DuChick Ranch, LLC, with his wife back in 2019. He provides chickens to the food bank through the program.
"In 2023, we did just a little bit over 2,000 chickens, and because of this program, we’ve doubled our production," Dubrick said. "We’re going to do over 4,000 this year, and half of that is going to [the] Eastern Illinois Foodbank."
When they learned they would be a part of the program, Dubrick said they expanded their infrastructure.
“As a small farmer, it can be extremely risky to invest in infrastructure and invest in additional production capacity, not knowing that you have a market on the back end,” Dubrick said. “This program is allowing us to make those investments and knowing that we have a guaranteed home for them.”
Dubrick said because they’re small producers and their products are raised more naturally, they can be more expensive.
“Unfortunately, a lot of times that does price us out of those communities who can’t afford it, so knowing that this program is giving those people an opportunity to not only be fed, but be fed, local, nutritious, healthy food is just incredible,” Dubrick said. “It truly is one of the most rewarding things I’ve been able to be a part of since we started our small farm.”
Champ,Feeds,News
via News | WCIA.com https://www.wcia.com
June 26, 2024 at 07:24PM
Illinois Delivered 