Food Pantry

Food Pantry Volunteer Lead
Dan Love, (847) 961-0206

Mission

1. Feed the hungry (the 1st corporal works of Mercy)
2. Purchase the most food with funds provided
3. Provide an opportunity for those called to serve
    

About
The St. Joseph Food Pantry is a supermarket style food pantry located in the strip mall at 112 North Milwaukee Avenue in the Formation Center. Financial donations are used to buy food from the Northern Illinois Food Bank, as well as other local grocery stores. We also accept donations from the public. The Food Pantry is open to Lake County, IL residents.  Registration takes place on your first visit. Please bring a Photo ID and proof of residency. You will then be issued with a St. Joseph Food Pantry ID card which must be shown then at every check-ins.  Every household is allowed use the food pantry once every seven days.

Along with canned goods, baking, and cooking staples, we offer milk, eggs, meat, and
fresh produce to our guests. We rely on St. Joseph parish funds along with financial donations to help us purchase our essential items and for the pantry items that are low in stock or ones we don’t
purchase, we post on social media for our local community to help purchase these.
We are blessed to exist in a very giving community and our residents and local
businesses are very generous in supporting us. We serve approximately 1,300 guests every month and with the current economy this number keeps increasing. That’s a lot of families to feed.

St. Joseph Food Pantry falls under the umbrella of St. Joseph church and is operated by
The Knights of Columbus volunteers along with a group of regular signed-up volunteers.
We also post monthly to enlist extra volunteers as needed. Weekends are mainly
staffed by our youth ministry.


Operating Hours

 

Volunteer at the Food Pantry

We have a range of volunteer responsibilities which one can help with.  The daily operation of the food pantry requires us to check in guests, help with filling carts, stock shelves, divide donations, hand out fresh produce, meat and dairy items.  If you are interested in helping with our outreach, we would love that also.

If you wish to help out at the Food Pantry, please check the volunteer slot button to the left to determine the available days and times. High school students and 8th grade students can volunteer the first and third weekends on Saturday. If the slots are full, please contact Dan Love: 847-961-0206.

 

Donations

We are grateful for all donations, whether they are financial or food items. For those considering donating money, please know that for every $1 you donate, we can purchase $8 of groceries from Northern IL Food Bank. That means your money goes a long way! All non-perishable donations may be dropped off in the foyer of St. Joseph Food Pantry, any day, between 7 am and 6 pm.
For larger donations, please contact Dan Love, 847-961-0206. 


Food Drives
Food Drives are always welcome. If your business or organization would like to host a food
drive for our food pantry, please email nualakav@sbcglobal.net. We will create a Needed Items
list for you and help with marketing.