Aurora Interfaith Group Offers Local Women's-Only One-Day Pantry

AURORA, IL — Aurora women in need of food, diapers, baby formula and other items will be able to find them at a new women’s pantry that will be offered around the city on Thursdays throughout this year.

TheAurora Interfaith Food Pantry will be hosting the one-day women’s pantries beginning on Thursday at the Santori Aurora Public Library, which is located at 101 S. River St. The mobile pantry will be offered from 2-3 p.m., organizers said.

The pop-up women’s pantries are being provided through a grant from the Aurora Women’s Empowerment Foundation, organizers said. The foundation, which was founded in 2018, was started after the Aurora YWCA closed after 125 years.

“Our mission is to elevate and empower Aurora-area women and future women by making grants to tax-exempt nonprofits engaged in meaningful, measurable work that helps women over the hurdles of inequity and exclusion, propelling them forward with life-changing programs and services,” AEW chair Amy Baudin said in a news release.

Rebecca Dunnigan, the Interfaith pantry’s community outreach and program director said that the mobile pantry will offer food, diapers, baby formula and feminine hygiene products along with other items. Admission and parking are free.

The women’s-only pantries are scheduled for the third Thursday of months in2022. Locations will be announced.

Dunnigan said that the pantry's first 2022 kids' pop-up mobile distribution will be held from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Feb. 5, at Georgetown Elementary School, 995 Long Grove Dr. in Aurora.

The event will be a school supply reboot after the pantry previously distributed backpacks of school supplies at the school.

Since January 2021, Interfaith mobile pantries have visited parking lots at churches, schools, libraries and senior and low-income residences. Mobile-pantry partners with Interfaith are Fox Valley Park District, Calvary Church of Naperville and Blessings in a Backpack of Chicago.

Pantry staff and volunteers unload items from a truck loaned by Calvary Church.

Patch has partnered with Feeding America to help raise awareness on behalf of the millions of Americans facing hunger. Feeding America, which supports 200 food banks across the country, estimates that in 2021, about 42 million Americans may not have enough nutritious food to eat due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. This is a Patch social good project; Feeding America receives 100 percent of donations. Find out how you can donate in your community or find a food pantry near you.