Lakeview Pantry Finds New Home for the Future

Lakeview Pantry, which provides emergency food assistance and other critical services to residents of Lakeview and surrounding neighborhoods, is pleased to announce that it has completed the purchase of a building that will serve as its new home. The property, a 7,500 square foot building located at 3945 North Sheridan Road in Chicago, will nearly double the amount of space for the organization’s headquarters.

Recognizing that it had outgrown its longtime home at 3831 North Broadway, Lakeview Pantry launched a capital campaign in 2012 to raise more than $3 million to fund the property acquisition and build-out. This is the first building purchase for the non-profit organization, which has served the local community since 1970.

Gary Garland, executive director of Lakeview Pantry, says “This is a great milestone in our history. We’ve had extraordinary community support. People have stepped up in ways big and small to make this dream a reality. This gives us stability for the long term and the opportunity to expand the essential services we provide to the struggling members of our community.”

Lakeview Pantry will partner with architecture firm Wheeler Kearns to design the interior space. The building’s first floor will house food distribution operations. The second floor will feature private meeting spaces, allowing caseworkers to meet with clients to assess food, healthcare and housing needs. Workspace for Lakeview Pantry’s staff of approximately 12 also will be located on the second floor.

”Neighbors helping neighbors is what Lakeview Pantry is all about. This new home gives us the ability to provide more services, more food and more hope for the neighbors we serve,” explains Dan Laytin, capital campaign co-chair and current vice president of the Lakeview Pantry board of directors. According to Laytin, the vast majority of the organization’s volunteers and donors live within one to four miles of Lakeview Pantry. Eight hundred volunteers donate approximately 25,000 hours of their time to the pantry’s efforts each year.

Organizers of the effort to fund the project announced this week that the capital campaign has already achieved more than 75 percent of its goal. Construction on the building will begin this summer. The target date for completion of the design and build-out is June 2016.

About Lakeview Pantry
Lakeview Pantry’s mission is to eliminate hunger in the community by: providing food to fill the basic need of hungry people, increasing the independence of clients through self-help initiatives and other innovative programs, and raising awareness of hunger and poverty and working towards solutions to eliminate them.

Who and How Lakeview Pantry Serves
Lakeview Pantry serves over 12,000 people annually. In 2014, the organization distributed approximately 1.5 million pounds of food. In the Lakeview neighborhood, nearly 1 in 9 individuals struggles with poverty and food insecurity. At its current Lakeview Pantry East location on North Broadway, food distribution takes place three times each week. Clients receive a two-week supply of groceries during each pantry visit. Lakeview Pantry offers home delivery of groceries for elderly, disabled and home-bound clients. Lakeview Pantry staff and volunteers also assist clients in obtaining other needed social services such as employment, healthcare, housing and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (“SNAP”) benefits. In addition to the Broadway location, Lakeview Pantry also serves clients at a satellite location at 1414 West Oakdale. For more information about Lakeview Pantry, visit www.lakeviewpantry.org.

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