DuPage County Board is moving forward with creating a $2 million challenge grant for local food pantries in the 2027 budget, despite the objection of at least one board member.
The grant will allow pantries to apply for up to 50% of funding for projects totaling at least $500,000 that will be “transformational” to pantry operations, the board’s Human Services Committee chairman Greg Schwarze said.
Schwarze, a Carol Stream Democrat representing District 6, said the idea is to help organizations among DuPage’s 83 food pantries scale up operations and make improvements to distribute more healthy food to those in need.
The Human Services Committee discussed the challenge grant in detail during its most recent meeting, Schwarze said, and decided to decrease the threshold for total project cost.
“We dropped the number because there are projects out there that are transformational that might not be at the million-dollar level,” Schwarze said.
Grant follows $4.8 million in previous pantry support
The challenge grant follows a year in which the county invested $4.8 million to address food insecurity, including a grant of $2.5 million for Loaves & Fishes Community Services, which is building a new food distribution hub in Aurora and adding space for its wraparound CARES services in Naperville.
County Board member Grant Eckhoff, a Wheaton Republican representing District 4, voted against authorizing the challenge grant. He said the county instead should wait to see how impactful projects like the Loaves & Fishes expansion prove to be — before committing more funding that may be duplicative.
“At best, this resolution is premature,” Eckhoff said of the agenda item approving the challenge grant. “I’m an optimist. I think things are going to get better in DuPage County, and I don’t think we should be spending $2 million at this point.”
Unemployment low, but food demand persists
Eckhoff said statistics presented about food pantry demand in DuPage often seem vague, and contradictory to the fact the county’s unemployment rate was at 3.8% in September, according to the Illinois Department of Employment Security.
“We have strong employment in DuPage County. We are under the 5% unemployment rate, which is considered full employment. Usually when you have full employment, that means your wages are going to rise,” Eckhoff said. “I continually hear, ‘it’s only going to get worse,’ and I don’t understand that statement.”
Pantries, however, say demand is steady or rising. Loaves & Fishes serves about 10,000 people a week and says food insecurity has risen by more than 50% in DuPage, Kane, Kendall and Will counties since 2019.
That’s why nearly all county board members voted to create the 2027 challenge grant, which will kick off in the coming months.
Food pantry challenge grant timeline
With county board authorization given, applications for the $2 million challenge grant will open on Nov. 9 with a deadline of Dec. 18. Schwarze said applicants then will share details about the positive reach and partnering organizations involved in their proposals during a specially called Human Services Committee meeting Jan. 19.
The committee then will review and recommend projects for funding during either its Feb. 2 or Feb. 16 meeting, leaving any proposed grants ready for full county board approval on Feb. 9 or Feb. 23.
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