By Cat Battista,
Executive director, Aurora Area Interfaith Food Pantry
This week in Chicagoland, Winter blew down upon us hard and fiercely. Even the Veterans Day parade put on by the city government of Aurora had to be moved inside, which was lovely and inspirational.
When I left the observance and went to the Aurora Food Pantry, where I work, I saw a woman coming into the Pantry for food. She was a senior lady, small in stature with beautiful dark eyes. She wore sandal shoes with white socks pulled up as high as they would go and a long blue skirt made of a silk material, very thin. Over the outfit, she buried her hands into a white-hooded sweatshirt. She shivered and bent down against the cold. Her developmentally-disabled adult son walked with her.
When I came closer to her, I felt her physical suffering. I could see the pain she was experiencing when she tried to make her way through the freezing air that cut into my face, the only exposed part of my body. For me there was no choice, just like there would be no choice if I saw someone bleeding on the side of the road. I stopped, took off my warm red down-filled coat, and gave it to her.
You’d have thought I gave the woman a new car and not my last-season Guess jacket from T.J. Maxx. Something in me snapped on Veterans Day. Maybe it was the inspirational content I heard from so many who laid down their lives to protect us, but I just knew that we, as an organization, could not wait a day to start what we are starting now. It comes with a request from you.
The individuals who visit the Aurora Area Interfaith Food Pantry need warm Winter coats. They need them now! I made a small dent with my gift, but I did not describe the hundreds of other men, women, and precious little children pouring into our organization without a warm Winter coat. We feed 24,000 individuals annually. How many are shivering in the cold tonight?
God is so good and he provides. Just a few hours after I gave away my coat, it was replaced with a much fancier coat, thanks to the beautiful and talented Meg Burns Lietz of Baird & Warner. She pulled a ton of other gently used coats from her closet which are in my trunk: Five more individuals will be warm thanks to her effort, and they all live in our community.
Please help our team to provide every neighbor of the Aurora Food Pantry with a warm coat. We will be accepting gently-used Winter jackets from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 13 and Friday, Nov. 15. Our hope is to distribute all of these coats to the needy next week, just in time for Thanksgiving.
On behalf of our team, volunteers and leadership, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you! No one should be hungry. No one should be cold. Not here. Not where we live.
— Aurora Area Interfaith Food Pantry