Aurora Area Interfaith Food Pantry is adding a women’s empowerment mobile pantry to its popular mobile pantries that visit locations to distribute food and other items.
A yearlong series of women’s pantry distributions will be open from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 18, at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church, 701 S. Eola Road in Aurora. The public is invited. Identification is not required.
Rebecca Dunnigan, Interfaith community outreach and program director, said pantry volunteers will load women’s vehicles with free food, baby items and women’s hygiene products.
According to Dunnigan, women’s pantries wii be the third Thursday of the month for the coming year. Locations will be announced.
Dunnigan said a grant from Aurora Women’s Empowerment Foundation (AWE) will provide funds for women’s pantries. AWE, an Aurora-based nonprofit, was formed in 2018 after the Aurora YWCA closed after nearly 125 years.
AWE chair Amy Baudouin said, “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.”
Since January, Interfaith mobile pantries have visited parking lots at churches, schools, libraries, and senior and low-income, residences. Partners with Interfaith were Fox Valley Park District, Calvary Church of Naperville, and Blessings in a Backpack of Chicago.
For more information, call 630-692-3061, send E-mail to rdunnigan@aurorafoodpantry.org or visit aurorafoodpantry.org.
—Al Benson