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Politics & Government

Food pantry garden to help meet growing demand

Community garden should start producing next year

Niles Township is moving forward with its community garden, and it can’t start producing vegetables for the township food pantry fast enough.

Township trustees and other officials posed for pictures in front of the garden at their board meeting Monday night.

Volunteer Bill Zimmer, who is married to township Trustee Maggie Zimmer, spearheaded the effort to create the garden and continues to be a steadfast volunteer at the food pantry. He told the board that they need another couple of loads of dirt for the garden, and perhaps a toolshed for volunteers to store their equipment before the garden can be planted next spring.

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Township Trustee Marc Collins said he is working with Bill Zimmer to come up with procedures and regulations for the garden.

“That will all be done before anything thaws next spring,” Collins said.

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That’s good news for the food pantry, which serves nearly 3,000 people a month, according to the letter township Supervisor Lee Tamraz posted on the township’s website.

The pantry played host to Illinois state Rep. Daniel Biss on July 21, and officials were impressed with the way the representative jumped in and helped. He said he would return with a group of people the following week.

“He was really, really impressed at what was going on,” Collins said. “Once people see what they are doing back there, they want to do nothing more than help.”

There were so many people who needed food that day that the pantry had to do a partial shutdown while Bill Zimmer drove to the Greater Chicago Food Depository and returned with about 25,000 pounds of food. Zimmer also trucked lots of leftover produce from the Sunday farmer’s market in Skokie.

Collins said he had never seen food supply as low as it was last week, and that people have started lining up as early as 8 a.m. for food – a practice the township wants to discourage.

The rain that morning kept some customers away, which meant more produce available for the pantry, Tamraz said.

Other groups are helping by holding fundraisers or canned food drives, Collins said.

“We have put the invitation out there,” Collins said. “If someone wants to hold a benefit or collect cans, we say they should go ahead. Of course, if we know about it, we’ll show up. But we don’t want people to wait because they are asking for permission.”

The food pantry, which is available to residents of Niles Township who are in danger of going hungry, is open Monday through Friday from 9:30-11:30 a.m. and 1 to 4 p.m.

 

 

 

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