Hinsdale nonprofit agency, pantry clients reap rewards of having dedicated space
HCS Family Services volunteers load groceries into the cars Friday afternoon during the first food distribution at the new pantry facility at 22 N. Elm St. "It's been long awaited," HCS Executive Director Wendy Michalski said. HCS had been housed in the Memorial Building for 87 years. (Jim Slonoff photos)
HCS Family Services has a new home from which to serve the community's under-resourced population.
Last Friday afternoon the Hinsdale nonprofit held its first food distribution for clients at 22 N. Elm St. after moving out of the Memorial Building, where it had operated since its founding in 1937.
Executive Director Wendy Michalski said the curbside delivery for 75 neighbors, as those receiving food are referred to, went smoothly using a process by which cars are systematically sent from a staging area just over a block away in the Hinsdale Seventh-day Adventist Church parking lot.
"There were no problems," said Michalski, standing in front of the HCS building where volunteers began loading groceries into the vehicles of arriving neighbors at 1 p.m.
Actually, the sloped staging area necessitated one adjustment.
"We had to put boxes at the curb to keep the (shopping) carts from going in the street," she noted with a laugh.
Activity had all but ended before 2 p.m. The staggered release of cars keeps clients moving through without lining residential streets.
Michalski expects the number regularly served to grow to about 100 once everyone acclimates to the change.
On a tour of the remodeled building - formerly the longtime home of the Hinsdale Humane Society - Michalski showed off the large new walk-in cooler and freezer units.
"We were so limited in what we could keep cool and frozen," she said, recounting how meat was previously ferried between several offsite locations. "This is going to be the central location for meat, so we can keep a better inventory of what we have."
In addition to the Friday distribution, HCS holds weekly distributions from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Mondays in Hinsdale and from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Thursdays at Anne M. Jeans Elementary School in Willowbrook.
A survey of neighbors revealed an overwhelming preference for curbside distribution. Inside shopping by appointment also will be available.
"Whole Foods actually designed what will be the marketplace area," Michalski said. "So it really does have the look and feel of a grocery store."
HCS also asks neighbors every six months about the mix of items available.
"What do they like that we give them? What do they need that we're not giving them?" Michalski remarked, saying bar soap is a prevailing request.
Offices in the front of the building will be used for additional services like health consults, nutrition training and counseling. Another room will be furnished with a makeshift kitchen to run cooking classes
"Kind of one-stop shopping," she remarked, underscoring the convenience of no longer being spread across the Memorial Building's three levels. "All on one floor, no 100-year elevator."
Parked in the back is a refrigerated truck donated by the DuPage County Board. Michalski said that's a game changer when it comes to transporting meat and other perishables from partner stores to pantry locations.
"This is a dream come true," she said, with organizations like Community Memorial Foundation, DuPage Foundation and Costco all making contributions to the effort. "It takes partnerships to make things happen."
