(All photos taken by Abel Uribe for Nourishing Hope.) From his 10th floor apartment in Uptown, Francisco Berrios has a sweeping southern view of Chicago, including the spectacle of Wrigley Field prominent in the foreground. Now limited in his mobility, the 82-year-old peers sometimes through the binoculars on his nightstand to explore the sights of the city. But on a recent Saturday morning, his thoughts drifted to the past and to the country he left behind. In 1980, Berrios was part of the mass exodus from Cuba known as the Mariel boatlift, when more than 125,000 people sought to escape Fidel ..read more

(A photo of Pamela Moore-Thompson’s family, from left: Big Ma, Dad, Grandma and Mom.)   When Pamela Moore-Thompson thinks about Black History Month, she starts with her hometown of Robbins, a proud Black community in Chicago’s south suburbs. She reflects on her grandmother, known affectionately as Big Ma, despite her diminutive stature just barely clearing 5 feet tall. And she contemplates how Big Ma’s generous spirit was passed on to her father, Horace Moore, and eventually to her. Do the right thing, and everything else will work itself out. That was her father’s familiar refrain, a lif ..read more

Join us for this year’s End Hunger Social! The Young Leaders Board of Nourishing Hope is hosting the End Hunger Social on Thursday, May 9 at Joy District, 112 W. Hubbard St., with a goal of raising $65,000 to support our community programs. The End Hunger Social draws more than 250 young professionals from all over the Chicago area, raising funds annually to provide food, social services and mental health counseling to any Chicagoan in need. Join us for an evening of food, music, cocktails, networking and silent auction items to raise funds for Nourishing Hope’s future! LEARN MORE AND PUR ..read more

In our winter impact report, you’ll read about the latest news from Nourishing Hope — including an adorable recap of our annual Nourishing Hope Toy Drive. The need for our food and social service programs continues to rise. Through the third quarter of this fiscal year, we’ve provided more than 63,000 food services across our programs — a 9% increase from the same time last year, and a 54% jump from two years ago. We couldn’t continue our work without your dedicated support. Read the full report for a recap of our holiday protein distribution (around 13,000 meats!). Make sure to read the upda ..read more

In the past two years, the perfect storm of soaring food prices and diminished federal assistance resulted in tens of thousands of our Chicago neighbors experiencing food insecurity. We served more people in fiscal year 2023 than we did at the height of the pandemic. Put simply, we could not have risen to the challenge without the outpouring of support from our donors, volunteers and community partners. We are overwhelmed with gratitude. Thank you for your unwavering compassion and generosity. You can find details on our rebrand, our new headquarters, our food programs, transformational gifts ..read more

Dear Nourishing Hope friends and supporters, Here we are again, at the precipice of another year brimming with challenges, both known and unknown. And yet, I’m feeling hopeful as 2023 fades into the past. I’m often reminded of the quote by the late great civil rights icon and lawmaker, John Lewis. “Do not get lost in a sea of despair,” Lewis said. “Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, a year. It is the struggle of a lifetime.” He went on to encourage making “good trouble, necessary trouble,” which feels like a perfect battle cry for the year ..read more

An 8-year-old girl reacts to a Barbie doll on the last day of the Nourishing Hope Toy Drive. (All photos by Pratyush Swarup for Nourishing Hope) At the Sheridan Market on a recent afternoon, the vibe was merry and bright. Children eagerly waited in line with their parents. Holiday classics blasted from the stereo. Decorative snowflakes festooned the walls by the front counter. Upstairs, there was a room chock full of toys — tables and shelves lined with LEGO sets, Barbies, books, footballs and countless other delights. It was the final day of the Nourishing Hope Toy Drive, an annual event that ..read more

(All photos taken by photographer Abel Uribe for Nourishing Hope.)  Around Christmas time, Cristian Ante used to string lights on a tree outside his rented apartment in Ecuador. This year, there’s only one thing he’s hoping to accomplish. “With God’s blessing, we’ll find work and be able to provide for our daughters,” said Ante, 26, father of two girls, ages 4 and 10. Ante and his family are among the more than 25,000 migrants and asylum seekers who have arrived in Chicago since August 31, 2022, per the city’s data. It’s been perhaps the most urgent and defining story of the year in Chica ..read more

This op-ed written by Nourishing Hope CEO Kellie O’Connell was first was first published in the Chicago Tribune on Nov. 23, 2023. Click the link below to read the piece in its entirety.  Imagine being so hungry that you’d drink deeply from a gallon of milk before leaving the grocery store. Many of us are fortunate enough to have never experienced that kind of visceral hunger. But I witnessed it recently at our Sheridan Market, Nourishing Hope’s bustling food pantry in the Lakeview neighborhood. A young mother, new to our city from Venezuela, opened a jug of milk that she had just received ..read more

Shelley Fulla, an experienced public sector strategist, has been appointed to Nourishing Hope’s board of directors. Fulla is the director of public and social impact consulting at Slalom Chicago, a global strategic consulting firm. For more than 25 years, she’s led teams and projects to effect positive social change in Chicago. As one recent example in her role at Slalom, Fulla worked closely with the City of Chicago during the pandemic to utilize data to provide small business relief and foster racial equity. Since 2015, Fulla has also volunteered at Nourishing Hope, logging more than 300 hou ..read more