Our mission is to help alleviate food insecurity in our community one family at a time by providing them with one week’s worth of emergency groceries. At the same time, our goal is to address the root causes of food insecurity by providing our clients with health, education, employment, and social services information and referrals.
In the fall of 2006, the Eastern Illinois Foodbank informed Wesley church members that there was an urgent need for a food pantry in Champaign County that offered emergency food during evening hours in order to serve the community better. In response to this need, three church members started the Wesley Evening Food Pantry, which is now open the third Thursday every month from 5pm to 7:30pm. The first day the pantry opened we served 5 people; we now provide food to an average of 1000 people every month.
In the fall of 2013, the Wesley Food Pantry opened a second location at Parkland College to help serve struggling students. In the fall of 2014, the Parkland Pantry was opened to the public. It is open on the 1st and 3rd Saturday of the month from 10am to 12pm and the 2nd and 4th Wednesday from 11am to 1pm and 4pm to 6pm. The hours were chosen so that students and working people would have an opportunity to visit the food pantry.
Director
Katie earned a JD in Law and has most recently served as the director of CASA in Danville, Illinois. She comes to Wesley with a great deal of experience working with staff and volunteers as well as public speaking and fund raising. Click here to contact Katie.
Volunteer Coordinator
A graduate of the University of Illinois, Brittany has been with the pantry since earlier in 2014 and was crucial to our recent transition to an almost entirely new staff. Click here to contact Brittany.
Operations Manager
Dawn graduated from the UofI in 1995. With a background in non-profit marketing and fundraising, she has worked with UofI students at Illini Media and local schools as a part of the Market Day fundraising program. In her free time, she enjoys baking. So, pantry volunteers may be in for a treat.