In partnership with the United Way, the Jewish United Fund is supporting local community initiatives to bring more meals and groceries to Chicagoans in need living in underserved neighborhoods.

Funded with a COVID-19 Initiative emergency grant, the United Way collaboration will support more than a dozen community initiatives to help meet skyrocketing demand in “food deserts” – neighborhoods with limited access to affordable and nutritious food – particularly on the West and South Sides.

“We are dedicated to serving people of all faiths and ethnicities,” said JUF President Lonnie Nasatir. “As JUF expands our support of local grocery and meal programs, it is important to our community that we help our neighbors of color who have been disproportionately impacted by this pandemic.”

Grassroots community organizations across the city have sprung into action with “hyper-local” efforts to meet human needs in the wake of the pandemic. Across the metropolitan area, these groups are finding innovative ways to bring food to seniors, schoolchildren without access to free school lunches and other people in need, from creating temporary, “pop-up” food pantries in parking lots to delivering groceries door-to-door.

“A lack of access to healthy and nutritious foods has been an ongoing issue across the Chicago region and the COVID-19 crisis has only served to exacerbate it,” Sean Garrett, President & CEO of United Way of Metro Chicago. “Many of our neighbors can no longer rely on the stability of a paycheck or the two meals that their child would eat at school, leaving them wondering where their next meal will come from. Thanks to this partnership with the Jewish United Fund, we’re able to come alongside community-based organizations to provide children and families with the support that they need during this difficult time.”

Some community nonprofits have shifted their focus to meet the immediate need for food assistance. In view of how difficult it is for a single mother to safely take a newborn on public transit to go shopping, New Moms is now delivering groceries to its participants. Beyond Hunger has started a Facebook Live healthy cooking demonstration series. To support local businesses while feeding the hungry, Centro de Trabajadores Unidos has engaged a woman-run catering cooperative and other neighborhood businesses to prepare and deliver meals to their neighbors in need.

Funded organizations, which serve Austin, Grand Boulevard, East Side, Englewood, Humboldt Park, Lakeview, Near West Side, Oak Park, North Lawndale, Uptown, and surrounding neighborhoods, include:

• Association House
• Beyond Hunger
• Centro de Trabajadores Unidos
• Chinese American Service League
• Family Focus/Nuestra Familia
• Housing Opportunities and Maintenance for the Elderly
• Institute for Nonviolence Chicago
• Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization
• La Casa Norte
• Lakeview Pantry
• MASK (Mothers Against Senseless Killings)
• New Moms
• Resident Association of Greater Englewood
• UCAN