Glen Ellyn Food Pantry To Break Ground On New Headquarters May 12

GLEN ELLYN, IL — After raising more than $900,000 to transform a 100-year-old former church parsonage into its new home, the Glen Ellyn Food Pantry is nearly ready to break ground the location that will become its next headquarters.

For more than 40 years, the food pantry has operated out of Faith Lutheran Church where it was founded by a church youth group, moving into its own space will come with many benefits as it the not-for-profit organization continues to serve Glen Ellyn and neighboring communities.

The food pantry is scheduled to break ground on its new headquarters on in a 5 p.m. invitation-only ceremony on May 12. The former parsonage, located at 55 N. Park Blvd., will be transformed into a fully pantry and warehouse, pantry executive director Laura Glaza said.

Glaza said in an email to Patch that the biggest benefit to the new location will be 100 percent dedicated to pantry services and will also be compliant with the American Disabilities Act. The move to the new space comes after the pantry served 5,470 people in 2020, when it provided 761,000 pounds of food, including fresh produce, meat, dairy, bread, and other groceries.

A $50,000 matching gift from the JCS Arts, Health and Education Fund of the DuPage County Foundation pushed the fundraising effort over the top of the goal, Glaza said.

Construction on the project will begin in late spring after the Glen Ellyn Board of Trustees unanimously approved building plans at its February meeting, officials said. Relocation of the pantry to the new location will take place at the end of the year and will provide a more centralized location for clients across the Roosevelt Road corridor.

The pantry serves clients from Glen Ellyn, Addison, Bloomingdale, Carol Stream, Wheaton, Glendale Heights, Lisle, Lombard, Warrenville, West Chicago and Winfield. A total of 14 Glen Ellyn churches and community partners are working to fight against food insecurity across Central DuPage County.

“While the campaign was slowed a bit due to the pandemic, we are thankful to the village and our donors for finally taking us to the next stage of the pantry’s important legacy of community support,” Paula Nugent, president of the Pantry’s Board of Directors, said in a news release. “Our motto is ‘making hunger history’ and our new home will help make that dream a reality.”