Food Pantry Coordinators Hungry for Help, Donations

With an increased number of families passing through the doors of Together We Cope's food pantry, the stock is flying off the shelves. In fact, last week's visitors left cabinets entirely devoid of groceries.

The shelves at Together We Cope's food pantry are painfully bare. That's what coordinators said Thursday, after spending about a week of, at times, servicing 90 families per day. The lack of enough food and donations has further emphasized the importance of an upcoming fundraiser—the Greater Chicago Food Depository Hunger Walk, which is set for June 23 at Soldier Field. The pantry will be shuttling participants to the event that morning. But before then, they'll need more walkers and more donations; especially if they want to keep up with the growing needs of the community, fundraising assistant Kerry Nolan said. Check out Together We Cope's blog on Tinley Park Patch. These days, the number of families visiting the pantry is inching closer…

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Did You Know? Helping Families in Crisis is as Easy as a Clicking Your Mouse

We're on a mission. Patch and Together We Cope are partners in a campaign to raise awareness of the agency's good work helping people in the Southland. Can you lend a hand?

Editor's Notebook

Area Residents Put Their Turkey Eating on Hold to Feed the Hungry

Volunteers sacrificed part of their holidays Thursday to serve clients of local food pantries.

Most spent last week's holiday with family, seated comfortably around a table piled high with food. And thanks to our local Texas Roadhouse, that majority included clients of food pantries at Together We Cope in Tinley and Respond Now in Chicago Heights. The restaurant opened its doors Thursday morning exclusively to 125 people in need.  "It's a generous gift they give," TWC spokeswoman Marge Seltzner said, adding that Texas Roadhouse has fed pre-selected pantry clients for the past couple of years. "Last year, there was one man who said it was the first time he'd ever taken his family to a restaurant." Servers volunteered their time and preceding the holiday, managers solicited for donations that paid for the turkeys. Living in a …

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