Prairie State Wire

[CHICAGO, IL] – U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) today met with Greater Chicago Food Depository (GCFD) leaders and visited ones of its distribution sites, Chosen Bethel Family Ministries, in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood. Duckworth secured $450,000 for GCFD through a Fiscal Year 2023 Congressionally Directed Spending Request, which will help support GCFD’s Nourish Project and its work to expand capacity to provide nutritious prepared meals for people at increased risk of hunger, while also creating jobs and economic impact for populations and communities that have been historically impacted by inequity and disinvestment. Duckworth was joined today by GCFD CEO Kate Maehr, as well as Chosen Tabernacle Paster Sandy Gillespie. Photos from today’s visit are available here.

“Our state and our nation are stronger when we invest in our communities and families—and that’s one of the things Congressionally Directed Spending allows us to do,” said Duckworth. “As someone whose family relied on public nutrition programs after my father lost his job, I’m grateful for these important social safety net programs and I appreciate the incredible work Greater Chicago Food Depository does. I’m proud I was able to secure this support for GCFD to expand its programming and help further reduce food insecurity throughout the Chicago area.”

In 2019, the Greater Chicago Food Depository completed Phase I of the Nourish Project, upgrading its warehouse to include an expansion of cold storage, renovations to its shipping area and new spaces for its volunteer program. Phase II of the Nourish Project is focused expanding capacity to prepare, source and distribute healthy pre-packaged meals that meet the dietary needs of our most at-risk neighbors.

In FY22, Duckworth and U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) secured $211 million through Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) for Illinois and another $182 million for Illinois in FY23. The CDS process does not represent new spending, rather it enables Members of Congress to allocate existing funding for specific local projects by units of government, nonprofit organizations and other organizations that meet strict eligibility requirements.

Original source can be found here.