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Northern Illinois Food Bank warns of deeper local need after federal and USDA cuts
Summary
Julie Yurko of Northern Illinois Food Bank told the Kane County Board the agency is seeing increased demand and reduced federal support, and thanked the county for ARPA funding while asking for continued help to fill a multi‑million dollar gap.
Julie Yurko, director at Northern Illinois Food Bank, told the Kane County Board on July 8 that the food bank is serving hundreds of thousands of people monthly and faces funding losses tied to recent federal changes.
Yurko said the food bank’s network of roughly 900 pantries, soup kitchens and feeding sites served on average 574,000 people across northern Illinois every month in the year ending June 30, and that the system provided more than 93,000,000 meals in that fiscal year. She said 12.7 (as stated at the meeting) were distributed in Kane County, serving an average of more than 72,000 people each month in the county.
The nut graf: Yurko warned that recent federal actions — including changes to SNAP in a just‑passed federal bill and cuts to USDA programs — will increase demand at food pantries and reduce resources available to the food bank. She said those shifts translate to a projected loss of millions of meals and an estimated $3.3 million revenue decline for the food bank’s new fiscal year.
Yurko outlined where local support has helped and what remains: the food bank has received a 3‑year ARPA grant from Kane County totaling $2.5 million; she said $1.5 million of that has been spent to distribute about 2,600,000 pounds of food and that roughly $1,000,000 remains to be spent under the grant. She urged continued volunteer and financial support to make up for federal and USDA reductions.
Board members thanked Yurko and noted local partnerships that channel the food bank’s supplies to senior sites, group homes, and school feeding programs.
Ending: Yurko asked board members to continue public support and to consider volunteering; she left county officials with specific figures about meals and pounds distributed and the remaining ARPA funds the food bank plans to spend in Kane County.
