Mario Garcia, CEO of Onward Neighborhood House, squats next to grocery bags and delivers to his new location at 2644 N. Central Ave. on Friday. A monthly food gift begins on Saturday.
Tyler Pasciak LaRivière/Sun-Times
An organization that is helping immigrants and underserved families gets a new total area to expand on the northwest side.
The organization, Onward Neighborhood House, plans to install a pantry in the area at 2644 N. Central Ave. in the Belmont Cragin community and, in all likelihood, will also host spousal organizations there.
At 31,000 square feet, the new area is about the length of a warehouse and will solve an urgent area need.
“This construction will allow us to expand our and load another Array,” said Mario Garcia, longtime executive director.
The organization gives free rein to adult education, food and childcare.
Founded in West Town, the organization moved in 2008 to the Northwest Side community that is home to Chicago’s largest Hispanic population, according to the most recent U. S. Census counts. USA
Pantry and child care systems are among their maximum systems, and they lack space at their premises in the 5400 block of West Diversey Avenue, where they serve approximately 150 children ages 2 to 12.
The weekly pantry serves an additional 200 people, a significant build from before the pandemic when it served another 60 people a week, Garcia said.
The new pantry will look like a shop and will be partially stocked through a rooftop garden. The organization aims to open in March 2023 and will host monthly food giveaways there until then, starting Saturday.
Onward Neighborhood House, which provides adult education, food and child care, plans to install a pantry in the area located at 2644 N. Central Ave. in the community of Belmont Cragin.
Tyler Pasciak LaRivière/Sun-Times
This weekend’s distribution will take place from 9 a. m. to 12 p. m. and will also be a resource fair, where participants can get information about housing, child care, and physical care if they are uninsured. Organizers plan to feed about 450 families.
Beyond the pantry, Garcia hopes to set up a welcome center for immigrants there and open a medical clinic, a business incubator and a network center where other people can “charge their phones, watch a movie, read the newspaper and just hang out,” Garcia said.
The building was donated by the Reva base and David Logan, which began operating with the organization in early 2021 after base officials made a wonderful stop at one of their food gifts.
Every inch of maximized area, recalls program officer Lyle Allen.
“The fact that they can take care of such a busy food program from that space, we knew that if we could help them build a bigger position for that, other people would come,” Allen said.
Michael Loria is a reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times through Report for America, a nonprofit journalism program that targets newspaper policy communities on the South and West Sides.