Hunger in Chicago
Rob Lundy of Oak Park named National Food Bank Volunteer of the Year!
Steve Sanders, Pam Grimes, Steve Scheuer, Reporter/ Producer/ Photographer
November 22, 2007
Thanksgiving Night —
Turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie, what American holiday is more food-centered than Thanksgiving? Yet as most of us digest our turkey dinners the Greater Chicago Food Depository is helping some 90,000 hungry people every week and that's just in Cook County. Finding and feeding hungry people is a massive undertaking. And as WGN's Steve Sanders reports it wouldn't be possible without an army of volunteers --- people like Rob Lundy of Oak Park.
Steve Sanders: The sun is barely up. But, the Greater Chicago Food Depository's warehouse near the Stevenson and Pulaski is buzzin.' The produce trucks are lined up... ready to roll...so are the drivers.
Rob Lundy/National Food Bank Volunteer of the Year: "I work every Monday every Friday and the second and fourth Tuesdays."
Steve: Rob Lundy is a retired federal employee, a cancer survivor and now is the National Food Bank Volunteer of the year.
Rob: "Makes it hard on us fat guys..." I started with food drive, holiday food drives January of '99 and then January of 2000 I began produce."
Steve: It's been quite a ride. Rob is often paired with John Coriell of Oak Lawn.
John Coriell/Oak Lawn: "Rob and myself are the "A" team."
Steve: They have four stops on this Monday morning. This van load of produce will help the hungry from the West side to the far North side.
Rob: "Áll the places I go to are very appreciative of the food depository." "You're gonna have to redistribute this a little bit-ya I'm gonna have to break it down."
Bob Dolgan/Public Relations Manager, Greater Chicago Food Depository: "He's really the face of the food depository. They know him as the guy who delivers produce and does it with a smile."
Rob: "What's most gratifying is giving people a hand up I think."
Steve: As we waited for Rob and John to arrive at the Marina Fontanez community center we watched a man rummage through garbage cans for breakfast. Rob spotted him too.
Rob: "somebody going thru the trash..."
John: "I have a lot of compassion for them..."
"Hello-hi!"
Steve: Jane Cosme is happy to see Rob. It means the food pantry named for her late daughter will be able to help more of the poor in Humboldt Park.
Jane Cosme: "People need it ya."
Rob: "Alot of the places I go there's a lot more people standing in line than there were three to four years ago."
Steve: Tony Sutton who lives at Lathrop homes near Diversey and Damen knows what it feels like to have too little to eat.
Tony Sutton/CHA Tenant Patrol: "It's a great need you got a lot of people out here who are homeless and need some help. Even the people that are working needs assistance."
Patsy Daniels/Knoxville, Tennessee: "It helps a lot of people here you know cause a lot of people here they don't get no food stamps no income or nothing."
Rob: "Just to know that you've helped a family that otherwise literally might not have anything to eat that week."
Steve: Their last stop is a senior citizen high rise on the north side. Even in a lakeside neighborhood of half-million dollar homes... hunger is visible hunger.
John: "There are a lot of people out there that are hungry today in the city of Chicago and the food depository kinda fills that gap...and it's mainly seniors."
Rob: "They're waiting there for us when we get there."
Olga Goroahovsky/Kenmore Plaza Tenant "We have 327 apartments in this building and most of all immigrant from Russia... "
John: "My heart feels for em... you know lived all their life and you know they have to have their little extra cause their check doesn't make it."
Rob: "I don't see it going away in my lifetime."
Olga: "We're grateful for his work he's a very nice man for many years."
Rob: "Every day I work at the food depository, I feel like I'm helping somebody out..."
Rob spent part of his Thanksgiving day at the Turkey trot collecting food. He's one of 13,000 Chicago food bank volunteers among hundreds-of-thousands nationwide so his title as National Volunteer of the Year is a true honor. If you're able to help the Greater Chicago Food Depository either physically or financially-please call 773-247-FOOD.
For more information:
• America's Second Harvest: The Nation's Food Bank Network
• Greater Chicago Food Depository
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