Greater Chicago Food Depository

The Greater Chicago Food Depository is a nonprofit food distribution and training center providing food for hungry people while striving to end hunger in Chicago and throughout Cook County, Illinois. The Food Depository distributes donated and purchased food through a network of 700 food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters and community programs, serving more than 800,000 adults and children every year. In fiscal year 2015-16, the Food Depository distributed more than 70 million pounds of nonperishable food and fresh produce, dairy products and meat, the equivalent of more than 160,000 meals every day.

The Food Depository is a charter member of Feeding America (formerly known as America's Second Harvest), the nation's food bank network.

Following in the footsteps of John van Hengel, who in 1967 founded the first food bank, a warehouse which received donated food and distributed it to soup kitchens in Phoenix, Arizona, Tom O’Connell in 1978 collaborated with Robert W. Strube Sr., Father Philip Marquard, Gertrude Snodgrass, Ann Connors and Ed Sunshine to set up a food bank similar to the Phoenix model, called the Greater Chicago Food Depository. ("Food Depository"—rather than "Food Bank"—was chosen because of an Illinois statute that then prohibited the use of the word "bank" in the name of non-banking entities.)

The City of Chicago provided a start-up grant, and Strube Celery and Vegetable Company donated warehouse space. The Food Depository distributed 471,000 pounds of food from 22 food donors to 85 agencies in its first year of operation. The food bank’s supply grew when Illinois legislators passed a Good Samaritan law in 1981. The legislation protected food contributors from legal liabilities (Congress passed national legislation in 1996). Within a year food donors increased to 111, distribution to 6.1 million pounds and agencies to 375, and the Food Depository leased a more spacious warehouse. The growing food bank settled in a 91,000-square-foot (8,500 m²) facility at 4501 South Tripp Avenue in 1984.

In 1986, the Food Depository established a Perishable Food Program, now known as Food Rescue, with a grant from Chicago Community Trust. The program ferried unused food from restaurants and caterers to soup kitchens. The Food Depository further broadened its distribution in 1993. The Produce People Share Program addressed the need for fresh fruits and vegetables in the community, and the first Kids Cafe began serving after-school hot meals for low-income children.