The Friendship Center

I recently visited The Friendship Center, one of our incredible Community Investment Fund partners which serves the diverse community surrounding Endeavor Health Swedish Hospital.   Since joining as a CIF partner in 2022, The Friendship Center has provided essential resources to more than 50,000 of our neighbors. We're proud to support their team's tireless work to connect people with crucial support services like SNAP enrollment, which has seen over 2,100 enrollments since the CIF partnership began. It was inspiring to see firsthand how their efforts have helped rescue over 1.1 million pounds of food and distribute more than 2.9 million pounds to those who need it most.   This partnership reinforces the importance of robust, multi-directional collaboration with organizations like The Friendship Center and the important role of hospitals and health systems as conveners to help meet the needs of our communities. Thank you to everyone at The Friendship Center for the important work you do! Justin Block Lauren Diaz Jeffrey Zakem

#NowHiring a Full-Time Operations Manager, Programs who will oversee our Hot Meal, Home Delivery, and Pet Food Pantry programs. Please check out the job posting on Idealist for the full job description, salary range, and benefits. >> https://ideali.st/bcKhI9

Through partnerships with dozens of grocery retailers and urban farmers around Chicago, The Friendship Center is able to rescue nutritious and viable food from going to landfills and rerouting it to help our neighbors facing hunger. Thank you to Google and Feeding America for visiting The Friendship Center to see how data about food waste is helping pantries like ours to help end hunger in Northwest Chicago. #WhereTheInternetLives Check out this short film we are featured in: https://lnkd.in/gVwtqE2x

Yesterday we welcomed President & CEO at Endeavor Health, JP Gallagher to The Friendship Center to learn more about the Community Investment Fund's impact on our mission to provide access to fresh food and vital resources to our neighbors facing hunger over the past three years. Mr. Gallagher was able to sit down with Executive Director Justin Block to hear more about our deep partnership with Swedish Hospital and how our robust referral program has helped improve the lives of our neighbors. Thank you, Endeavor Health for your generous support and desire to see our community thrive. #BehindTheScenes at TFC

Now Hiring: Public Benefits Coordinator Our team is growing! We developed an exciting new partnership with Swedish Hospital to increase access to fresh food and vital resources in NW Chicago for our neighbors facing hunger. To learn more and apply, please visit our job listing on Idealist: https://bit.ly/3YdUsX8

Are you looking for a way to help your local food pantry, but volunteering during the week doesn't work for your schedule? Then come join us at Oktoberfestiversary as a gate volunteer! Every October this event helps raise funds to provide over 245,000 meals to our neighbors facing hunger! Sign up and help make a difference >> https://lnkd.in/eU9bWN3p

We’re so grateful for our community partners like Endeavor Health who help us fight hunger through food drives. We make the food drive process simple, if your company is interested in coordinating a food drive please reach out to Lauren Diaz at [email protected]

#HotMealThursday has been expanding its impact this year! With more neighbors in our community facing hunger, we have been able to serve 200+ neighbors every Thursday since July. Last night's meal was no exception with 232 neighbors enjoying a hearty and delicious meal. Thank you to the Chicago Salesforce Culinary team for preparing and executing a delicious Thursday hot meal. Earl, Kayla, Matt, Emory, Ryan and Jess made chicken or veggie enchiladas with roasted farm fresh veggies and black beans. Kayla also baked up delicious brown butter chocolate chip cookies as well. #HungerActionMonth #HelpYourNeighbors #FightHunger

Thanks to this group of volunteers from Capital One for helping sort donations and stock the shelves ahead of a busy Friday distribution! Group volunteers always give the day an extra boost, especially during transitional periods in the calendar like the first week of school. We'd love to get your team scheduled for a group volunteer shift before the year ends! Reach out to Alison Cassity at [email protected] to get started.

We're grateful to receive support from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois and #CrustFundPizza to help provide 28,000 meals to our neighbors facing hunger. We'll keep fighting food insecurity one pizza at a time.