Our History

The Founding Years

Like most nonprofit organizations, Eastern Illinois Foodbank was born from a vision of a few dedicated and concerned community residents. The organization started small, but it has grown and matured over its twenty-one year old history, into a well-managed and highly productive operation.

Prior to the founding of the Foodbank, the Central Illinois Food Bank opened in 1982 in Springfield, Illinois. This operation functioned out of a building that had been used by the St. James Monastery as a meat packing plant. Many of the original organizers of this Central Illinois Food Bank were from the Champaign-Urbana region of Illinois and wanted the initial food bank to be in their locale, but the first useable space opened up in Springfield. The group, made up of people from several areas of eastern and central Illinois, appropriately decided it was best to open one facility warehouse - and Springfield was the initial site.

Once the Central Illinois Food Bank operation was underway and showing progress, interest in creating a food bank particular to the Champaign County area resurfaced. Already, about a dozen nonprofit groups were collaborating to send a truck to Springfield monthly to pick up foods. Also, several people who had had prominent roles in opening the Springfield physical plant were still traveling to monthly meetings to help govern that operation.

In December 1983, Bill and Karen Mermelstein approached Vern Fein, then chairperson of the Central Illinois Food Bank Board of Directors, about the feasibility of opening a branch or separate operation in Champaign County. As Mr. Fein reflected, "We were beleaguered because the Central food bank operation was still not truly established. I asked the director of the Central Illinois Food Bank, John Arnold, who later ran the St. Louis and Western Michigan food banks, what he estimated a facility in the Champaign-Urbana area could distribute annually. John guessed about 30,000 pounds, which was not a very impressive amount of food given the need. So basically, we told Bill and Karen no to their request. They persisted, and so we finally told them that if they could find a reasonably priced warehouse, we would consider a try to start a food bank here."

The Mermelstein's contacted a local businessman, Bill Weiseiger, who steered them to the former Sears building in downtown Campaign. Hastily, a local board was gathered and asked to operate the facility: Ken Porter, Bob Hosier, Lucretia Bolden, along with Bill and Karen Mermelstein and Vern Fein. The first staff consisted of Jenna Finch, as director, along with Bob Eilers and Robert Taylor, who worked part time to gather food and fill orders. The operation began with $2,000 in the bank.

The Early Years

The initial years of the Foodbank operations could be described as the "Wild West." There was little understanding, and less experience, in running a food warehousing operation. Up until that time, communities had to be the size of 300,000 residents in order to afford to have a food bank operation and to have some assurances of being successful. Even Champaign County and Springfield together did not comprise a 300,000 population.

However, in the first year of operation, the new food bank in Champaign County distributed 772,206 pounds of food - a huge amount given the 30,000 pound prediction. Nevertheless, despite the need, the Champaign County enterprise also closed - twice. Some of the initial Board members -- Mermelsteins, Porter, Hosier and Weiseiger - took out a $10,000 line of credit to help stabilize the operation. Bruce Barnard, Laura Jamison and Barbara Brown joined the Board of Directors and became active members. The local Southland Corporation allowed the new food bank to use its coolers for perishable food storage, and had agreed to transport food from Springfield when returning with their own deliveries, as space was available.

Early in 1985, the owners of the Sears building which had served as the physical plant advised that they had rented the space and that the food bank operation would have to relocate - within sixty days. Another facility, this one on Griggs Street in Urbana, was identified as the new site, and the food bank operation was moved for a cost of $10,000. It took three weeks to complete the relocation and the food continued to flow to people and agencies.

Shortly after the relocation, Jim Hegrelius and Joe Rodehaver joined the Board of Directors. In the spring of 1985, Cheryl Green took over as the director of Foodbank operations. Also that year, with the help of local unions, a new freezer and refrigeration units were installed at the Griggs Street location.

At that same time, 1986, the Board, based on a model from America's Second Harvest, decided to conduct a community-wide food drive. Every grocery store, numerous community agencies and most all of the local schools got involved in the drive; companies opted to become partners and sponsors. That initial food drive collected 86,000 pounds of food and raised over $8,000. From that initial start, the Food For Families Food Drive has raised up to 200,000 pounds of food and well over $30,000 annually, and has now become the largest food drive in Illinois outside of Chicago. The local CBS media affiliate, along with the Woman's Junior League, won awards for their involvement and served as key sponsors, along with Eagle Food Stores and Kraft, Inc.

In 1986, Cheryl Green left and was replaced by Ed Ryan as director of the Foodbank operations. The "Shared Maintenance Fee" - the amount of money food banks could charge agencies per pound to handle and maintain their warehouse operations - rose from 12 cents to 15 cents, as set by the national organization, America's Second Harvest. That handling fee has risen to a maximum of 18 cents a pound, as per America's Second Harvest, suggesting an incredible cost savings to agencies working to respond to hunger relief - but placing the financial burden on the food banks to generate the operating revenues.

The Board of Directors employed a development officer, and Sharon Monday-Dorsey and Paul Hill joined the board.

That same year, the J. M. Jones company announced that it would be opening a food reclamation center for its 212 stores, with all of the recovered food going to the Eastern Illinois Foodbank. As a result, distribution of food to fight hunger exploded. From an average of 80,000 pounds of food per month, the Foodbank began topping 200,000 pounds of distribution on a typical month.

Before the end of the decade, Joe Rodehaver, a past Board member, started the Seniors Food Program which eventually won the Governor's Home Town Award. This program, although outside the Foodbank's auspices, continues to operate. Glenn Berman and Larry Silkwood became members of the Board of Directors.

The Transition Years

In 1995, the Foodbank began regularly distributing commodities through the Emergency Food Program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The U.S. government had established the Emergency Food Program in the 1930's to stabilize and support farm prices. In the 1980's Congress enacted legislation authorizing the distribution of these USDA commodities to help feed low-income households. By 1995, food banks which undertook this program were mandated to have their member pantry agencies distribute this product to the needy, although costs were underwritten only partially. Nevertheless, the government program had a huge impact on getting tons of food products to people in need. For example, in 1996, the Foodbank handled 221,869 pounds of these USDA commodities, and in 2003, that total had risen to approximately one million pounds annually.

By the mid-1990's, the Eastern Illinois Foodbank was firmly established and fully in operation. Begun essentially as a satellite to the Central Illinois Food Bank in Springfield, the Eastern Illinois Foodbank had reached its own success levels - often generating and distributing greater quantities of food, having organized the largest Food Drive outside of Chicago, and having initiated a seniors food program and a food reclamation center. In the late 1990's, Eastern Illinois Foodbank had become independent of the Central Illinois operation.

New board members included Jim Darling, Michael Pollock, Gene Lynch, Traci Nally and Maria Ramos. Ed Ryan left as director and was replaced by Pam Heydt, the first director appointment with prior food bank experience. Pam helped stabilize the operations but she left the position after three years and was replaced by Linda Wulf.

During this period, the Foodbank added some new programs: a shopping area, enabling agencies to add prime items to their orders; and the FoodMobile program, enabling agencies to order a truck-load of 5,000 pounds of food to come to a rural, underserved areas for food distribution directly to families. In addition, the Foodbank received a grant from AmeriCorps to conduct a National Hunger Survey through America's Second Harvest.

Despite new initiatives, increases in food distribution and expansion to almost 200 member agencies, the Griggs Street facility was an albatross to the growth of the Foodbank. Earlier efforts to find another facility had ended without a decision. But increasingly, the staff was spending inordinate time in moving the food around within the warehouse to fill the orders. As a temporary reprieve, the Board rented a satellite facility in Rantoul, but it was inconvenient and too costly to continue operations.

In June 2002, the Board secured a lease agreement to move its operations into one facility, a much larger and more efficient warehouse space located off of the Interstate 74 in Urbana. Completion of the agreement was made possible by the generosity offered by the warehouse facility owners, Burklund Distributors, Inc., a Peoria-based food distribution company.

In addition, area State Legislators united to secure "Illinois First" funding for the actual purchase of the warehouse. That effort came together in January 2003, and the relocation was made. The building was purchased at a price considerably below market value, and projects to improve its function and form quickly ensued, creating a highly desirable physical plant, complete with loading docks, food sorting and segregation rooms, and with refrigeration and freezer capacities.

In 2003, Linda Wulf left and the Board of Directors appointed Richard L. Bloom as the Executive Director. Improvements have continued in the warehouse operations, including the repacking rooms so that bulk foods can be repackaged for distribution.

In August 2004, the Board appointed former Board member R. A. "Tony" Sparks, as the Executive Director for an interim period.