MORGAN PARK — The Maple/Morgan Park Community Food Pantry has five freezers. But during the summer months, most of them remain empty.
Summer is the slow season for donations, according to Matt Taylor, president of the neighborhood food pantry located in the basement of the Morgan Park United Methodist Church at 11030 S. Longwood Drive.
Taylor, 75, of Beverly, said the pantry serves some 1,200 families per month. It's open from 1-2:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Fridays. Hungry residents with valid identification can pick up a free bag of food from the pantry every 30 days so long as they live in the 60643 or 60655 ZIP codes, Taylor said.
He relies on both the Greater Chicago Food Depository and the generosity of area residents to stock the pantry. Taylor and his team of 15 volunteers prepack the bags with a variety of items.
Howard Ludwig says sometimes cash is better than cans:
The grocery bags usually consists of some sort of protein, like frozen chicken. Taylor always puts in a few canned goods in the bag as well as some other staples like grits or breakfast cereal.
And while his freezers and refrigerators are void of meat and bread, the pantry is actually overstocked with canned goods. Many of the cans come from the depository. Others are donated from food drives that tend to happen around Thanksgiving or Christmas.
"Right now, we have an abundance of canned goods," Taylor said.
Taylor isn't about to turn away any donations. And he certainly sees the value of canned food drives, even insisting that the students at Council Oak Montessori School place a can into each pre-packed grocery bag on Thanksgiving. The school also shares the building with the Morgan Park church.
Still, he said the most helpful donation is cash — money that can go a long way. First, Taylor doesn't pay sales tax on items he buys for the pantry. He also can buy wholesale. And nobody knows quite what's needed for the pantry like the guy who's there every day.
Financial contributions are also best around the holidays. Taylor said he's borrowing against those projected donations now as the pantry founded in 1981 is quite bare.
About 10 people in the community also send Taylor a monthly check. The checks arrive in small amounts, but the financial boost is a godsend during the lean months, Taylor said.
"I refer to them as my angels," said Taylor of the regular donors to the pantry.
Taylor began volunteering at the local food pantry after his 40th birthday. The pantry has no paid employees, and his fellow volunteers include an 83-year-old woman and her 94-year-old friend.
"I wanted to give something back to my community," Taylor said. "I've been here ever since."
Taylor, a graduate of Mount Carmel High School in Woodlawn, has also fought two bouts with cancer. And despite seeing many of the same faces in line every month, he hasn't become jaded or cynical.
"They are the same hungry faces all the time," Taylor said.
One frustrating thing is the items that sometimes arrive at the food pantry via canned food drives. Taylor said some donors see canned food drives as an opportunity to clear unwanted canned goods out of their own pantry.
"You oughta see what we throw out," he said.
He and volunteers have to go through all the donated products to check the dates. It's not uncommon to find canned goods that are three years old or more, rare items clearly bought to make some sort of odd recipe and even unused medicine.
Taylor just laughs off most of this with a crooked grin. As long as he's able, he'll continue to make the food pantry available to anyone who needs it.
"We are getting the food to people who normally wouldn't get it," Taylor said.
For more information or to make a donation to the pantry, call 773-239-3013.
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