Northern Illinois Food Bank workforce program helps decrease food insecurity

The first four students in Northern Illinois Food Bank’s SEED program graduated Thursday in a ceremony at the food bank’s South Suburban Center in Joliet.

These four students, ages 25 to 52, participated in the food bank’s 10-week pilot workforce development program: Skills, Empowerment and Economic Development.

The program’s goal is to help decrease food insecurity by increasing opportunities for employment, said Sharon McNeil, director of community nutrition programs at the Northern Illinois Food Bank.

Alvaro Trejos, 41, of Bolingbrook, one of the four graduates, praised the program. Trejos, who said he is married and has an 11-year-old daughter, said he registered for SEED to sharpen his previous quality control and manufacturing background.

Trejos said he also learned Microsoft Excel, how to build out his resume and interview strategies. From his understanding, another SEED goal is for graduates to be employed by the end of the program or shortly afterward, he said.

Trejos is hopeful that will be the case with him.

“Overall, it did a really good job of getting us the necessities for getting that job,” he said.

SEED launched Jan. 8 with six students from Will County, McNeil said. Participants had to be at least 25, experiencing food insecurity and unemployed or underemployed, she said. Classes were six to eight hours each day.

The next SEED cohort begins July 1, McNeil said.

They sent me to training, they helped me with my resume, they helped me financially. They helped me in every area I needed in my life. [The program] helps you build goals and feel good about yourself.”

—  Bernita Perkins, 52, of Bolingbrook, a recent graduate of Northern Illinois Food Bank's pilot SEED program

The SEED program included paid in-person and on the job training – $13.50 an hour – at the Northern Illinois Food Bank’s Joliet and Geneva locations, performing the same warehouse work that the food bank staff performed, McNeil said. The amount students were paid was carefully calculated so as to not interfere with students’ SNAP benefits, she said.

“We provided lunch every day for the students, and we gave them a computer to use throughout the program,” McNeil said.

Participants also learned “soft skills,” such as dressing for success, communication and interpersonal skills, leadership, problem-solving and teamwork, she said.

Other SEED components included the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s 30-hour safety course, forklift certification and food-handler certification, according to a news release from the Northern Illinois Food Bank.

All of this information and training equips students to work “in any warehouse,” McNeil said.

“These skills are transferable, and they can work anywhere nationwide,” she said.

McNeil said the food bank staff also learned from the students. For instance, the food bank adjusted the SEED calendar to align with the school calendar when some students couldn’t make class one day if their children had a remote learning day because of winter weather.

“We had to work around those barriers,” McNeil said.

How SEED benefits students

Bernita Perkins, 52, of Bolingbrook, a mother of five adult children and grandmother of eight, said she’s worked in warehouses most of her adult life.

Perkins said the SEED program enhanced her skills.

“They sent me to training, they helped me with my resume, they helped me financially,” she said. “They helped me in every area I needed in my life. [The program] helps you build goals and feel good about yourself.”

Perkins said she hopes to give back to the program by working in the food bank’s Geneva warehouse.

“It gives back to the community, and it helps our community grow,” Perkins said. “And I believe in giving back, and I believe in growth. If God could do it for me, he could do it for anybody else.”

For information, visit solvehungertoday.org/seed.