Sharefest free grocery store in New Lenox serves need in community

The Sharefest grocery store in New Lenox is not fancy but it is impressive, moving some customers to tears when they enter for the first time.

“A lot of people are so overwhelmed they literally shake,” Sharefest founder Gary Cheney.

The store is in a warehouse with a concrete floor. There is no cafe for coffee or sushi bar, and clients must make appointments before they come.

But it’s free.

“We tried really hard to make it not like a food pantry but like a grocery store,” co-manager Christine Navarre said. “A lot of people are overwhelmed. They have options.”

The store does not have a fresh meat section, but it does have frozen meats that people can look over in a freezer. There is no bakery, but there are brand-name breads along with shelves of canned and packaged groceries. There are no rows of fresh produce, but on this day, there were fresh potatoes, garlic cloves and a few other items.

Many of the items at the store come directly from local grocery stores, which contribute through the Northern Illinois Food Bank’s Direct Connect program.

“We are picking up from local grocery stores seven times a week,” Cheney said.

On May 7, Cheney and Sharefest held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the store that was attended by village and county officials.

The grocery store was equipped with the help of $827,000 in federal funds awarded by Will County from the American Rescue Plan, which provided funds for economic relief from the COVID-19 epidemic, and Community Development Block Grants.

“There is no one more compassionate and doing this for the right reasons than Gary [Cheney] and his group,” Will County Executive Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant said.

Sharefest started out of Cheney’s garage in 2007 providing food, clothing and other items to people in need. The new store also has clothes and home products.

The charitable organization grew to the point that it operated out of semitrailers and storage containers.

Two years ago, Sharefest opened what Cheney considers the first store in a 2,200-square-foot facility, which included storage space. It was too small to allow people in to shop for groceries, but it did provide a location from which Sharefest could distribute food.

“We were picking and packing for them,” Cheney said, noting that clients would order online and be handed boxes with their food when they arrived. “When they come to this store, it’s client’s choice. They pick and pack for themselves.”

The store is located in an 11,500-square-foot warehouse space, part of which Sharefest uses for storage, at 21715 Moni Drive in an industrial park off Schoolhouse Road.

“I’m just a guy who said yes,” Cheney said at the ribbon-cutting ceremony, giving credit to God for starting Sharefest and its volunteers for keeping it growing. “Mainly, it’s the volunteers. They work hard. Their feet hurt. Their hands hurt. They do everything to make it work.”

Many of the volunteers were at the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Volunteer Dennis Attaway of Elwood said he became a client of Sharefest last winter when he couldn’t work because of an injury. Attaway is working again and said he appreciates what Sharefest did for him.

“For people in need, it’s very helpful,” he said. “It’s helped a lot of people out, and I’m very grateful for the help.”