Joliet free food giveaway shows compassion for community

A food giveaway in Joliet marked the growing efforts of Sharefest Will County to help people in need after opening a free grocery store earlier this year.

Vehicles lined up about 9 a.m. Saturday in the parking lot of the Will County Office Building, 302 N. Chicago St., to receive free groceries such as canned vegetables, fruit, snacks and other items.

Farrah Wysocki, one of many volunteers who was at Saturday’s event with her daughter Brooke, said she has benefited from food drives such as the one held by Sharefest Will County in the past.

“You pay it forward,” Wysocki said.

Sharefest Will County partnered with Will County Executive Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant to host the event in the county building parking lot. Earlier this month, the organization hosted a ribbon-cutting for its free grocery store in New Lenox that was attended by village and county officials.

Gary Cheney, executive director of Sharefest Will County, said 47 pallets of food weighing 42,000 pounds were given away Saturday to help feed 1,842 people from 534 families. He said 70 volunteers assisted in the three-hour event.

Cheney said his organization is about “sharing, caring and loving our neighbors.”

“How do we love them? We help them with food, we help them with clothes, we help them with books and jobs and education. We’re huge on environment impact projects,” Cheney said.

Cheney said Saturday’s event represented more than just giving away free food.

“It’s a display that in Will County, we care about people compassionately enough that we can bring in 60, 70, 80 volunteers.”

Cheney previously said more than 58,000 pounds of food were given away at the event last year in the same location, proving there is a “need in our community for food assistance.”

Free food giveaway events, sometimes called mobile markets, have been held frequently over the past several years in the Chicago suburbs. The Northern Illinois Food Bank usually partners with organizations in Will County to distribute free food.

Officers from the Joliet Police Department were on hand to assist with traffic flow in the county parking lot. Vehicles would go into a designated area, and volunteers would load them with food before sending them on their way.

A few elected officials showed up to volunteer, such as Joliet Township Trustee Tanya Arias; Michelle Stiff, president of the Joliet Township High School District 204 Board; and Will County Coroner Laurie Summers.

“It’s a good cause,” Summers said.

Among the volunteers were the members of My Best Track Club, a nonprofit, youth-centered track and field organization.

Robert Jones, the head coach for the organization, said the free food giveaway was a “great opportunity for us to come out and serve the community.”

“It’s a blessing to be out here,” Jones said.