Our Genesis mission trip on November 24, 2009, to the Northern Illinois Food Bank in St. Charles was loads of fun but a lot of work.  We had 25 youth and parents go.  We worked from 1-3 p.m., had snacks, and then took a tour of the facility, even going into the 15-degree freezer!  We had three pallets of bins from Walgreens to sort into home goods, over-the-counter drugs, food, personal products, clothes, and toys.  We also had a group making boxes the entire time, and another group sorted, packed, and weighed boxes of cereal.  We were all tired when finished. 

The Northern Illinois Food Bank, a non-profit, 501(c)(3) charity organization and member of Feeding America (formerly America's Second Harvest - The Nation's Food Bank Network) was founded in May 1983 in Wheaton, Illinois, and distributed 7,000 pounds of food in its first month.  NIFB has grown tremendously in the past 26 years, distributing more than 27.2 million pounds of food in 2009 and currently serving over 520 food-assistance sites in 13 northern Illinois counties.

In 1995, Northern Illinois Food Bank relocated its headquarters to St. Charles, Illinois.  In 2001 the Lake County Branch was opened in Park City, Illinois, and in 2005, the Hunger Connection became a branch of Northern Illinois Food Bank in Rockford, Illinois.

To learn more about the efforts of Northern Illinois Food Bank and its mission to provide nutritious food to all those in need through its own efforts and those of its nonprofit partners go to northernilfoodbank.org.