We provide nutritious meals and support for people experiencing hunger and homelessness in Chicago.

Feeding Hope

Can you join us in our efforts to alleviate hunger and homelessness in Chicago?

The pandemic has changed the pattern of volunteering for many organizations – and that includes CHI and our partners.

CHI is truly a community organization – we have always been volunteer rich while being staff lean. We have been successful not just because we reflect our community, but because we are the community.

However, the decrease in regular volunteers has meant that we are reopening slower than we could be at a time when we are needed more than ever. And the same is true of other organizations that we work with.

We need volunteers! To help serve meals, make bag meals and pick up meals. To become tutors in our adult learning program and mentors in our jobs club and art group. To relaunch our yoga and choir programs.

If you’ve thought that perhaps you should pitch in – once a week, once a month, whatever works for you – now would be a great time to do it!

And, as we enter 2023, we will need more companies, groups and restaurants to step up and provide the work and the food that serves our guests.

Let us hear from you! Click here and tell us how you’d like to help.

Highlights of our services and new programs in 2022

We’ve reopened our weekly Wednesday meals to in-person, sit-down service! This is the way to bring isolated people into a trusted communal setting.

We’ve restarted our book club, short stories workshop, computer club, knitting group and theater group. These are the key ways CHI connects people to each other.

Our New Foundations program allows us to work with the partners we formed during the pandemic to bring similar services into their meals. This includes training their volunteers and increasing the access of people experiencing homelessness to the resources they need to move forward!

Our New Kitchens initiative expands the pool of restaurants and caterers we buy from, and includes South Side and West Side start-ups that are also working in their neighborhoods to add jobs and opportunities.

Our new theatre workshop, led by the Lookingglass Theatre, gives our guests an opportunity to express their authentic voices, explore their creativity, and share their life experiences in one of the most enduring forms of storytelling — live performance!

The CHI Community Garden was launched this past Spring to provide garden plots to our guests who want to grow their own food, commune with nature and build lasting relationships with the land and each other.

Want to get involved? Drop us a line and let us know how you want to help!