Albertsons Jewel-Osco Nourishing Neighbors Charitable Program Awards $100,000
Imagine having to worry about when your next meal will be or not knowing what you can feed your children for dinner. Unfortunately, that is the reality many of our neighbors face every day. At The Salvation Army we work every day to help find solutions for those in our community facing food insecurity.
We’re excited to be the recipients of a $100,000 grant from Albertsons Jewel-Osco and the Albertsons Jewel-Osco Foundation’s Nourishing Neighbors program to help those in our community receive the benefits of existing federal meals programs such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Women Infants and Children (WIC), and free or reduced school nutrition programs.
The grant is made possible by Albertsons Jewel-Osco Foundation’s Nourishing Neighbors program and Jewel-Osco’s generous customers.
The Salvation Army sees these strain hunger insecurity puts on the community every day. Unfortunately, many people facing food insecurity are often not aware of existing federal nutrition programs and how to enroll or get the support they need.
Through the Nourishing Neighbors Program, the Albertsons Jewel-Osco Foundation continues to focus on addressing hunger issues in the communities they serve. The Federal Meals program is part of Nourishing Neighbor’s efforts to ensure those who live in the communities Jewel-Osco serves have enough food to eat.
“We’re grateful to Jewel-Osco and their generous customers for helping fight hunger in our community,” said Major Caleb Senn, Chicago Area Commander for The Salvation Army. “This grant will help connect qualifying individuals and families with federal meal programs designed to relieve hunger insecurity in our community.”
With this grant we will offer daily access to nutritious food, mentoring, counseling, vocational training, rental assistance, and weekly food assistance to low-income clients.
Salvation Army community centers provide a robust food pantry program, a mobile canteen meal program to reach people experiencing homelessness & hunger, and a shopping & food prep program for neighborhood families.
We prioritize addressing the immediate need for healthy food, register them for federal meal programs like SNAP and WIC, then provide referrals to additional Salvation Army support to meet specific needs, including transportation to access food services.
In 2022, the North and Central Illinois Division provided nearly one million meals and over 160,000 bags of groceries to neighbors in need.
We can’t thank Albertsons Jewel-Osco and Albertsons Jewel-Osco Foundation’s Nourishing Neighbors enough for giving us this grant to help our neighbors.