Shopping spree raises over $3,000 for Hampshire, Sugar Grove food pantries

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Illinois State Representative Robert W. Pritchard (R-Hinckley) fills his cart during the 11th Annual Farm Bureau Food Check-Out Challenge at Jewel-Osco in Batavia, Ill., on Monday, February 20, 2012. | Andrew A. Nelles~For Sun-Times Media |

Updated: March 28, 2012 10:19PM

BATAVIA — State Sen. Christine Johnson (R-Shabbona) and State Rep. Robert Pritchard (R-Hinckley) put on their running shoes and headed for the Batavia Jewel-Osco store at 119 Randall Road Monday morning for Kane County Farm Bureau’s 11th annual Checkout Challenge grocery shopping spree for local food pantries.

The event began in the breakfast aisle. Johnson and Pritchard each had a total of five minutes to load their shopping carts with nonperishable items.

Pritchard was accompanied by Kane County Board member Melissa Taylor of Sugar Grove, who founded Between Friends Food Pantry, 52 Wheeler Road in Sugar Grove, with her daughters, Danielle, 18, and Madison, 15.

Jewel-Osco grocery clerk Alfonso Gamboa of Aurora sorted through the items in Pritchard’s cart and rang up a total of $2,283.90 for the Between Friends Food Pantry.

“I would like to thank the Kane County Farm Bureau for drawing attention to the hungry,” Pritchard said. “During this recession, this program is especially important. I’m glad to be able to help out today.”

Johnson was accompanied by Hampshire resident Barbara Brust, who volunteers at the Burlington-Hampshire Food Pantry, 147 Mill Ave. in Hampshire.

Johnson said she grew up on a farm in Lee, Ill. She married Jim Johnson, and they now have a farm in the Shabbona area.

“It was a fun and exciting day for such a good cause,” Johnson said. “I’m glad to help the Burlington-Hampshire Food Pantry.”

Jewel-Osco clerk Matt Bronner of Montgomery rang up Johnson’s total number of items at $719.55 for the Burlington-Hampshire Food Pantry.

“This is the first time that the Burlington-Hampshire Food Pantry was involved in this event,” said Dorothy Paddock, the pantry’s food coordinator.

“We’re pleased with the amount that was collected,” Brust said. “We tried to take wholesome food staples. The most popular food pantry items are cereals, cooking oils, salad dressings, pasta and canned foods.”

Traveling trophies

Johnson and Pritchard both were given traveling trophies for their participation in the annual shopping spree. Their names will be etched on the trophies along with those of previous participants. They will be able to keep the trophies in their offices until the next shopping spree in 2013.

Batavia High School band leader John Heath brought band members Alicia Peltier, Grace Keppel, Monica Mastrud, Phillip Keppel, and Walter Haliwell to perform.

BHS cheerleaders Jordan Fuqua, Zack Shirrer, Steve Hansen, Megan Zeddies, Steven Durham, Nick Pappas and Brock Batka, accompanied by their coach, Lynette Olexa, also came to cheer the crowd.

“This is the seventh year that we’ve participated,” said Olexa. “It’s a great cause.”

“It was really fun to cheer them on as they got all that food,” said Zeddies.

The shopping spree marks National Food Checkout Week, Feb. 19-25, which is devoted to helping teach Americans how to stretch their grocery dollars with healthful, nutritious food.

“We’re happy to sponsor the program,” said Kane County Farm Bureau President Joe White. “Participants love coming to this event.

“We think everyone here is a winner.”

The Burlington-Hampshire Food Pantry has been in operation for 16 years. It originally operated out of First United Methodist Church in Hampshire. According to Paddock, the pantry serves an average of 58 families every month. The pantry is open from 8:30 to 10 a.m. on the third Monday of every month.

A choice pantry

Taylor said Between Friends Food Pantry has been in operation for two years. It serves 65 to 85 families a week. It is open from 5 to 7 p.m. on Thursday nights. The service area is Kaneland Community Unit School District 302, including Big Rock and Prestbury.

Taylor said that Between Friends Food Pantry is a “choice pantry,” where families pick out items instead of simply being handed a bag.

“My daughters and I started the pantry during Thanksgiving break,” Taylor said. “We ran a collection for food, outerwear and pet supplies. We filled up my three-car garage. I called Kane County Sheriff Pat Perez for help in distributing the items.

“We took half of the donations to Holy Angels Church and the other half to the Elburn Food Pantry. Half of what we collected in one day doubled the amount of items at the Elburn pantry. We then decided to open the Between Friends Food Pantry.”

Taylor described work at the pantry as organized chaos.

“There are so many moving pieces at the same time,” she said. “Our clients are our friends. The word ‘needy’ is not in our vocabulary. We know so many challenged people today. We tell them that in life, everybody is going to fall down. It’s not the fact of falling down that counts but how many hands are there to pick them up.”

The shopping sprees over the past 11 years have donated nearly $20,000 in groceries to local food pantries. The sprees compliment the farm bureau’s Harvest for ALL program by which farmers and nonfarmers contributed over $60,000 to local food pantries through proceeds from crops, cash and in-kind donations since April 2009.

Nonperishable food items brought by attendees were collected at the Batavia Jewel-Osco throughout the day for the Northern Illinois Food Bank.