Above and Beyond Free Food Pantry

Why Free Food? Our approach focuses on meeting the immediate hunger needs of our clients and then moving on to longer-term solutions that empower clients to become independent. The Above and Beyond Free Food Pantry was founded to provide food for those in the community who cannot access it due to food insecurity or food apartheid. Food insecurity is a lack of access to fresh, nutritious food. In contrast, food apartheid is the racially discriminatory political structure of both past and present that impacts food access in a community. But distributing free food to those who need it is just a short-term solution to a long-term problem in the community. We need to address the root causes of food insecurity in the Garfield Park and North Lawndale communities, and to do that, we offer more than just-food.

The Above and Beyond Free Food Pantry is dedicated to relieving hunger and the problems associated with it. We strive to replace hunger and food insecurity with nutritious, sustainable food sources, and to provide tools and resources that empower meaning and purpose in one's life. We focus on meeting the immediate hunger needs of our community members, and then progressing to longer-term solutions that encourage individuals to become