The Legler Regional Library in West Garfield Park has become the second public library in the nation, and the first in Illinois, to provide a full-service food pantry.
The Library-Based Food Access program celebrated its grand opening on Jan. 22, attended by elected and Chicago Public Library officials, plus staff from the Greater Chicago Food Depository — which stocks the pantry at no charge to the library. The pantry has been open in the Legler branch’s lower level since July with a rotating selection of protein, produce and dairy.
Today, the pantry serves over 600 households a month, and anyone who comes by Thursdays from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. or Sundays from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. can get free food.
“For too long, neighborhoods like West Garfield Park have experienced intentional and systemic disinvestment. Decisions that strip communities of access to healthy food, food quality, health care, strong schools and real economic opportunities have gone on way too long,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said at the pantry’s grand opening.
In West Garfield Park, over 60% of people are likely to face food insecurity, living below 200% of the federal poverty level, according to the Greater Chicago Food Depository. In West Garfield Park, along with other West Side neighborhoods like Austin and North Lawndale, there are few grocery stores within walking distance of most homes.
“We know food access is directly connected to better learning, better health, workforce stability and long-term opportunity,” Johnson said. “Investments like this strengthen neighborhoods, and it helps restore trust in institutions that exist to serve the public good.”
“We’re trusted spaces for reading, learning, creativity, and connection, where people can access support that not only strengthens their opportunity, but also their health and their wellness,” said Chicago Public Library Commissioner Chris Brown at the pantry’s grand opening. “When these services live together in a trusted space, access becomes easier and barriers are removed, which matters so much in a neighborhood and on the West Side, where food services can prove challenging at times. Families can now take care of multiple needs in one visit.”
Brown said there was a minimal cost to update the physical space that the pantry occupies, and existing library staff oversee programming throughout the year, now including the pantry. Volunteers also work at the pantry, and the library is looking to increase the number of people helping out.
Food access has come a long way, has a long way to go
At the pantry’s grand opening, Ald. Jason Ervin of the 28th Ward said he remembers a time about seven years ago, when library and local officials discussed selling a piece of art in the Legler Regional Library to fund its renovations. Back then, he said he wouldn’t have believed that, today, the library branch offers mental health services, has an artist in residency, and now, a food pantry.
“If you come here on an average day, you will see individuals who may not be in the best shape in life, but they’re getting the assistance that they need,” Ervin said. “Through hard work, innovation, thinking outside of the box, making the library more than just a place that we come periodically to bring my daughter — this has been a beacon of hope and safety, that light on the hill that we all need in our community today.”
According to Kate Maehr — CEO of the food depository and a donor to Growing Community Media, the parent company of Austin Weekly News — the food bank delivers the pantry’s items at no cost to the library. The food is both donated to the food bank and purchased by them from monetary donations and USDA funding. The Greater Chicago Food Depository also bought several refrigerators and freezers for the pantry and is responsive to requests from those who visit the pantry about what kinds of groceries they want.
“Food is not a luxury. Food and beautiful public spaces, access to books and information — these are all, in fact, rights. These are justice issues,” Maehr said.
And that’s even more important as the Trump administration makes cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that provides federal food benefits. Come Feb. 1, adults ages 18 to 64 who don’t have dependents under 14 will have to either be working, volunteering for 80 hours per month, or participating in SNAP employment and training programs to receive benefits.
“We anticipate as many as 120,000 people in Cook County will lose their SNAP benefits,” Maehr said. “Charity cannot fill this gap . . . I look forward to a day when libraries can be about books, but don’t necessarily have to be about keeping people warm or keeping people fed.”
The Greater Chicago Food Depository has partnered with the Chicago Public Library since 2012, when a few locations started hosting the food bank’s lunch bus that provided prepackaged lunches to kids in the summer. Legler Regional Library was one of the spots where children could get free lunch when school wasn’t in session. Legler is also part of the food banks’ ProduceMobile, which delivers fresh groceries for distribution to libraries.
The Greater Chicago Food Depository helps provide food at a number of pantries, soup kitchens and shelters across Chicago’s West Side. In the 2025 fiscal year in East and West Garfield Park, the food bank had 40 food access programs that distributed 4.3 million pounds of food, serving approximately 90,000 household visits.
Find Greater Chicago Food Depository locations at https://www.chicagosfoodbank.org/find-food-2/#find-food. The pantry at Legler Regional Library, 115 S. Pulaski Rd., is open Thursdays from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. and Sundays from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.