Welcome letter from our Executive Director and CEO
CLOSE X Kate Maehr: Executive Director and CEO
As the 2013-2014 fiscal year came to a close, a new study revealed some sobering statistics about the face of hunger in our community.

According to Hunger in America 2014, a quadrennial study by the Greater Chicago Food Depository and Feeding America, 91 percent of people receiving food from the Food Depository's network have a roof over their head. Nearly 60 percent of households include someone who's worked in the last year. Eighteen percent of client households include a veteran and 39 percent include at least one child.

Hunger does not discriminate. Every year, the Food Depository serves 812,100 men, women and children - 1 in 6 - in Cook County. While the need is persistent, the Food Depository took a number of steps last year to bolster our response.

Thanks to the tremendous support of partners and donors, we eliminated agency shared maintenance fees while subsidizing more purchased food. We continued our commitment to distributing nutritious food including fresh produce. We launched the state's first food pantry for veterans at the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center, which has since served more than 15,000 veterans. We mobilized to save the federal nutrition safety net in the Farm Bill and prevented deeper cuts to SNAP in Illinois. We lobbied in Washington, D.C. We took five busloads of anti-hunger advocates to Springfield. We provided training and employment opportunities through Chicago's Community Kitchens. And, we completed the year with a record-breaking Hunger Walk that saw more than 14,000 people joining the fight to end hunger.

All the while, we told a different story every week of a client or family we serve. The 52 Stories, 52 Weeks project, highlighted in this year's online annual report, helps us define this fiscal year. It reminds us that every day, our neighbors are struggling to afford food. Perhaps more importantly, it reminds us that the food we provide together gives hope and opportunity to those in need every day, every week, throughout the year.

Thank you for being an instrumental part of that effort.

Kate Maehr
Executive Director and CEO
Greater Chicago Food Depository