P.S. – Your year-end gift has a MATCH!
Dear Nourishing Hope friends and supporters,
Here we are, about to say goodbye to 2024 and leap with hope into 2025. Marking the end of a year is a powerful reminder for me – and for all of us at Nourishing Hope – to reflect on what we have: our opportunities, our challenges, and the immense privilege we hold to make an impact.
It’s also a wonderful time to reflect on the many thousands of our neighbors who have felt that impact. So many people come together every day and demonstrate their care for our neighbors – as dedicated staff members, as enthusiastic volunteers, and as committed donors and partners. Nourishing Hope could not address the struggles and needs that so many folks in our community face without this incredible team effort.
As I thought about what I’d put in the top ten, a theme emerged pretty quickly: 2024 was a standout year at Nourishing Hope for reaching goals! It took hustle and grit, and planning and flexibility – and thousands of volunteers and donors – to achieve those goals, but they became greater accomplishments because we did it together.
So … (drumroll please) These are our top ten accomplishments of 2024 (presented in no particular order)…
Fed more people than ever before.
In 2024, we provided nutritious food with dignity and respect to more than 62,000 Chicagoans in need, an increase from last year. That includes close to 7,000 families with children, which is also up from last year.
With more and more working adults and families facing the continued high cost of groceries, we’ve been preparing for another increase in need next year.
Our donor support is vital to meeting that need, and we’re very grateful for a great community of supporters.
Increased capacity for more free mental health and social services.
This year, our seven mental health therapists provided more than 3,000 free, trauma-informed mental health counseling sessions, in English and Spanish. We also provided more than 3,400 case management services, which connected people to job and housing opportunities and utility assistance.
Anyone who’s 14 and older is welcome to request services, no strings attached, and our waitlist is thankfully very short. The best way to get started is to visit our Mental Wellness Services page.
Launched our Five-Year Strategic Plan.
It’s an ambitious plan that was informed and inspired by the people we serve. We’re aiming to serve 30% more households by the end of this five-year period with an expansive network of partnerships with trusted organizations across the city. Our plan also outlines how we’ll grow to provide 500,000 food services and 30,000 mental health counseling sessions over the next five years.
This strategic plan was created in partnership with staff, volunteers, board members and community partners. With continued community support, we’re firm believers that we can make this vision a reality.
Hired a Chief Operating Officer!
With funding from our Northern Trust grant, we welcomed new Chief Operating Officer Carolyn Kriss, a leader with a passion for helping people.
Carolyn (pictured left with fleet driver Dre Taylor) joined us in July, bringing 20 years experience as an operational and strategic leader in the private and public sectors – including Starbucks, DoorDash, and most recently as the Vice President of Strategy for Tovala, a food tech startup.
Nourishing Hope’s network of food gathering and distribution sites has required increasingly complex logistics, and Carolyn’s expertise will be vital to the success of our strategic growth over the next five years.
That plan includes: a new South Side site to reach more neighborhoods throughout the city; workforce investments in anti-bias training and professional development; and substantially increasing our fleet of trucks and vans to collect and deliver nutritious food more efficiently across Chicago.
Still have the Best. Volunteers. Ever!™
In 2024, more than 7,457 volunteers gave 88,507 hours of their time to serving our neighbors in need. On any given day, our amazing volunteers are serving people at our food pantries, driving groceries directly to the homes of elders and people with disabilities, and gleaning and packing food.
Our volunteer support provides the equivalent of 42.5 additional full-time employees, so simply put… we could not do this work without them!
Significantly expanded our Online Market partnerships
The number of neighbors who use our Online Market to meet their food needs has increased 30% from a year ago! It’s a free service allowing neighbors to order from our inventory on their own time using their computer or mobile device and pick up at the location of their choice. To make it as easy as possible for anyone who uses our Online Market, we now have 13 open community partner sites along with our three food distribution facilities on the north and west sides – HQ, The Hub, and Sheridan Market.
Anticipating we’ll keep trending upward in the number of neighbors using the Online Market, we’ve dedicated portions of our growth fund and our Northern Trust grant toward a robust expansion plan. Stay tuned!
Increased Home Delivery with help from Amazon Flex
It’s important that Nourishing Hope removes as many barriers as we possibly can to accessing nutritious food when it’s needed. So along with expanding our in-person and online market pickup sites, we’re also expanding our monthly home delivery of groceries to seniors and people with disabilities who aren’t able to pick up groceries in person.
We like to develop innovative solutions to meet growing needs (our Online Market a case in point). We learned this year that Amazon’s approach to supporting nonprofits like ours is pretty innovative too.
They’ve created an app so that their Amazon Flex drivers can add our Home Delivery grocery boxes to their routes, and Amazon pays them for these deliveries. We began this partnership a few months ago, and we look forward to it growing in 2025!
Gala donors broke our fundraising record again!
Our Nourishing Hope Gala was once again a program-funding success and a memorable night! One of the most memorable moments was when our neighbor Angelo shared his story (video above). With support from several Nourishing Hope programs, he overcame loss, depression, and addiction, finding continual sources of resilience and joy. Personal stories of impact like Angelo’s are so compelling to hear in person, and they represent the stories of so many more of our neighbors who need your support.
Please save the date for next year’s Nourishing Hope Gala on Friday, September 19, 2025!
Our Chicago Marathon team also broke a record!
Thanks to the 35 amazing individuals who ran for Team Nourishing Hope in this year’s Bank of America Chicago Marathon, we surpassed our fundraising goal.
Our Senior Institutional Partnerships Associate, Kyle Friedler (pictured) did a terrific job managing our team, and here’s what blew us all away – he ran the marathon too, in just 2:35!
We’re excited to have 40 runners already committed to our 2025 team, and I’m building my own #TeamNourishingHope cheer squad to pump up all the participants as they race down Charity Row.
13,000+ households received holiday meats and sides
We believe everyone should have the opportunity to have a special holiday meal with the folks they care about. Our donors showed us you believe it too, through generous gifts to our annual Turkey Fund campaign. Thanks to our donors, this holiday season, we distributed more than 13,000 turkeys, hams, turkey breasts, and whole chickens!
With that many holiday meats, imagine how many smiles were lit up when the meal was served!
In closing, I just want to say that I’m proud of what we accomplished together. Each year, no matter the crisis, our community steps up, pitches in, gets involved and gives back. It inspires me to no end. Thank you.
Now, let’s keep up the good work in 2025 — thank you for Nourishing Hope with us.
Warmly,
Kellie O’Connell
Chief Executive Officer, Nourishing Hope