- Credibility:
In March 2020, a stay at home order was enacted in Illinois — the first of our lifetime — amid the spread of coronavirus, a virus we were struggling to understand.
In the year since, Chicago’s neighborhoods have faced unprecedented challenges. Folks got sick. Loved ones died. People lost jobs. Schools shuttered. Beloved mom-and-pop shops closed their doors — some for good.
Parents worked double duty. Routines were interrupted. We stayed distant from the ones we care about most. Grocery store shelves were emptied, and fear and paranoia set in. Crisis took hold.
By many accounts, government struggled to provide adequate solutions. The systems we were used to relying on failed.
We lost so much. Yet in the face of insurmountable trouble, we came together to save each other.
A year after the shutdown, we celebrate the neighbors and everyday heroes who made our lives a little more bearable.
This is Chicago. And these are 100 ways we helped.
We Fed Our Neighbors
1. In 18 neighborhoods across the South and West Sides, neighbors and activists like Ashley Godfrey banded together to bring fully stocked refrigerators — dubbed Love Fridges — to areas struggling with food insecurity.
Credit: Provided2. In Washington Park and at sites across the city, activist Nita Tennyson and others launched the Love Train to provide free baby supplies and food to those in need.
Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago3. In Archer Heights, the Southwest Collective launched Food’s Here to feed neighbors, employ laid-off restaurant workers and reduce food waste. They use extra food from meal subscription services and a closed restaurant to feed 250 people hit hard by the pandemic each week.
Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago4. In West Garfield Park in the fall, Jermaine Jordan opened Healthy Hot Free Meals, a soul food restaurant that provides free food for people in need and those impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Neighbors from across the city donated to keep the effort going.
Credit: PROVIDED5. In Hyde Park, students organized UChicago Mutual Aid after they were forced to move off campus while being hit with lighter financial aid checks.
Credit: UChicago Mutual Aid 6. On the South and West sides, churches and groups like Black Girls Break Bread organized one-stop shops for supplies like food, masks, coronavirus testing and diapers.
7. In Woodlawn, organizers with The Experimental Station, Invisible Institute, Build Coffee, South Side Weekly and Star Farm Chicago launched Market Box program, which fed South Side families and supported small Midwestern farms through the summer. As of September, they’d made nearly 4,000 fresh food deliveries to South Side families.
Credit: Davon Clark8. In Bridgeport, owner Ed Marzewski and chef Won Kim transformed Kimski into a Community Canteen, offering free or pay-what-you-can meals to go. They gave out as many as 2,000 meals each week.
Credit: Facebook/Maria’s Packaged Goods & Community Bar9. In Washington Park, the People’s Grab-N-Go popped up every Monday at Burke Elementary School in response to the brief CPS food shutdown. The school was one of CPS’ meal distribution sites. In the first two giveaways alone, organizers Matt Muse, Jihad Kheperu, Dominique James, Trina Reynolds-Tyler and others fed 800 families.
Credit: Provided10. In Back of the Yards, Increase the Peace and other groups launched a free Black and Brown Unity Food Pantry, acting as a bridge in the wake of isolated incidents of violence dividing the two communities.
Credit: Mauricio Peña/ Block Club Chicago11. In Logan Square, Diana Dávila, chef and owner of Mi Tocaya Antojería, fed hundreds of homestyle Mexican meals to families in need while keeping her workers employed.
Credit: Provided12. In North Lawndale, Rev. Reshorna Fitzpatrick and volunteers launched Soup for the Soul at Stone Temple Missionary Baptist Church, providing free soup to 200 West Siders in need every Monday.
Credit: Provided13. The pandemic inspired South Side chef Michael Airhart to take his Taste for the Homeless effort on the road, using his van to traverse the city to give free meals and clothes to people experiencing homelessness. Airhart estimates he feeds about 1,200 people per day.
Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago14. Before the pandemic, New Life Centers’ Pan de Vida food pantry in Little Village was helping about 100 families per week. But when COVID-19 hit, “need spiked like crazy,” Executive Director Matt DeMateo said. In response, they partnered with the Greater Chicago Food Depository and scaled up distribution at seven sites across the South and West sides, feeding more than 700,000 people in six months.
Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago15. In Hyde Park, the Brave Space Alliance, Chicago’s only Black- and transgender-led LGBTQ center, launched a crisis pantry for people in need.
Credit: Jake Wittich/Block Club Chicago16. In Austin, Alt_ co-founder Jon Veal and others transformed an abandoned building into a free grocery store where residents can get food. The market is stocked with food donated by neighbors and nonprofit, and it inspired other markets across the city.
Credit: Provided17. In Bronzeville and Kenwood, The Sacred Keepers Sustainability Lab created a food distribution hub after some South Side grocers temporarily closed after being looted. It’s supported by the The Bronzeville/Kenwood Mutual Aid network.
Credit: Provided18. South Chicago-based master gardener Gregory Bratton is responsible for nearly 100 urban farms across Chicago, playing an instrumental role in bringing free fresh food to the South Side. Coronavirus didn’t slow down his efforts.
Credit: Maxwell Evans/Block Club Chicago19. In Gage Park, the Gage Park Latinx Council gave away 3,000 pounds of food within 15 minutes of openings its mercadito. The market serves 75-100 families weekly.
Credit: Provided20. In Pullman, Brittanee Rolle and other organizers launched Feed the People, a pop-up distribution providing food, infant formula and feminine products Fridays. Over the duration, 1,000 people were helped.
Credit: Delacreme Scholars21. In Avondale, chefs Beverly Kim and Johnny Clark, the husband-and-wife team behind Wherewithall, shifted their model to become a community kitchen, offering 1-cent or pay-what-you-can meals.
Credit: Ariel Cheung/DNAinfo22. In October, 450 moms scattered across the city donated 1,700 lasagnas to out-of-work moms and others in need.
Credit: Provided.We Housed People
23. In Ravenswood, the Luceros, the family of nine behind the Cielito Lindo mariachi band, were facing eviction. COVID-19 canceled events and closed theaters, cutting the family’s regular income by nearly half. But neighbors came to their rescue, raising $66,000 for the family, covering months of unpaid back rent and securing several months of future payments.
Credit: Facebook / Provided 24. In Avondale, three homeless encampments were set on fire within three hours in July. Neighbors donated tents, bedding and other supplies to help residents get back on their feet.
Credit: Mina Bloom/Block Club Chicago25. When West Garfield Park was hit with a bitter cold snap in February, restaurant owner Jermaine Jordan launched GoFundMe to get people experiencing homelessness off the streets and into hotel rooms. In the first few days of the effort, he rented 38 rooms to shelter those in need.
We Launched Hotlines And Checked On Neighbors
26. Spurred by Tanya Lozano, founder of Pilsen’s Healthy Hood, activists across Chicago launched We Got Us to deliver masks, groceries and other critical supplies to the South and West sides. The group also launched a ZIP-code-specific hotline where volunteers connect callers to food pantries and testing centers.
Credit: Instagram27. In Greater Grand Crossing in April, The Dovetail Project, a South Side nonprofit dedicated to helping young fathers, launched a 24-hour support line where dads could request essentials like diapers, formula and free food.
Credit: PROVIDED.28. In North Lawndale in July, the North Lawndale Community Coordinating Council created a helpline where residents could find local resources to help them meet basic needs.
Credit: Pidgeon Pagonis29. In March, My Block, My Hood, My City volunteers from across the city signed up to call isolated seniors for wellbeing checks.
Credit: My Block, My Hood, My City We Made Masks
30. In Hyde Park, former librarian Leslie Travis tapped her numerous connections — including a sailmaker and quilting guild — to create a massive operation producing thousands of masks.
Credit: Maxwell Evans/Block Club Chicago31. In Wicker Park, Lauren Nepomuceno and Monica Paprocki launched an ambitious citywide mission to make cloth face masks for Chicago’s first responders and essential workers. In one month, Masks 4 Chicago’s 654 group members produced about 3,000 masks — all of which were donated to workers.
Credit: Lauren Nepomuceno / Provided32. In Streeterville, 91-year-old great-grandmother Eszter Kutas made hundreds of masks and sold them, donating the proceeds to the COVID-19 Relief Fund at Northwestern Medicine. “I know it’s not too much, but it’s something.”
33. In Uptown, refugees who were learning to sew through RefugeeOne, like Sandra Muyumba, pivoted during the pandemic, making thousands of masks to donate to the community.
Credit: Provided34. In West Town, Lauren Young sewed 8,000 masks to help neighbors. Over the holidays, she sewed 1,800 masks for seniors in West Town.
Credit: Lauren Young / ProvidedWe Donated Supplies To Protect People
35. In Ravenswood, Koval distillery delivered 500 gallons of free hand sanitizer in April to Chicago nonprofits struggling to find supplies. The distillery, known for its whiskey and gin, switched to producing hand sanitizer in March to address the nationwide shortage. Its first batches of free hand sanitizer went to retirement homes, first responders and health care workers.
Credit: Koval Distillery36. In Pilsen, food pantry the Pilsen Social Health Initiative, founded by physicians Evelyn Figueroa and Alex Wu, expanded its mission by opening a thrift store, building a medical supply closet and hosting a social worker to get families the help they need.
Credit: Provided37. In Portage Park in March, back when toilet paper was scarce, neighbor Jaclyn Crawford started putting rolls of toilet paper and other household supplies in a container outside her home with a sign that read, “Take what you need.” With help from My Block, My Hood, My City, she expanded her Treasure Box program this year.
38. In March, Uptown Church members assembled emergency supply kits to pass out to neighbors in need. They also offered check-in calls to people who were isolated during the stay at home order.
Credit: Facebook/Uptown Church39. In Roseland, United Pullman and other groups passed out masks, diapers, hand sanitizer, baby food and other essentials to people in need in June.