Additional Services

Additional services are available for food pantry clients living in 60640, 60645, 60660, 60659, and 60626 zip codes.

Personal Care Items

Care for Real provides food pantry clients with personal care items including toiletries, menstrual products, Black hair care products, diapers and wipes, and household goods based on available inventory. Many of these items cannot be purchased with SNAP (food stamp) benefits or secured through food retail partnerships. Care for Real relies on the support of neighbors, collection drives, and area businesses to donate these items to distribute them to clients regularly. Clients can receive items once every 30 days at either pantry location.

Marie’s Clothing Closet

Food pantry clients can also schedule appointments for Marie’s Clothing Closet when they visit food distribution at either pantry. Marie’s Clothing Closet is located at 5339 N. Sheridan in Edgewater. Volunteers will assist clients in selecting seasonal clothing items during their appointment. Clients are welcome to visit once every 30 days.

The clothing closet was named in honor of Marie. During the 2020-21 fiscal year, an anonymous donor made a milestone contribution in her honor. Marie grew up on a small farm in Pennsylvania during the Great Depression. Growing up in relative poverty of those times, she had a high regard for healthy food, hard work, and frugality. A remarkable woman, Marie was on of the first in her family to complete college and become one of the only female pharmacists at the time. Marie and her husband Harold were avid gardeners, producing more food than the couple and their four children needed, and would regularly give baskets of fresh produce to others. Later in life, Marie began volunteering for a resale shop where she took great satisfaction in preparing and displaying she donated clothing – volunteer work she continued for more than 20 years! Care for Real is so proud to name the clothing closet in Marie’s honor!

Referrals

Care for Real prioritizes serving the whole person and finding the services and resources each client needs to thrive. Knowing CfR cannot fill every need, partnerships with other organizations help meet the needs outside of Care for Real’s programming. Clients can request support services and referrals during their food pantry visits.