Feeding Neighbors

Care for Real distributes free, fresh, nutritious food to neighbors in need four days a week through locations in Edgewater and Rogers Park. Chicago residents living in 60640, 60645, 60660, 60659, and 60626 zip codes in need of food assistance are welcome to visit one Care for Real pantry once per week. For anyone living outside of Care for Real’s service area, please visit www.chicagosfoodbank.org/find-food to find a pantry near you.

When you arrive, a volunteer will check you in for your visit. For your first visit, please bring photo identification as well as a form of address verification. This can be a current lease, utility bill, or government ID that was issued in the last 12 months.

Maintaining a client-choice model is important to Care for Real. Your food preferences and needs are recorded at check-in and we will work to find the best items to meet your needs. If you would like to schedule a clothing closet appointment, please do that at check-in during your food pantry visit.

Care for Real food distributions mainly take place outdoors. We move as quickly as possible to ensure no one is waiting outside longer than necessary. Please dress appropriately for the weather. We recommend bringing large, sturdy grocery bags and a cart if possible, to transport your groceries.

The safety of our clients, volunteers, and staff is our top priority. Because many of our distributions occur outdoors, we closely monitor local conditions and may close during severe weather. If lightning is present in the area, distribution will be suspended. Additionally, if a formal warning advises people to seek shelter, we will close immediately. When a distribution is closed due to weather, it will not reopen that day, even if conditions later improve. Please check for weather advisories before traveling to a distribution site. We will post the latest service status updates on our homepage and Facebook page when possible.

Guests do not need to line up early. The first hour of each food distribution tends to be the busiest. If you would like to avoid the long lines, please arrive after the first hour. We do not run out of food. If you choose to arrive early, you will not be able to hold a place in line. To avoid any pressure to wait in line for long periods of time before we open, we pass out numbers that have been shuffled 20 minutes before the pantry begins. Clients are asked to line up in order of the number they have received. If you want to participate in the drawing, you can come 20 minutes before we begin. If you do not want to participate, please come at or after our scheduled start time and join the end of the line.  

Please contact us at info@careforreal.org or 773.769.6182 with any questions.