Food Insecurity in Chicago

According to Feeding America, Chicago had the third highest number of food insecure individuals in the United States in 2010: 808,000 across the county, equaling a food insecurity rate of 15.6%.

While food banks and pantries play an important role in combating these issues, they only meet on average 7% of a household’s monthly grocery needs. Something needed to be done about this significant gap in food access, particularly in underserved communities.

Sheila & Chris Kennedy

Chris Kennedy, son of Ethel & Senator Robert F. Kennedy, was taught early in life that the measure of an individual is marked by service to his or her community.

Sheila Berner Kennedy was raised with similar values and a love for Chicago and its communities. Her mother worked 25 years as a social worker at Howard Area Community Center in Rogers Park, where there is now a building named in her honor.

Serving on the board of the Greater Chicago Food Depository, both Chris & Sheila identified a gap in the food system and set out to help Chicagoans nourish their families.

Founding Top Box Foods

A labor of love with an energizing mission, Chris & Sheila’s vision grew and evolved. Top Box Foods trucks rolled into communities for our first deliveries in May 2012.

Our goal? To build a sustainable social business that provides fresh produce along with meats, poultry, and seafood to underserved families and communities, particularly those shopping with SNAP. We do this by partnering with a network of local churches, schools, community centers, and housing facilities who spread the word to their communities about Top Box Foods in exchange for a percentage of sales back.

Top Box Louisiana

Within a year, our innovative program model resonated with and inspired Chicagoans in New Orleans who wanted to bring the program to their local community.

An early leader of this expansion and now the Executive Director of Top Box Foods, Connor DeLoach continued the value of community-driven, locally-informed programs in this new Top Box region, including an emphasis on collaboration with local producers in the warmer Louisiana climate that is thriving today.

Our Partners

Diverse partners - nonprofits, churches, hospitals, schools, housing providers, government entities, corporations, and more - helped us get where we are today.

Strong relationships and shared values drove many of our early collaborations to continue today, from the Northern Illinois Food Bank, who generously donated warehouse space in our earliest days, to religious organizations such as Trinity United Church of Christ, who dedicate themselves to serving their community, to healthcare providers such as Erie Family Health Centers who championed food as medicine early and often.

Community First, From Day One

"Dear Sheila,

I want to take this opportunity to thank you and your fantastic staff for your generosity this past year.

You all have allowed us to help so many people.

I look forward to working closely with you in the New Year.

Best wishes,

Sincerely,

Marie Anne Sternberg"

Solving Problems, Creating Opportunities

In 2016, in conjunction with FarmLogix and This Old Farm, we won the Food to Market Challenge grant, an award of $500,000 sponsored by Chicago Community Trust for our innovative plan to re-conceive supply chain practices that limited the scale or efficiency of the Chicago region’s local and sustainable food market.

From our founding, we have steadfastly pursued grant opportunities independently and with partners to access funding and create programming that solves food access challenges for our community.

Five Years of Top Box Foods

Just a few years into our journey, Top Box Foods already reached the Chicago and Rockford communities in Northern Illinois and the New Orleans and Baton Rouge communities in Louisiana year-round.

With the support of 943 volunteers, we collaborated with more than 100 partners to serve families at over 30 locations across the neighborhoods we served.

The result of these efforts? A cumulative 1,378,008 pounds of food distributed in our first five years, equaling 1,910,693 meals!

Our Food

Our founders spent years working in and learning about the food system and recognized that under-resourced communities lacked reliable access to nutritious staples like fresh fruits and vegetables and high-quality proteins.

From 2018's Essentials Menu which offered lower prices on household staples to 2020's expansion of locally grown options which connected farmers and shoppers during lockdowns, our menu is always evolving with our community and considering seasonal changes, cuisines of different cultures, dietary needs, and current food prices.

Food Is Medicine

Top Box Foods was founded because we understand the essential role that a healthy diet plays in the long term health of our community. In addition to everyday groceries, we are proud to collaborate on programs that support specific medical needs and study the health impacts of consistent access to nutritious foods.

The expansion of partnerships like Rush Hospital and Erie Family Health Center laid the groundwork for future opportunities for funded access and impact studies such as the Cigna & Cook County Health Text2BHealthy Project and the GusNIP, Medical Home Network, and Alivio Medical Center Produce Prescription Program.

The COVID-19 Crisis

The pandemic transformed not only society, but the food system communities rely on. From breakages in the supply chain and food shortages to the risk of exposure to the virus in local grocery stores, the meaning of food access evolved and expanded. Individuals who had never before experienced food insecurity sought support for the first time, while families who already struggled to make ends meet were pushed into greater distress.

Our teams pivoted quickly to meet the need with the support of volunteers, partners, and donors. Top Box Market transitioned from pick up events at partner sites to offering No Fee Home Deliveries to help our customers access healthy and affordable foods while remaining safe at home.

Record-Breaking Impact

In 2021, Top Box Foods served 96,661 households across Illinois and Louisiana, surpassing the number of households reached from 2012-2019 combined.

Our Top Box Community model paved the way for this impact as a pathway for partners and supporters with resources to sponsor food for households with distinct needs. Many of these pandemic response programs were life changing in a time of great community need, and continue today.

Programs Behind the Impact

By stepping up to the challenges of the COVID crisis, our teams found opportunities for groundbreaking collaborations.

Top Box Louisiana assessed a transformed supply chain and built a network of local farmers and producers to source, serving as a distribution channel that connects and supports the full cycle, from vendors to community members.

Top Box Illinois developed partnerships designed to specifically support seniors, one of the most vulnerable populations to both COVID-19 and food insecurity, through home grocery deliveries to nearly 1,000 senior households weekly.

Technology Moves the Needle

With our organizational footprint growing to meet our community's needs, we implemented technological solutions to expand our capacity, while removing barriers to access and improving the experience for partners and households we serve.

Our new website is designed with each of our stakeholders in mind. Along with integrated routing software and curated communications to meet the needs of those with and without reliable internet access, we provide community members with a high-quality and efficient experience, while making it possible for our team to reach more households each and every day.

Healthy Food Access for All

Our vision for the future is big, but with the collaboration of a network of partners and supporters, we know it’s possible.

We envision every individual and family, every child and senior, having the nutritious food we all need for a healthy, long life.

We envision high-quality, nutritious groceries, including culturally-informed and diet-flexible options, available and affordable in every community.

We envision a greener food system, with locally grown and produced foods that households of all income levels can afford.

We envision lower rates of illnesses closely tied to poor diet and nutrition, and improved health and well-being in every neighborhood.

Sounds good to you? Join us! We’ll make this vision for community health a reality - together.