General Mills Foundation supports local food pantry

Staff Report

Rockford Life Center, 921 W. State St., Rockford, has been awarded a grant of $6,000 from the Community Action Council of the General Mills Foundation, Life Center’s Director of Business Development Angela Harris said Jan. 2.

“Life Center serves an average of 3,400 people throughout the four days the food pantry is open each month,” Harris said. “With more and more people relying on the pantry to feed their families each week, it is imperative we are able to keep up with the demand; these funds will help us do just that.

“Life Center continues to make a positive impact in each life we serve and in our community,” Harris added.

According to Harris, the grant awarded from the General Mills Foundation will be used to stock the pantry shelves with nutritious food items throughout the next few months to accommodate the nutritional needs of the continuously rising number of families seeking services each week.

“Families can expect to receive an abundance of healthy and nutritious perishable and non-perishable options that will hopefully stimulate healthy eating habits in the home,” Harris said.

Rockford Life Center provided cost-free services to more than 33,000 less-fortunate and poverty stricken people in Winnebago County in the past year. In addition to providing food, Life Center provides free clothing, hygiene products, over-the-counter medications, baby essentials, household items and furniture.

Additional Life Center programs and services include a Tutoring Club, Summer Kids Club, Tools for School/Pencils in the Park (backpacks and school supply distribution) and an adult Mentoring Class.

Upon establishment of the General Mills Foundation in 1954, they have awarded more than $420 million to nonprofit organizations in the communities in which they operate.

For more about Life Center, visit www.rockfordlifecenter.org or call (815) 964-4966. For more about the food pantry and the Greater Rockford Pantry Coalition, visit www.rockfordpantrycoalition.org.

From the Jan. 23-29, 2013, issue