UChicago Medicine AdventHealth is increasing food access for families in need in the western suburbs through the organization’s team member-supported 24/7 micro pantries.
Food drives organized by the surgical services and cardiac catheterization team members at UChicago Medicine AdventHealth Hinsdale recently provided nonperishable food items for a micro pantry that the hospital operates in partnership with the Hinsdale Seventh-day Adventist Church located across the street from the hospital.
The Hinsdale Community Orchestra hosted a benefit concert in fall of 2024 at UChicago Medicine AdventHealth La Grange, supporting the Hinsdale micro pantry and a new one set to open at the La Grange hospital. Concertgoers were asked to bring two or more nonperishable food items, and their generous response made a significant impact.
“We now have a good back supply for our new La Grange micro pantry,” said Heather Hoffman, regional director of clinical mission integration at UChicago Medicine AdventHealth. “The concert gave us a big boost.” Even team members who could not attend the concert supported the cause, emailing Hoffman to ask where they could drop off their donations. “Our team members just naturally have this desire to serve our community, which is a beautiful thing,” she said.
To raise awareness of the micro pantries among team members at Hinsdale and La Grange, the mission and ministry department at both hospitals distributed a flyer earlier in the year encouraging team members to organize departmental food drives. Additionally, Hoffman also began sending out a quarterly email to Hinsdale and La Grange team members, inviting them to support the initiative by donating food or coordinating drives. She often receives enthusiastic responses, with many team members expressing their eagerness to participate by saying, “I would love to do that!’’
Hoffman is also focused on establishing a sustainable framework for supporting the micro pantries at Hinsdale and La Grange, ensuring they are regularly monitored and restocked. She hopes to replicate a shared-ownership model similar to the successful approach used by UChicago Medicine AdventHealth GlenOaks and Bolingbrook, which has effectively supported their micro pantries for several years.
Under this model, individual hospital departments take responsibility for monitoring and stocking the micro pantry for a week or two each year, and a schedule is created to ensure each department is aware when they are in charge. “With this model, team-member donations are scheduled throughout the year,” Hoffman said. “It’s a very easy way for our team members and departments to get involved and to support our community in a different way.”
It is also a great way to promote whole-person care and to further UChicago Medicine AdventHealth’s mission of Extending the Healing Ministry of Christ, Hoffman said. “Christ’s healing ministry came about because He was meeting people’s needs, and He often would sit with a person over a meal to see what those needs were,” she said. “To really care for people wholistically to the best of our abilities, we must think creatively about how to meet their needs. Much of that is about building trust within our communities. If people trust us because we are addressing food insecurity or other needs, then maybe they also will consider listening to us about diabetes prevention, healthy lifestyle tips and all the things we want to share with them to keep our communities whole and healthy.”
To learn more about how to support UChicago Medicine AdventHealth’s micro pantries, contact Hoffman at Heather.Hoffman@AdventHealth.com or (630) 452-7386.
Katie Quirke, marketing specialist at UChicago Medicine AdventHealth
