Our approach focuses on meeting the immediate hunger needs of our clients and then moving on to longer-term solutions that empower clients to become independent. 

 

The Above and Beyond Food Pantry was founded to provide food for those in the community who cannot access it due to food insecurity or food apartheid.

 

Food insecurity is a lack of access to fresh, nutritious food. In contrast, food apartheid is the racially discriminatory political structure of both past and present that impacts food access in a community. But distributing free food to those who need it is just a short-term solution to a long-term problem in the community. We need to address the root causes of food insecurity in the Garfield Park community, and to do that, we offer more than just-food.

 

We offer our clients:

• Access to social services

• On-site case management

• Housing support

• Employment support

• Mental health services

• Counseling

• Public benefits assistance (SNAP, Healthcare, Government Forms)

• In addition to giving out hundreds of thousands of pounds of nutritious food using a client-choice distribution model.