Food bank moving into former Kmart on Sandy Hollow Road

ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) — The Northern Illinois Food Bank is moving into the old Kmart building on Sandy Hollow Road.

The food bank serves six counties in the region.

Sen. Steve Stadelman (D-Rockford) helped secure $50,000 in funding from the ReBuild Illinois capitol spending bill, for the new location, at 1397 Sandy Hollow Road, and over $200,000 in donations have also been raised. It hopes to raise $600,000 for the project, by the end of the year.

One in seven residents of Winnebago County deal with food insecurity, not knowing where their next meal will come from.

President Julie Yurko said, “Our new space is 50% larger than where we are currently. Most important to me, is that we’re now going to have space where we can have folks shopping for fresh, nutritious groceries, while we have folks sorting and processing fresh nutritious food to get into that market. All while in the back, neighbors can pick up online orders and agencies can come and pick up food.”

The Northern Illinois Food Bank has been serving Winnebago, Boone, DeKalb, Ogle, Stephenson, and McHenry Counties for over 40 years from a 19,000-square-foot facility which it has since outgrown due to demand. The new location, set to open later this year, expands that footprint to 30,000 square feet.

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