Community Service Center ready to feed Rantoul high-schoolers

RANTOUL, Ill. (WCIA) — The Community Service Center in Rantoul is back and ready for the Eagles Nest Food Pantry on Thursday.

They’ve been running it for nearly two years. High school students can come grab food and toiletries during lunch or after school. The pantry will be open every first and third Thursday of the month.

Community Service Center Executive Director Cindy Crawford said more than 50% of students in Rantoul come from low-income households.

“I want to make sure that there’s no hungry kids — at least not on my watch — and so when I found out that that there was no food pantry for the Rantoul Township High School students, that really bothered me,” she said. “And I wanted to make sure that we could jump in and meet that need. You know, Feeding Our Kids takes care of the grade school and junior high kids with backpacks going home on Fridays. But there was nothing available for our high school students, and I’m just not okay with that.”

Crawford said her goal is to have it open all week long once they find more volunteers. Freshman students have to contact a faculty member in order to get food or wait until after school.

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