Julia Mendoza

For more than 50 years, Nourishing Hope (formerly Lakeview Pantry) has served as an invaluable resource in Chicago, ensuring our low-income neighbors have enough to eat and have access to critical, and sometimes lifesaving, social services. Together, we have directly improved the lives of thousands of our community members. Last year, the Pantry served nearly 200,000 people throughout the city with 4 million meals. Our approach focuses on meeting the immediate hunger needs of our clients, then moving onto longer-term solutions that empower clients to become independent. Our mission is to eliminate hunger and poverty in our community by providing food to fill the basic need of hungry people; empowering our clients to gain independence through innovative social service programs; and raising awareness of hunger and poverty and working towards solutions to eliminate them. Our vision is to be a reliable and innovative hunger-relief resource in the communities we serve, and to be a model of dignified, effective, and collaborative service delivery. We will realize this vision by remaining proactive and adaptable to changing circumstances, while constantly striving to improve. Our ultimate goal is a hunger-free Chicago.