ABOUT US
About the Pantry
The Hyde Park Kenwood Food Pantry, a member agency of the Greater Chicago Food Depository, has been in operation for nearly 40 years on the mid-South Side. For the last 25+ years we have been located at the Hyde Park Union Church, which is a valuable partner in our work, and makes available to us its grand spaces, including the Social Hall, which is transformed into a grocery store on Saturdays. The former Director of the Food Pantry, Jan Deckenbach, served for over 30 years and her vision has left a lasting impact on the pantry. We implement a client choice model, such that we don’t tell people what to eat, but we offer what we have for them to choose.
The pantry offers an assortment of fresh fruits, vegetables, frozen meat, fish, and nonperishable groceries to its clients. It serves an average of 110 households, or approximately 340 persons each week, with 1/3 of them being children. The pantry distributes approximately 25,000 pounds of food each month, primarily from the Greater Chicago Food Depository, as well as fresh fruits and vegetables we are able to purchase on a weekly basis thanks to the generosity of our donors. Also, from July to October each year, the community garden at 62nd and Dorchester shares its freshly picked produce with our neighbors, and every week we participate in a food rescue program with a Jewel-Osco store in McKinley Park.
The pantry’s service boundaries include anyone residing within zip codes 60615, 60653 and 60637. Neighbors who live within these boundaries can pick up food twice a month. All who come are served on their first visit.
The Hyde Park-Kenwood Food Pantry relies on outstanding volunteers to set up its “grocery store” on Friday afternoons from 3:00-4:30 and run the operation on Saturdays, serving an average of 110 households in three hours, between 10:00-1:00. Volunteers (who typically are here from 9:30 until 1:30) perform tasks such as welcoming guests, staffing tables, escorting neighbors, packing orders, managing bag flow, putting stock away, and unloading large deliveries.
Our Mission
The Hyde Park-Kenwood Food Pantry seeks to address food insecurity in our neighborhood. We are committed to fostering a welcoming space marked by friendliness and respect.
We believe that the beauty in our pantry is that it is a place where neighbors (volunteers and clients) come together to share in one another’s company and our common need for healthy food for our families.
Meet the Team
Margy Mitchell – Pantry Director
Margy moved to Hyde Park in 1981, and has volunteered at the food pantry for over 24 years. She became Director of the food pantry in January, 2022, overseeing the day to day functions of the operation and strategic planning, and working with Onese and Filippos as a leadership team. Margy loves living in this neighborhood and especially enjoys meeting our amazing neighbors who come to the pantry for food each Saturday and working with our super group of volunteers. She also has the good fortune to be a professor at the University of Chicago Divinity School in the field of New Testament and Early Christian Literature.
Onese Ewherido – Deputy Director
Onese is an undergraduate student at the University of Chicago pursuing a degree in Comparative Human Development on the pre-med track. Raised in Houston by Nigerian parents, she began volunteering at the food pantry in June 2025 and has met many wonderful members of the Hyde Park and Kenwood communities as a result. She is grateful for this unique opportunity to learn from and serve this vibrant community every weekend.
Filippos Tsoukis – Deputy Director
Filippos moved from his beloved Athens to Hyde Park in 2024 and began volunteering in September of the following year. Since then, he has been glad to get to interact with and meet neighbours from the diverse middle-South side. He is fortunate to study Math and Physics at the University of Chicago, and enjoys riding his bike around the neighborhood, and up-and-down the lake-front.
