Catholic Charities brought together the leaders of the Greater Chicago Food Depository, Big Shoulders Fund and Metropolitan Family Services for a luncheon and panel discussion about their work in honor of the World Day of the Poor Nov. 12.
The event came just before Congress voted to end the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history, while people who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for help buying food were unable to access their benefits.
Kate Maehr, executive director and CEO of the Greater Chicago Food Depository, urged those present to advocate for the SNAP program.
Each dollar paid out in SNAP benefits generates $1.70 in local economic activity, she said, because recipients use the money to buy food in local stores that employ local residents and buy their merchandise from manufacturers who, in turn, buy agricultural products from American farmers.
While it appeared that SNAP benefits would become available after the shutdown ended, the massive federal appropriations bill passed in July 2025 was set to increase employment requirements and reduce some eligibility for the program in the coming months, Maehr said.
Those provisions will leave people without access to the food they need to thrive.
“There is a myth that hunger in America is a supply-chain problem,” Maehr said. “That if we could only unlock more food, we could take care of the hunger problem. It is not the supply chain that causes the problem. It’s poverty. We have tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people here in Cook County who do everything right, but when they get to the end of the month, they have just enough money in their bank accounts to make the decision of do I pay the rent or go to the grocery store?”
Many use food pantries and the other programs supported by the depository to fill the gap, she said.
Sally Blount, the president and CEO of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago, started the presentation by sharing slides showing that, for families whose incomes are in the bottom 20%, inflation-adjusted income has remained stagnant for the last 50 years. Those in the next three quintiles have seen only very modest gains in real income, while the top 20% of earners have seen significant growth.
The increase is even steeper for the top 5% of incomes, and for the top 1%, she said, it is literally off the chart.
For those who are struggling, Blount said, the safety net comes from three sources: the government, charitable and non-profit agencies and extended family. But the government, with programs such as SNAP and Medicaid, is by far the largest source of support, with 70 to 90 percent of the resources offered.
Ric Estrada, CEO of Metropolitan Family Services, shared his personal story of having come to Chicago at age 7, without proper immigration status, and living with his family in a basement apartment in Little Village.
The SNAP program, he said, works well for everyone because recipients get a card that looks like a debit card and can use it to pay for the food they choose, just like anyone else.
“It allows the poor folks in the community to not feel poor,” he said. “You get to keep your human dignity.”
Metropolitan Family Services is active in a variety of areas, he said, including early childhood and adult education, economic stability, mental and behavioral health, domestic violence, human trafficking, and, since 2017, violence prevention.
Josh Hale, president and CEO of Big Shoulders Fund, said the Catholic schools supported by the fund are in many of the same communities where the other agencies are working.
“These are neighborhoods with historic disinvestment,” Hale said. “It’s not like these communities didn’t have talent, but that talent wasn’t always connected to opportunities. These schools are ultimately community-based organizations. They are seen as beacons of hope.”
The most important thing, he said, is for all of the organizations and the communities they serve to work together and learn from one another.