New building expands People’s Resource Center’s capacity

For decades, the People’s Resource Center operated its food pantry and provided social services in a building it had outgrown from the time it moved in.

Not anymore. With the recent completion of an 11,000-square-foot building, the Wheaton-based nonprofit now has a two-building campus with an expanded parking lot between the original location at 201 S. Naperville Road and the new one at 211 S. Naperville Road.

The result of an $8 million “Building a Better Tomorrow” capital campaign, the new two-story building better positions the People’s Resource Center (PRC) to counter ever-increasing food insecurity and provide services such as computer training, job assistance and financial literacy courses, its leaders say.

An overwhelming majority of the more than 25,000 DuPage County residents the PRC serves utilize its food pantry. The last two years have seen the group’s highest volume of food distribution, CEO Jenifer Fabian said.

“The need became so much more visible and the need has not subsided, and we’re so grateful to be able to meet that need with greater capacity and dignified services through the opening of this new building,” Fabian said.

An expansion had been planned since 2019, she said. Groundbreaking for the new building began in January 2024, and the organization recently held a ribbon-cutting event to celebrate its completion.

PRC also has a Westmont location plus partnerships with churches, township buildings and libraries in more than a dozen towns in DuPage County. PRC handles about 5,300 calls annually for its resources with the help of more than 2,300 volunteers.

First operating out of a house in 1975 and then from several rental properties, the 50-year-old nonprofit had occupied the space at 201 S. Naperville Road since 1995.

Fabian said PRC was “immediately full” upon moving into that two-story building.

“People would be spilling out into the hallways,” said Michelle Clegg, director of Leadership Giving.

The new building features improved accessibility and looks and feels roomy.

A first-floor foyer, reception desk and intake area allows neighbors to register as PRC clients and visit with volunteers to update their information and request services.

According to Allison Rickard, vice president of advancement at PRC, more than 80% of its clients use the nonprofit for food. PRC distributed roughly 4 million pounds of food in 2023, about half rescued from grocery store overstock, Marketing Manager Carl Alston said.

The new pantry offers wider aisles and more room to display and stock its goods. It has a new walk-in cooler and a walk-in freezer.

The loading area is larger than the entire pantry at 201 S. Naperville Road. For the first time, PRC simultaneously can accept food donations while serving clients, Alston said.

Imagine, he said, being able to roll a pallet of food straight from a loading dock into the walk-in cooler. It was too tight a squeeze to do that before — and there was no loading dock.

The second floor offers private meeting spaces where neighbors can talk one-on-one with volunteers to discuss services such as job coaching and tutoring.

It also has offices for staff and volunteers, some of whom had occupied rooms barely larger than a closet. A rooftop deck off the end of the hall, over the first-floor storage area and loading dock, offers event space.

Overall, Alston called it “a huge upgrade.”

At 201 S. Naperville Road, PRC will provide services such as art classes, computer training, a computer refurbishment program, and a “Clothes Closet” opening this spring.

“It is so exciting to be at this moment in PRC’s history,” Fabian said.

https://www.dailyherald.com/20250224/news/new-building-expands-peoples-resource-centers-capacity/