Will County women’s group helps Bags of Hope with food assistance for students

Will County — The Will County Chapter of 100+ Women Who Care made the first donation of its charitable year Oct. 25 when it presented a check for $6,900 to Bags of Hope.

Bags of Hope is a Plainfield-based non-profit dedicated to fighting child hunger. The organization partners with schools in Plainfield, Lockport, and Joliet to ensure low-income students are not left hungry even after they go home for the day. Each week the group fills backpacks with food and sends them home with students to supplement the family’s pantry.

“We are extremely humbled by the support we have received in the last few years,” Bags of Hope Secretary Stephanie Jerabek said. “COVID opened the community’s eyes in regards to food insecurity in our area and made one of our dreams of being more involved in Plainfield schools a reality. With generous donations such as the one received from 100+ Women Who Care of Will County, we are able to provide a Thanksgiving Dinner and a Christmas breakfast box to participating families.”

Bags of Hope supports 160 to 200 students per week, some from the same families, and provides one box per family for each holiday. Thanksgiving dinner boxes include turkey, stuffing, gravy, canned soups, bread, pumpkin and apple pies, hot chocolate mix, and fresh and canned produce including potatoes and sweet potatoes, corn, green beans, seasonal fruit, celery, onions, and cranberries.

Christmas breakfast boxes include “everything you can think of for a Christmas morning breakfast and more,” according to Bags of Hope Founder and President Lana Howe. Among those items are eggs, bacon, sausage, milk, juice, biscuits and gravy mix, loaves of bread, fresh fruit, pancake mix, maple syrup, hot cocoa mix with marshmallows and whipped cream, and even cookies to share with Santa.

“We can’t thank them enough,” Howe said. “Without the support from the community, we can’t do any of this. People don’t always see it, but the need is here in the community and we always get more requests at this time of year, so we thank them tremendously for their help.”

100+ Women Who Care of Will County selects one charity four times per year to be the recipient of a donation. The 100+ Who Care alliance, which the women of Will County are an affiliate of, is based on the premise that if 100 people got together and each donated $100 to a cause, it would be an easy way to raise $10,000 for charity.

During each of the group’s quarterly meetings, members nominate a charity they think the group should support by putting organization names in a hat. Three charities are chosen at random, and members vote on which group should receive the quarterly donation before everyone writes a check to the winning group.

While Will County’s membership currently sits at 45 regular participants, non-members are invited to attend meetings and contribute, and the group has an ongoing partnership with the Richard M. Schulze Foundation, which matches 50 percent of its contributions to each charity, allowing them to contribute more to their recipients.

Bags of Hope was selected as the first charity of the 100+ Women Who Care of Will County’s first charity of the 2023-2024 “season” at the group’s September meeting. Their next meeting is on Nov. 14 from 6 to 7 p.m. at Coom’s Corner in Lockport.

“I’m so pleased that my involvement with 100 Women Who Care has allowed me to help an organization near and dear to my heart: Bags of Hope,” said member Laurie Tumino. “As an employee of a local school, I have seen firsthand the impact of the bags of food sent home with our kids. And as a volunteer delivering food during COVID and for summers and holidays, I have been able to witness the gratitude of those families receiving this extra help.”