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Glencoe woman stocks pantry shelves with grocery raffle win
Linda Greenberg, center, went to Glencoe's Grand Food Center on May 24 to officially turn over a $2,500 food rafffle prize to charity, and was surprised to be met there by Rabbi Steven Stark Lowenstein, left, and fellow temple volunteer Linda Ginsurg, ri
Updated: July 3, 2012 12:44PM
Linda Greenberg has a couple of kids with healthy appetites who check in from college regularly, but she just gave away $2,500 worth of food.
Greenberg won the grand prize in a free raffle celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Grand Food Center in Winnetka, 606 Green Bay Road, which was also available at the Glencoe branch, 341 Hazel Ave. where she shops.
Greenberg, of Glencoe, split up the $2,500 between the New Trier Food Pantry and Am Shalom congregation’s feed-the-homeless program.
“You guys can do better with it,” she said, grinning at her rabbi, Steven Stark Lowenstein; Brian Leverenz, community services administrator for the township; and Linda Ginsburg, one of four co-chairs of the homeless program.
Leverenz’s outfit can use the food, as demand has about doubled in three years.
Timing’s not bad, because donations come in slowly during the summer, when none of the holidays that spur generosity are in sight.
Those looking to donate to the food pantry at 739 Elm St., Winnetka, might consider paper goods, because those can’t be purchased with food stamps, Leverenz said.
Laundry detergent, condiments and canned tuna are also good bets, because donors rarely think about them, Leverenz said.
“We don’t need beans and mac ‘n’ cheese,” he added.
Greenberg often volunteers at her 840 Vernon Ave. temple’s monthly sandwich-making days, when 400 sandwiches are boxed up for Palatine-based PADS (Public Action to Deliver Shelter) and the Greater Bethlehem Healing Temple Church, at West Madison Street and Oakley Boulevard in Chicago.
The Glencoe temple gets its food from Grand, which sells 80 loaves of bread and six trays of turkey at cost each month, Lowenstein said.
Other donors to the Am Shalom effort are Deerfield Bakery in Buffalo Grove, the Highland Park Chipotle, and Starbucks in Glencoe, Ginsburg said.
