The food pantry is slicing 35 percent of its clients out of its service area starting with the new year. Facing a $50,000 cut in federal funding and a continuing spiral in demand from local and nearby residents, the Oak Park-River Forest Food Pantry has made the hard, wise choice to constrict its geography.
This, friends, is trickle down, and what is trickling down isn’t pleasant. The dysfunction and plain mean-spiritedness of our national politics is hitting home. When in the midst of this grim and continuing recession, the feds cut funding for so basic a service as a food pantry, we know our priorities are upside down and our humanity is wilting.
Local contributions are more essential than ever. More vital still is political will to reverse this horror show.