Chef Gruneberg, who is the Executive Chef at Spiaggia when she's not off being fabulous, has created an Genoa-inspired wrap. Proceeds go to the Greater Chicago Food Depository. more ›

Tickets are still available for one of the best dinners of the year. With food insecurity at record levels, GCFD needs all the help you can give. more ›

The continuing recession and high unemployment means food security is at a low point in Chicago. more ›

Food stamp use among Americans is at an all time high. Progress Illinois reports one in five Americans receive food stamps. Earlier this year, nearly 2 million people in Illinois received aid from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which administers the program. Cook County had the highest concentration of recipients, a total of 950,300. A record number 45 million Americans received food stamp assistance in May. more ›

Remember Can Mario? Yeah, that was great. Turns out it's part of a much larger project - CANstruction. During CANstruction, architecture and engineering firms compete to build amazing sculptures out of food cans. There are ribbons, prizes and all the food is donated to the Greater Chicago Food Depository. Whole Foods is a sponsor of the event - hence the great can Mario. The sculptures are on display until the end of May, and if you go to the Mart you can vote for your favs. Some of them are worth looking at - there's a Wrigley Field, a box of Fruit Loops and a tableau of the Water Tower during the Chicago Fire. Check them out! more ›

The Greater Chicago Food Depository does some of the most important work there is - making sure our fellow Chicagoans are well fed. Since this mission lines up with our own (though on a somewhat different level), we whole-heartedly support their efforts. They also happen to throw some of the best benefit dinners in the business. On May 15, the Food Depository will be hosting its 15th Annual Girl Food Dinner at West Town Tavern. The 5-course meal, cooked entirely by female chefs, will blow your socks off, and the $150 ticket price goes right to the food depository. more ›

Last night, the most exciting culinary destination in Chicago was Hot Chocolate. After six years of great success with her restaurant, Mindy Segal threw a party. Not just any party - a "Bad Ass Chicks" dinner party. Since we love to celebrate great women chefs at Chicagoist, we were particularly excited to hear that this year's event would be cooked exclusively by women. As is traditional with Hot Chocolate anniversary dinners, charity, not decadent vanity, was the order of the evening - all proceeds went to Share Our Strength. As the menu said: 6 Years of Hot Chocolate + 6 Craft Beers + 6 Awesome Women Chefs = Share Our Strength." And share we did! more ›

Last Wednesday, we attended the latest "86 Hunger" dinner at Naha, benefitting the Greater Chicago Food Depository. This series of dinners, hosted by some of Chicago's best chefs, brings together food lovers who care about problem of hunger in the city. They get a chance to eat some great food and donate a fairly serious chunk of money to charity. When the dinner is cooked by Sarah Stegner (of Prairie Fire) and Carrie Nahabedian (of Naha) it goes without saying that the food will be worthy of the cause. If you like what you see, there are two more 86 Hunger dinners coming up in the next few weeks, hosted by Custom House and Boka - check for details after the jump. more ›

It's been quite a week for 5th Ward Ald. Leslie Hairston. After putting feelers out about running against Daley for mayor of Chicago she then backpedaled and played the "misunderstood" card. So it was only a little awkward yesterday when she appeared before the fourth estate with Mayor Daley to laud the opening of a Walgreens that sells fruit and vegetables in a South Side food desert that only a mega-corporation could love. more ›

According to Feeding America, 1 out of every 4 children in the country are food insecure,which means they live on the brink of going hungry. In her 2009 Food Desert Progress Report, researcher Mari Gallagher estimated over 600,000 Chicagoans lived in areas of the city that weren't easily accessible to fresh groceries. Of that number, one-third are children. What serves as a grocery store in these areas is often a corner convenience store with limited options for fresh, canned or frozen food. Ultimately, residents of food deserts are typically buying junk food with their money or SNAP assistance, which increases the childhood obesity epidemic in these neighborhoods, as well as increased health risks. more ›

If you’ve already been working on your taxes, you’ve probably noticed the “tax check-off” charity options on your Illinois state returns. If you are doing your taxes on paper, these are found in Schedule G - if online, they come somewhere near the end of the state section. One of the donation options on the list is particularly close to our hearts - the “Feeding Illinois” option. more ›

The USDA released its annual report on Household Food Security (which is a sanitized way of saying "hunger") yesterday and the results were sobering. An estimated 17 million households, or 14.6 percent of the population, has experienced "food insecurity" at one point in the past twelve months. These figures are the highest since the USDA started tracking numbers in 1995. more ›

After years of planning, networking and raising funds, the Dill Pickle Food Co-op is finally set to open on November 21 at 3039 W. Fullerton. Neighborhood-owned co-ops aren't a new thing, but they are risible propositions in these times; the recent history of the former Hyde Park Co-Op stands as a reminder of how tricky running a grocery cooperative is. Dill PIckle Co-Op plans are ambitious: they'll be stocking fresh, local organic produce and claim to have one of the largest bulk food sections in the city. more ›

In case anyone hasn’t gotten the memo, the economy sucks. In our beat, that usually means more coverage of expensive restaurants closing their doors, but there is a larger world beyond the reach of truffles and foie gras. Visits to the Greater Chicago Food Depository are up 35% this year, as more and more people need help to feed their families. Some of Chicago’s best chefs have decided to do something about it - and you can help them out. Plus, you can get some pretty amazing food. What could be better? more ›

This year's festival draws to a close with tonight's Best of the Fest screenings. Two movies that we liked immensely, Sparrow and Hunger, get repeat showings, as well as eleven other features and a program of award-winning shorts. The full schedule is here. more ›

The winners for this year's Chicago International Film Festival have been announced, and the top prize (known as the Gold Hugo) went to Hunger. We heartily concur. Even if we never have the occasion to see it again, this is a searing piece of cinema that we'll not forget. The film also won the Silver Hugo Award for Best Actor. Michael Fassbinder's portrayal of Bobby Sands was singled out for "exemplifying the ideal of 'being' rather than acting.'" more ›

This is part of Chicagoist's coverage of the Chicago International Film Festival. more ›

There have been recent depressing reports of food banks like the Greater Chicago Food Depository suffering from some negative effects of rising gas prices. But the month of June holds some fun and alternative ways to support this particular organization and help to fight hunger in Chicago: more ›