Northern Illinois Food Bank is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that focuses on providing food to those in need in northern Illinois. Partnerships and donors allow for more than 71,000 people to be fed each week through different programs. Northern Illinois Food Bank operates in 13 counties surrounding Chicago. The organization has four distribution centers located in Geneva, Rockford, Park City, and Joliet, which distribute food to pantries who then allocate the food to people. History In 1982, Sister Rosemarie Burian decided to create a food bank out of DuPage County, Illinois. In 1983 she opened the Bethlehem Center, now known as the Northern Illinois Food Bank. Nearly 64,000 pounds of food were allocated among 80 different food pantries during Bethlehem Center's first year of operation. By 1985 the center serviced over 100 food pantries in DuPage, Will, Kane, and McHenry counties in Northern Illinois. In 1992, Northern Illinois Food Bank became a certified affiliate of Feeding America, the nation's food bank network. In October 2001, they opened their second distribution center in Park City. The third distribution center was opened in Rockford in 2005. By 2008, they were distributing 22 million pounds of food. In 2011, they had more than 600 partners organizations placing orders and 36 million pounds of food were distributed. Their fourth distribution center opened in 2018, in Joliet. Julie Yurko was name President and CEO of the food bank in 2014. Partnerships Donations come from food corporations and from grocery stores who give slightly damaged and unsellable goods. In 2007, they started working with Sam's Club and in that year alone they donated 1 million pounds of food. In 2009, Walmart donated 40 refrigerated trucks and Northern Illinois Food Bank managed to get one of them. In 2010, Highland Park Hospital donated $10,000. Jewel-Osco has donated food to the Northern Illinois Food Bank since the late 1980s. In 2017, Jewel-Osco's Bensenville location donated 38,000 cans of garbanzo beans to the food bank which helped provide an estimated 35,000 meals to those in need. In the same year they donated 14 million pounds of food, and in 2018, Jewel-Osco partnered with Hormel Foods and donated 33,122 jars of peanut butter, enough to make 500,000 sandwiches. In 2016, Tyson Foods donated 108,049 pounds of protein to the food bank. Donations not only come from food corporations, other organizations donate money as well, such as the MetLife Foundation that