New food pantry opens in West Garfield Park at Legler Regional Library

A new food pantry is open in West Garfield Park. 

The new pantry was unveiled Thursday morning at the Legler Regional Library on Pulaski Road and Monroe Street. This initiative is part of the Library-Based Food Access program. 

The pantry opened in partnership with the Greater Chicago Food Depository. It will provide residents with access to fresh foods, serving one of Chicago's communities in need. 

"Food and beautiful public spaces, access to books and information, these are all, in fact, rights," the CEO of the Greater Chicago Food Depository said. 

City officials said the program officially soft-launched on July 31. 

"In its first eight weeks, the pantry, while modest in scale, served 786 households and has since served an estimated 600 households each month, demonstrating immediate demand and deep community reliance," City officials said in a written release.