Description
United Human Services Center is a small non-profit organization in the Back of the Yards neighborhood of Chicago. We provide 4 services within our community:
1. Food Pantry - Every Monday we collect food from the Greater Chicago Food Depository and distribute it to poor families that come to our pantry every Tuesday. Each week we serve approximately 150 families with groceries to last 1-2 weeks. We also provide emergency pantry services every Saturday. The emergency pantry service is supposed to provide hungry families and individuals with wholesome food to tide them over during these times of crisis (ie - unemployment, fire, family violence, medical problems, and other difficult situations).
2. Non-Emergency Medical Transportation - We provide transportation to medical/dental appointments for people who have Medicaid as their health insurance. Appointments utilizing the UHSC van are made at least twenty-four hours in advance by clients and include service to and from the individual’s home.
3. Community Outreach - Before the food pantry begins, 1 hour of time is allocated to offering pantry participants spiritual motivation and inspiration for the week. A large number of community residents attend this time of spiritual uplifting, numbering 50-75 each week.
4. Urban Agricultural Initiative - UHSC has transformed one vacant city lot into an urban garden at 1901 West 51st Street. Various foods are grown there and sold to individuals. Some of this food is also given to food pantry clients. UHSC has also offered to teach any interested parties (youth or adult) on the techniques of urban agriculture so that people have a skill that can produce food and income.
