GENEVA – Northern Illinois Food Bank, based in Geneva, will begin a five-year collaborative journey as it unveils its new strategic plan called Unite, officials announced in a news release.

The new strategic plan is the culmination of more than a year of preliminary work and planning to identify key strategies and to increase collaboration among its network of 900 agencies and feeding programs, neighbors and supporters.

The plan will guide the co-creation of programs to ensure that everyone the Northern Illinois Food Bank serves has equitable access to the quantity and quality of the food they need and want, the release stated.

In conjunction with the new strategic plan, Northern Illinois Food Bank has adopted new vision and mission statements, which will guide the continued development of organizational culture in the coming years.

The new vision statement is: For everyone in Northern Illinois to have the food they need to thrive.

The new mission statement is: To provide nutritious food and resources for our neighbors, with dignity, equity and convenience, through partnerships and innovation.

Unite is centered around five interconnected strategic pathways – embrace diversity, equity and inclusion; enhance food supply; empower our neighbors; engage our network; and evolve the Food Bank. Within each pathway are strategies and detailed measures of success, the release stated.

Julie Yurko, president and CEO of Northern Illinois Food Bank, stated in the release that they chose “Unite as our strategic plan’s theme, because we did not develop this plan alone and we will not achieve it alone.”

“The cornerstone of Unite is rooted in collaboration and reaching even more neighbors with new approaches, enhancing their overall experience,” Yurko stated in the release.

The key to achieving the new strategic plan’s goals is a heightened understanding of what the Food Bank’s neighbors need and want to feel safe, welcomed and valued when they seek help.

Unite addresses this by seeking feedback and input directly from neighbors to drive food sourcing and accessibility decisions.

The plan also calls for enhancing direct-to-neighbor approaches such as mobile and online markets, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program outreach and direct marketing to meet growing community needs and add food distributions at some of its existing centers in order to reach more food-insecure neighbors in 2025, the release stated.

Dirk Locascio, board chairman of the Northern Illinois Food Bank, stated in the release that, “With our strategic partners Boston Consulting Group and See What I Mean, the Food Bank leadership team engaged with our stakeholders to gather information and shape our efforts for the future through the new plan.”

“We realize that achieving the goals outlined in Unite will require continued extraordinary commitment, investment and support of the community,” Locascio stated in the release.

More information about the strategic plan is available at solvehungertoday.org.

Northern Illinois Food Bank is also a member of Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-related organization.

The food bank serves 13 counties to provide 250,000 meals a day, bringing together manufacturers, local and corporate grocers, area farmers, corporations, foundations, and individuals who donate food and funding, the release stated.

Each week, nearly 1,000 volunteers help evaluate, repack, and distribute food.

The food bank also partners with more than 900 food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, and youth and senior feeding programs to provide food and resources, with distribution centers are in Geneva, Park City, Rockford and Joliet.

More information about the Northern Illinois Food Bank is available by visitingsolvehungertoday.org.