The Rochelle Christian Food Pantry at 770 Lincoln Ave. set a record for families served in August 2025, RCFP Board Member Cal Jacobs said Sept. 25, 2025.

The food pantry that serves Rochelle served 747 families during its nine openings in August, with an average of 83 families per day. Its previous record was an average of 73 families per day in a month. Jacobs said RCFP is seeing about 3-4 new client families per week.

The RCFP has seen numbers rise in recent years. The food pantry is open Tuesdays and Fridays from 12:30-3:30 p.m. People can either pick up boxes or come in and do their own shopping. On distribution days, cars are often lined up as early as 9 a.m. and occasionally distribution starts early to serve the large number of people in time.

“We’re keeping up with the need,” Jacobs said. “It keeps us busy. We’re always looking for more volunteers. It takes 15-16 people every day we open the doors. Getting 16 people to volunteer twice a week is a task, but we’re getting through it so far. I started here in 2020. We were running about 35-40 families a day. Now we’re up to 70-80. The need has nearly doubled in the past five years.”

Jacobs and RCFP attribute the rise in need to the economy and reductions in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits post COVID-19.

“SNAP benefits went way up during COVID-19 and now they’re coming back down,” Jacobs said. “People were used to getting $700-800 per month and are now getting $200-300. That hasn’t helped. Inflation and prices at the grocery store are big issues as well. Those are the reasons we hear from clients when they come in.”

President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law July 4. The legislation makes almost $200 billion in cuts in the next 10 years to SNAP. The bill changes eligibility requirements, putting an estimated 360,000 Illinoisans at risk of losing SNAP benefits. Area food pantries expect an increase in demand when the SNAP cuts take effect.

SNAP is a federal program that provides monthly benefits to low-income individuals and families to help them purchase food. Gov. JB Pritzker’s office has said that almost 1 in 5 Illinois SNAP recipients are at risk of losing food benefits.

Cuts to SNAP won’t take full effect until after the 2026 midterm elections. Along with the change in eligibility requirements, Illinois and other states will have to cover a greater portion of costs for the SNAP program.

“I don’t see the need slowing down,” Jacobs said. “Once it gets this high and with all the new people we’re getting every week, I think it’s going to continue to grow. It’s been sustainable for us to be able to support this many people so far. If someone asked me if we could support this many people in 2020, I would’ve said they were crazy.”

RCFP has had days where it served as many as 120 families. Jacobs said years ago, serving 60 families in a day was considered a high number, but now numbers are consistently in the 70s, 80s and 90s.

“The work our volunteers do is huge,” Jacobs said. “If it wasn’t for them, this place wouldn’t be open. Nobody here gets anything for their work. They just volunteer their time. I spend about 40 hours a month here. I like to do it. I like to give back. It’s not much more work to serve this much more people. We don’t have to do anything special. We just have to do what we usually do, many more times an hour than we did before.”

Jacobs said that RCFP is always accepting donations, and canned goods is its highest need area. He thanked the community for its volunteer efforts along with donations of food and money. If people want to donate or volunteer, they can stop by the food pantry at 770 Lincoln Ave. on Tuesdays and Fridays.

This year, RCFP has seen large donations of $15,000 from From the Heart, $5,000 from the Rochelle Moose Lodge, $5,000 from United Way, and $5,000 from Rochelle Foods. Jacobs said the food pantry’s mission could not be met without that support.

Rochelle Foods also recently donated $5,000 to the Rochelle Area Community Foundation’s Rochelle Foods Hunger Challenge Fund, which was established in 2011 by Jacobs when he was the plant manager at Rochelle Foods. The fund has grown from $5,000 to over $200,000 and now grants out over $8,000 a year to the RCFP or school programs that provide meals for kids.

“Getting donations like the one from Rochelle Foods means the world,” Jacobs said. “When I was there for 16 years I had several opportunities to work someplace else. And every time I turned it down. Because I love the community and I loved my workforce. The community is very giving. Every time there was somebody in the plant that had a challenge, everyone in the plant pitched in to help. There are fantastic people in this community.”

The Rochelle Christian Food Pantry is the only organization of its kind in Rochelle.

“Without RCFP here, there would be a lot more homeless people,” Jacobs said. “There would be a lot more starving people. We’re the linch pin to the food distribution in the community. We have people who come from other towns. They say they come because they heard how good our pantry is and how much we have to offer and give away. We only serve them one time and tell them to find a place in their own community. Because we’re servicing our area and the people in it.”