Every Tuesday morning, a group of volunteers meets United Way of Lee County Programs and Operations Coordinator Elisa Gatz outside the Dixon Public Library to help her stock the organization’s mini food center.

That center is one of six across Lee, Ogle, Carroll and Whiteside counties that were funded in part by an ACTion grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that the Ogle County Health Department received in 2023. United Way of Lee County took over managing the center in Dixon when it opened in June 2025, and it’s one of two new programs the organization launched that year.

“My favorite day of the week is stocking the mini food center,” Gatz said.

United Way of Lee County Executive Director Ashley Richter said Gatz has regulars who show up every Tuesday to meet her, help with stocking and take what food they need.

“It’s a little community amongst itself. I love being there and talking to them,” Gatz said.

One Tuesday after stocking, Gatz said she was “jumping around” at the United Way office, “saying how my heart was full because I went to the mini food center.”

A mini food center is an enclosed shed stocked with dry goods, and it has a refrigerator and freezer that are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to provide food for those in need. Richter said the centers remove many barriers for those in need and for donors because they’re open 24/7. Food donations can be dropped off at any time.

“Food never lasts very long in there,” Gatz said, referring to the Dixon center. “I fill it to the brim Tuesday mornings, and by Tuesday afternoon, it’s empty. There’s still an incredible need for more food.”

That need hit a high point in late 2025 when the federal government shutdown temporarily froze Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, prompting food banks and pantries across the Sauk Valley to brace for an uptick in visitors while already struggling to meet increased demand. That increased need was coupled with low supply, which exacerbated the problem.

When those benefits froze, “I think that the mini food center was a great resource to the community to help just fill those gaps,” Richter said. She added that “it was really cool to see how our community responded.”

Community members came out to support local resources, such as the mini food center and area food pantries. Businesses also held food drives with incentives such as discounts on store items if customers donated canned food, Richter said.

Another program that United Way of Lee County runs related to food access is its Summer Eats meal program, which started in 2017. It provides free grab-and-go meals to children under 18 each year, when school is out of session, at various sites in Lee and Ogle counties.

“That program just continues to grow,” Richter said, adding that each year it takes all of United Way’s employees and hundreds of volunteers to run.

Addison Noble, who now works at United Way, said she applied for the job after volunteering with that program in 2025.

“I actually left in tears just because it was so sweet. It’s like a bittersweet moment that you’re helping out,” Noble said. “I absolutely fell in love with the work.”

The second program United Way of Lee County launched in 2025 was Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which aims to address the nationwide decline in literacy by instilling a love of reading in children at an early age. In the program, families with children from birth to age 5 can sign up and have a free, age-appropriate book mailed to them every month.

“That was something that we felt strongly about because literacy and education are one of our pillars at United Way,” Richter said.

Community book bash events will be hosted this summer at every library in Lee County to promote the program and get families signed up, Richter said.

“It’s fun seeing the little kids’ faces when we do the book bashes,” Gatz said. “The crafts last year, it was so cute to see what they came up with.”

Another literacy program United Way runs is its free Little Libraries, book exchanges where people can take a book or leave a book at locations around the county.

The program launched in 2016 after Shaw Local donated four old newspaper dispensers, local artists volunteered to paint them, and the Dixon Park District installed them at parks around town. In late 2024, United Way teamed up with local artists again to repaint them and installed three more libraries, bringing its total to 10.

Richter said before coming to United Way, she worked at the YMCA in Sterling for about eight years, which was her first job after graduating from college.

“It was almost like I only ever knew nonprofit work, and so after working at the YMCA, you kind of feel the pull to the mission. It was really important to me to feel like the work that you do makes a difference,” Richter said.

Gatz previously worked with Richter at that YMCA and has since retired, but came to United Way because of her connection with Richter and her belief she had an opportunity to give back.

Richter, Gatz and Noble agreed that their favorite parts about working with United Way of Lee County are the community and the impact the organization has on it.

“I love being able to work with everyone in the community,” Richter said. “I feel like United Way is a central hub of the community that is always kind of keeping tabs on, you know, what are our community’s needs? How can we help?”

One example of how the organization brings people together is its annual Day of Caring. The 2025 event was a collaboration with United Way of Ogle County and brought over 125 volunteers together who completed 23 projects in just three to four hours.

“You just think of this collective impact through this morning of volunteering, all the hours that people gave and the projects that were able to be completed,” Richter said.