Spiros Law team works to raise donations for the Eastern Illinois Foodbank

Partner Miranda Soucie was crowned Prom Queen at the annual Eastern Illinois Prom fundraiser after raising $11,325.00 in donations. The event was a huge success with a record breaking $75,000.00 raised from this year’s Prom Court and a total of over $140,000.00 raised for our community. The annual Eastern Illinois Foodbank Prom Benefit helps raise money for the estimated 77,000 adults and 39,000 children in our local community that seek help from programs supported by the EIF every year. The EIF supports all of East Central Illinois, including Champaign, Coles, Douglas, Piatt, and Vermilion County.

Miranda’s effort to raise funds for the Eastern Illinois Foodbank has inspired the rest of the office to step up as well by donating some time to help at the food bank. This week Spiros Law employees met at the food bank to help label and repackage donated food, so it could be distributed to the EIF’s network of food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters and other emergency feeding programs.

Facts about EIF

• The Eastern Illinois Foodbank serves an 18-county area in Eastern Illinois covering just over 14,500 square miles.
• Champaign County’s poverty rate is estimated at 22.8%—higher than Cook County’s 17.1%. The Federal Poverty Level (FPL) is currently set at $24,600 per year for a family of four.
• 1 in 5 children in Eastern Illinois struggles with hunger. 1 in every 3 clients served by the Eastern Illinois Foodbank is a child.
• The Foodbank does not directly serve clients. They provide food to agencies like food pantries, soup kitchens, snack programs, and shelters who serve the hungry.
• Most of these agencies could not exist without the steady supply of subsidized and free food available at the Foodbank. In fact, 70% of the product that member agencies receive is from the Eastern Illinois Foodbank.
• In the past year, the Eastern Illinois Foodbank provided 10.7 million pounds of food – including 2 million pounds of produce – to over 220 agencies and programs feeding the hungry.
• The agencies and programs that the Foodbank supplies food to over 116,000 people each year.
• Many of the people who rely on the agencies the Foodbank serves are making impossible choices between paying for food and paying for housing, medication, or fuel.
• The Foodbank relies heavily on donated food from corporate partners. Nationally and locally, food donations are down. This means it has become much more expensive for the Foodbank to operate because it must purchase more food.
• The Foodbank is an affiliate member of Feeding America; with its national network of food banks numbering over 200, Feeding America is the largest domestic hunger-relief organization.
• Last year, the EIF provided over 8,900,000 meals to individuals in our community.

The entire team at Spiros Law, P.C. is proud to help with this great cause, and we highly encourage all of our friends and family in the community to join in and donate!