Relieve Hunger, Nourish Lives 

Hunger Relief for Aurora, IL and Kane County

More than 62,000 people suffer from hunger and undernutrition in Kane County. The Marie Hunger Relief at Marie Wilkinson Food Pantry & Community Garden Park, Aurora ILWilkinson Food Pantry was the pioneer food pantry in Aurora IL, founded to make basic life needs available to those who need them.

Each year, this Aurora Illinois Food Pantry serves the nutritional needs of over 12,000 families and individuals and that number continues to grow each week. Many of our pantry clients are children, the elderly, low-income residents, and the disabled. Clients also include the “working poor”, those individuals who are employed but do not earn enough to make ends meet.

About Marie Wilkinson of Aurora, IL

Marie Wilkinson was a lifetime social and civil rights activist who fought against poverty, hunger, homelessness, joblessness, and injustice. Marie founded the Aurora, IL Food Pantry in the 1950s after a near-death experience that caused her to make a personal commitment to helping the less fortunate.

Driven by a new life purpose, Wilkinson began giving out bags of food to those in need from her bungalow on View Street. She recruited friends and neighbors to help, and soon she had started a soup kitchen and food pantry. Today, the Food Pantry continues to serve the communities of Aurora IL, Kane County, and the surrounding areas.