Alicia Rivas remembers coming to the Family in Faith Christian Church ’s mobile food pantry in Glendale Heights in freezing temperatures.

Sometimes, she would have to come before 5 in the morning to secure enough food for her six kids, because the mobile pantry was only open for a limited amount of time every month.

The church has helped her since she came from Bolivia eight years ago, but now, as the church prepares to begin building a permanent food pantry, she won’t have to worry about the weather anymore.

The Rev. Steve Kass says the permanent pantry will be built on the church’s property within the next month, after getting final approval from the village.

The church has been hosting a mobile food bank with the help of the Northern Illinois Food Bank for 12 years, and has been raising money for more than six years to build a permanent facility.

“With the mobile pantry, we’re forced to give food away outside no matter how hot it is or how cold it is,” Kass said. “We’ve had pantries when it’s zero degrees, pantries when it’s been 90.”

Having a mobile pantry also limited the time people had to get what they needed.

“When the food pantry was mobile once a month, everything was crammed into a couple hours, with longer lines,” Kass said. “It was less convenient.”

With its own pantry, Family in Faith Church will be able to expand its hours.

Tom Norton, executive director of the Northern Illinois Food Bank , said the addition of a permanent structure will make it easier for grocery stores to drop off food on a more regular basis.

“One of the advantages of having a building is that our organization has food recovery, and we can go around to grocery stores and take food that would have gone into Dumpsters,” Norton says.

So far, the church has raised about $167,000 of the $180,000 it needs, with most of the money coming from different businesses, private donors, and proceeds from the Glendale Heights Fest mechanical bull rides and the church’s corn booth.

One of the most significant things the church has done, Kass said, is provide little jars people at the church could fill with coins.

Church members, including those who used the food pantry, would drop whatever money they could spare into the jars.

“These folks who don’t have much were still giving,” Kass

said.

Kass says they will be building the pantry as soon as it is approved by the village, with work tentatively set to begin in August and the food pantry hopefully opening in November.

Church members originally hoped the building would be done sooner, but Kass says having to wait wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

“It’s given us time to refine our plans, give us a better sense of what we need to be doing,” he says. “If we built it five years ago, we would have built a slightly different building. Having extra time has given us more of an opportunity to think through what we want to do.”

The plan now is to have the pantry be 40-by-60 feet, with a walk-in freezer to store produce and meat, and aisles somewhat like a grocery store with food ready to be distributed. It will also have an area for pet food.

“We want to help this underserved community, with real practical needs,” Kass said. “We don’t only want to help feed their spiritual needs.”

One area of the population Kass has seen with significant needs is retirees who only have their Social Security to live off, and other individuals who have jobs that might not make a lot of money.

“Glendale Heights is not a wealthy community,” Kass said. “There’s lots of need and we’re glad to try to meet those needs.”

Don Summers, a member of the church who worked extensively to bring the food pantry to the church property, said challenges with raising money came with a slower economy, but things have picked up and they have been receiving more donations recently.

“It’s an ongoing thing,” Summers said.

Donations even came in on the day of a groundbreaking ceremony at the church, with one anonymous donor giving $16,000.

Maria Ghanayem, a volunteer at the food pantry and member of the church, says the permanent building was needed.

“For us not to be in the heat, trying to get food out so it’s not thawed, or not spoiled, to have a food (pantry here), you can’t believe it,” Ghanayem says. “This is going to be a blessing for so many people.”