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Tazewell County fights hunger from multiple angles

Volunteers stand around a table of donated food at the Midwest Food Bank's warehouse in Peoria. Donated foods include cans of corn and jars of salsa. Boxes and pallets of food line the walls of the warehouse.
Collin Schopp
/
WCBU
FILE: Volunteers stand around a table of donated food at the Midwest Food Bank's warehouse in Peoria. Midwest Food Bank is one of many partners that work together to lessen the impact of food insecurity across the tri-county region.

Tazewell County is taking a multi-program approach to rooting out hunger in Central Illinois.

The Tazewell County Health Department is concerned with food insecurity, but it’s also focused on nutrition security.

“You’re talking about more than just having something on your table,” said Raghela Scavuzzo, associate director of Food Systems Development for the Illinois Farm Bureau. “You’re talking about what is on the table. And how do we look at eating in a nutritional way which improves health.”

Tazewell County Health Department Administrator Amy Fox says there are a few strategies the department utilizes to tackle hunger. One of the most significant is the Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, program. WIC is a national program, funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, that helps families with new children through the first five years of that child’s life.

“They can get assistance with nutrition, they can get assistance with learning how to feed through all stages of a child’s life, up to the kindergarten years,” Fox said. “They can also receive other information about supports and needs in the community, like a car seat or where they can get diapers.”

Fox says the WIC program doesn’t only serve mothers, but fathers of small children in need as well. It’s a program that sees high levels of demand. Fox says, between the tri-county area of Woodford, Tazewell and Peoria, around half of all children receive some kind of support from WIC.

For additional context, Fox says that around 13,000 children are considered food insecure in that same tri-county area. That’s enough kids to fill the seating of the Peoria Civic Center, put around a thousand on the stadium floor, and still have hundreds left over.

Beyond federal programs, Tazewell County also taps into local resources for food support. Fox says this includes local farmers, a resource she describes as one of the region's “untapped potentials.”

“Our gardeners in the tri-county region have just provided over 18,000 pounds of produce that went right back into that system,” Fox said. “So I look forward to the continuing deepening of those relationships and making these systems work even harder.”

If you’re in need of food or other support, you can find more information about the Tazewell County Health Department’s programs here.

Collin Schopp is a reporter at WCBU. He joined the station in 2022.