A group of Bradley University public relations students hopes to shed more light on food insecurity in Peoria while simultaneously assisting a local nonprofit.
“In our mind, not only do we believe that food insecurity is a huge issue in the Peoria area, but we thought that the best way to feed the community is partnering with another community organization,” said Kullan Le Blanc.
As part of a senior capstone project, Le Blanc and classmates Alyssa Barrera and Brendan Rayl launched the “Peoria Feeds Peoria” campaign and established a partnership with Sophia’s Kitchen, a food assistance provider in downtown Peoria.
“We’re always so happy to see the younger generation coming together and helping us out, seeing the need of their neighbors,” said Claire Crone, program director for Sophia’s Kitchen. “We’re just very excited that they’re seeing this problem and that they’re wanting to address it.”
Le Blanc said the idea to focus on food insecurity emerged from not having personal vehicles on campus.
“As a student at Bradley University, a lot of us don't have a lot of reliable access to transportation, and something that found out with our research was that transportation issues are root cause of a lot of food insecurity in the Peoria area,” he said. “Most areas in the city are one mile from a grocery store, and that makes it extremely difficult to get fresh food on your table.”
Crone said Sophia’s Kitchen has experienced a surge in activity in just the last three years.
“The need is absolutely huge and growing every day. We are feeding close to 500 people a day right now, and since 2023 our patrons have increased 81%,” she said. “Every day, we see new faces coming in, people who need help, and we're just so grateful for all the help we get.”
Crone acknowledged Sophia’s Kitchen is one of several organizations fighting to reduce hunger in the community.
“We have been very blessed in Peoria to have a lot of different organizations that are coming together working on the same problem, and we're very cooperative,” she said. “That was one of the good things that came out about COVID, was it did have a way of joining us together. We now have network opportunities to talk to each other and see what each other needs.”
Efforts remain underway to eliminate Peoria’s food deserts, particularly on the South Side. Pastor Chuck Brown’s long-planned CJ Harvest grocery being developed at the former Aldi and Save-A-Lot location on Western Avenue is expected to open in the coming months.
Additionally, Peoria City Council member Denise Jackson recently touted an expansion of Market 309 into a full-service grocery operating at Trewyn Park, with some funding assistance from Kroger after the company closed its Sterling Avenue store last year.
“Kroger has announced that it’s going to adopt Market 309 and support them with $10,000 worth of inventory, and we hope this will be a long term collaboration,” Jackson said at this week’s council meeting, adding that the project is also expected to receive around $200,000 in state funding secured by Sen. Dave Koehler.
“Even when sometimes you don’t think they’re going to work in your favor, things have a way of turning around.”
Le Blanc noted the group’s research opened their eyes to other factors leading to food insecurity in Peoria County, particularly among households facing financial hardships and groups such as seniors and veterans living on fixed incomes.
“One in seven individuals in this area are going through this, so this is something that you could put 10 people in a room and someone will probably say that they're going through something similar to this,” he said. “It’s not something that is unique to Chicago or L.A. This is something that is happening in the Peoria area that the community needs help with.”
The Peoria Feeds Peoria campaign secured a partnership with Brienzo’s Pizza and Bar to host a “takeover” fundraiser event Monday night at the restaurant’s Peoria location at 7713 N. Orange Prairie Road.
“We thought it would be a really good opportunity to work with a community partner, to build upon their already existing community outreach and partner them with Sophia’s Kitchen. It just seemed to work very well,” he said.
“They were ecstatic the moment that we reached out to them. They got back to us almost immediately and they were very on board for everything.”
Customers who mention “Peoria Feeds Peoria” or “Sophia’s Kitchen” when ordering during the promotion from 5-9 p.m. will have 15% of their food and beverage purchases directed to Sophie’s Kitchen.
Crone said any financial assistance they receive is always greatly appreciated.
“Again, we're feeding close to 500 people a day, so we have all those expenses that need to be taken care of,” she said. “We have food that we need to purchase, and there's other expenses that go into running the kitchen – paying for the gas bill and the water bill and those things. So this is going to help us tremendously to be able to afford those things.”
