Legler Regional Library is the home of Chicago’s first food pantry inside a public library.
The pantry opened Thursday and provides access to food for one of Chicago’s most food-insecure communities. A rotating selection of proteins, fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy and other essential foods are now available for residents of East and West Garfield Park, the mayor’s office said.
The pantry had a soft launch in July 2025, serving 786 households in the first eight weeks. The pantry has served an estimated 600 households every month since.
Megan Greenback, the library’s assistant director, told the Chicago Sun Times that the library has been forced to expand into the social service arena in recent years. The pantry is the latest social service offered.
“We’re rising to meet the challenge,” Greenback said. “I think it speaks a lot to what public libraries are becoming in general. We’re really a safe space for patrons looking for any sort of social service landing point.”
Greenback said patrons of the library have continued to express concern about changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistant Program. Since the soft launch in July, she said the pantry was able to help community members when SNAP benefits were frozen in November.
During that time, she said patrons were “very happy to have access to food that they frankly told us they could not afford to purchase on their own, especially with any reduction in SNAP benefits.”
With the pantry’s opening, the Chicago Public Library is now the second public library system nationally with a fully functional food pantry. The Pratt Free Market at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore was the first to open in 2024.
“Too many families in Garfield Park face daily barriers to accessing healthy food,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said in a press release. “By bringing a full-service food pantry into Legler Regional Library, Chicago Public Library and the Greater Chicago Food Depository are meeting people where they are and strengthening the foundation for healthier families and stronger neighborhoods.”
The pantry is the latest collaboration between the Chicago Public Library and Greater Chicago Food Depository. In the past, the two have partnered to provide meals for Legler’s youth during summer break and to operate a monthly fresh produce market through the depository’s Producemobile.
“For over a century, Legler Regional Library has served as a cornerstone of Chicago’s West Side, providing a safe space for learning, well-being and community connection,” said library commissioner Chris Brown in the press release. “The opening of the food pantry continues Legler Regional Library’s legacy as a place where community members can nourish their bodies, minds and souls.”
West Garfield Park, one of Chicago’s most food-insecure communities, is widely recognized as a food desert. The neighborhood has little access to walkable grocery options and has seen closures of major grocery stores, like Aldi, in recent years.
According to the Greater Chicago Food Depository’s Hunger Report, 21% of Chicago-area households with children experienced food insecurity in the second quarter of 2024, nearly equal to pandemic levels.
The food pantry will be open Thursdays from 4 to 7 p.m. and Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m.