Greater Chicago Food Depository donations
For Immediate Release:
Friday, January 18, 2013
Generous Lyric Opera of Chicago patrons donated 1,599 pounds
of food to the Greater Chicago Food Depository over the holiday
season before Hansel and Gretel, Don Pasquale performances
The debut collaboration between Lyric Opera and Chicago and
the Greater Chicago Food Depository over the recent holiday season brought in an impressive
1,599 pounds of donated nonperishable foods, the organizations report.
“The Food Depository is responding to record levels of need
for food assistance throughout Cook County,” said Kate Maehr, executive director and CEO of the
Greater Chicago Food Depository. “At a time when pantry visits are reaching all-time highs, the
Lyric Opera has collected enough food to provide more than 1,200 nutritious meals for men, women and children
in need. We are grateful to Lyric Opera for hosting a food drive and bringing additional attention
to hunger in our community.”
Throughout the holiday season, Lyric Opera encouraged
patrons to bring shelf-stable food donations to performances of Hansel and Gretel and Don Pasquale. If the
food drive success were to be put in context of feeding Hansel and Gretel – the hungry subjects of the
opera being staged at Lyric through Saturday, Jan. 19 – it would provide seven months of meals for the two
children.
“Hansel and Gretel is a hauntingly beautiful (and at times
darkly funny) opera about a real-life problem–hunger,” said Anthony Freud, Lyric’s general director. “We
are gratified that our audiences responded so generously and helped to make a difference for
Chicago-area families in need, and commend the Greater Chicago Food Depository for its vital work
year-round.”
Lyric Opera’s holiday food drive was part of the Food
Depository’s One City, One Food Drive campaign that brought businesses, organizations and individuals
together to fight hunger in Cook County.
###