According to the Greater Chicago Food Depository, one in five households in Chicago is experiencing food insecurity.
Recent federal cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are expected to intensify that crisis. Advocates warn the changes could result in hundreds of thousands of Illinois residents losing access to food assistance as early as May, increasing reliance on already-strained emergency food systems.
In response, the food depository hosted around 100 volunteers from “Divine Nine” fraternities and sororities Saturday morning for their fourth annual Black History Month repack event.
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Bilal Ali, of Chicago and the Omega Psi Phi Inc. fraternity, tosses food into a large box at the Greater Chicago Food Depository in the Archer Heights neighborhood of Chicago Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026. Members of the Divine Nine, a group of historically African American fraternities and sororities gathered to repack food for distribution at local food pantries, soup kitchens, and other meal programs. (Josh Boland/Chicago Tribune)
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Bilal Ali, of Chicago and the Omega Psi Phi Inc. fraternity, tosses food into a large box at the Greater Chicago Food Depository in the Archer Heights neighborhood of Chicago Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026. Members of the Divine Nine, a group of historically African American fraternities and sororities gathered to repack food for distribution at local food pantries, soup kitchens, and other meal programs. (Josh Boland/Chicago Tribune)
“We broke records last year on the amount of food that we packed, and I’m quite sure this is going to challenge those records,” said Reginald Summerrise, president of the National Panhellenic Council of Chicago.
As a member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity, Summerrise said service has always been central to the Divine Nine’s mission. The repack event is one of many ways the organizations push to support their communities.
Members from all nine historically African-American fraternities and sororities that make up the Divine Nine attended the event. Volunteers of multiple generations filled the warehouse, sporting their Greek letters and colors as they worked side by side. Some met for the first time, while others reunited with longtime friends.
Each fraternity and sorority competed to pack loaves of bread into cardboard boxes, with teams racing to repack the most by weight. Within a week, all of the bread packed during the event will be distributed to food pantries throughout Cook County.
Opening remarks from Lt. Governor Juliana Stratton of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority via video and State Rep. Camille Y. Lilly (D-Oak Park) of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority set the tone for the morning.
“As the Divine Nine, we have been denied some things in our journey here in America, and that’s why we came together,” Rep. Lilly said. “We came together to continue to bring equity and justice into our communities.”
The Greater Chicago Food Depository worked with Lilly and State Sen. Elgie Sims to introduce two bills in the Illinois General Assembly. House Bill 5062 and Senate Bill 3276 would create a SNAP Response Working Group to analyze the impact and cost of the changes, while Senate Bill 3277 would establish the FRESH Program, a temporary state-funded benefit for households losing or seeing reductions in SNAP.
Danielle Perry, vice president of policy and advocacy at the Greater Chicago Food Depository, followed with a presentation discussing how President Donald Trump’s ‘beautiful’ law would impact people throughout the country.
“For every meal we can provide in the emergency food system, SNAP provides nine,” Perry said. “We cannot end hunger by just putting food at a pantry. We end hunger by focusing on policies that help people afford food.”
Perry urged attendees to educate their communities on the recent SNAP work requirements, which she said could cause 200,000 people in Illinois to lose their benefits.
The competition kicked off at 10 a.m. with Beyoncé’s “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing (Homecoming Live)” booming throughout the warehouse. The teams were divided into two rooms, split by a wall painted with a map of every neighborhood the Food Depository serves in Chicago.
Volunteers scrambled to check expiration dates, build and label boxes and pack bread. Everyone stayed focused and moved swiftly, taking occasional breaks to dance to the music.
Johnsy Edwards, 67, representing the Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, works as a registered nurse and case manager at Mount Sinai Hospital.
“I see the food deserts, and I see all the people that are deprived,” Edwards said. “I wanted to assist.”
After an hour and a half of packing, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority claimed first place, repacking 2,676 pounds of bread and earning the women of pink and green a first-place trophy. Across all Divine Nine groups, volunteers packed 16,104 pounds of bread for the Food Depository’s network of more than 850 food pantries, soup kitchens and meal programs.
“History will remember how we showed up when they decided to try to eliminate the safety net as we know it,” Perry said.
Eva Remijan-Toba
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