RCS WHO WE ARE

Ravenswood Community Services (RCS) began as an outreach program of All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Chicago’s northside Ravenswood neighborhood. In 1993, parishioners began distributing bags of groceries through the front doors of the church to about 20 neighbors in need each week. By 1998 the grocery distribution program expanded to include a weekly hot meal. The number of participants quickly doubled and tripled in those early years. All Saints’ parishioners joined with community volunteers to staff the “Just Neighbors Food Pantry and Community Kitchen.”

In 2001, All Saints’ formally launched Ravenswood Community Services (RCS), a separate 501(c)3 non-profit agency, focused on providing poverty relief by helping to alleviate hunger in the community. The All Saints’ community and its resources remain an important and integral part of RCS and the achievement of its mission.

As a partner agency of the Greater Chicago Food Depository (GCFD), RCS now distributes a mix of nutritious groceries to about 300 households every Tuesday night, and serves a hot meal to more than 100 people who choose to stay for dinner. Participating neighbors also have access to on-site health screenings and education through a creative partnership with the School of Nursing at DePaul University. Other groups occasionally visit RCS on Tuesday nights to offer additional services to our neighbors, such as food stamp prequalification, job recruitment or housing information. RCS has also built a strong partnership with Ravenswood School (the local public elementary school) to provide on-site hunger relief services to more than 140 neighborhood families each month, and life-skills education and mentoring to neighborhood youth. Almost 100 volunteers serve in RCS programs in any given month.

Ravenswood Community Services is proud to be an agency of Episcopal Charities and Community Services.