0:03 and welcome back to politics tonight my 0:05 next guest is helping to eradicate 0:07 homelessness and hunger across chicago 0:10 with an organization that's been around 0:11 since 1968 0:13 jd miller with the 530 fullerton 0:16 foundation joins me tonight in our wgn 0:18 studios jd nice to see you hi good to 0:20 see you paul i should start with the 0:21 name uh 530 is that the address it sure 0:24 is uh we're in a building that was built 0:26 actually in the civil war so it's over 0:28 150 years old just behind a church at 5 0:31 30 west fullerton but of course the the 0:33 name of the organization isn't as 0:34 telling as the important work you do so 0:36 clarify what you guys do absolutely so 0:38 starting in 68 we began serving people 0:40 in need in chicago 0:42 in the coming year we're going to serve 0:43 about 18 000 hot meals to uh people who 0:46 suffer with issues of hunger and 0:48 homelessness we also provide a foot care 0:50 and medical clinic now i was talking to 0:52 the folks from the greater chicago food 0:53 depository about the the overall need 0:55 but let me ask you your perspective and 0:57 how how um prevalent is homelessness in 1:00 in our city here at home well 1:02 unfortunately it's a problem that's 1:04 getting worse um this year a hundred and 1:06 sixteen thousand chicagoans will 1:07 experience wholeness that's a ten 1:09 percent increase over last year and the 1:11 kind of folks you're you're dealing with 1:13 in the foundation are what are they are 1:15 they folks who they were working they're 1:16 on hard times how would you describe the 1:19 folks you're helping yeah you know 1:20 actually it is a lot of people who've 1:22 run into hard times as you walk down to 1:24 chicago street it's sometimes easy to 1:26 spot someone that you think is obviously 1:27 homeless and so as a society we sort of 1:30 have this impression of homeless people 1:32 as mentally ill that's actually only 1:33 about 26 percent of our guests 1:36 most of our guests are people who've had 1:38 jobs and have had a difficult decision 1:40 to make between uh paying a rent uh 1:42 paying a food bill or dealing with a 1:44 medical bill well yeah in fact some 1:46 people often say well many of us were 1:47 just one paycheck away from potentially 1:49 finding ourselves in that situation 1:51 absolutely you know there was a cnn 1:53 money article uh just this summer 1:54 published that said 76 of americans are 1:57 living paycheck to paycheck and one in 1:59 four chicagoans have absolutely no 2:02 savings whatsoever and so if they lose 2:04 that job or they have that medical 2:05 crisis often they're going to become 2:07 knocking on the door at 5 30 fullerton 2:09 looking for some sort of assistance and 2:10 you know what you say is so interesting 2:12 because it's so hard if people are doing 2:14 okay then you know again this is a great 2:15 time for reflection the bottom line is 2:17 it's hard to imagine there are people 2:18 who say i've got to make a decision 2:20 whether i'm going to eat or whether i'm 2:22 going to 2:23 buy medication absolutely something 2:25 wrong about that there definitely is and 2:28 you know unfortunately the resources 2:29 available are are really shrinking as 2:31 well although chicago sees a 10 increase 2:34 in homelessness the resources available 2:35 for emergency food have actually dropped 2:37 about eight percent and why is that well 2:39 it's it's government cuts we see it 2:41 every day that you know we're looking to 2:43 cut costs and save money all over the 2:45 place and so although we have some great 2:47 programs in place especially for women 2:49 infants and children or senior citizens 2:52 especially men who are between the ages 2:54 of 18 and 62 who fall on hard times 2:56 really tend to fall through the cracks 2:58 the recent cuts in snap the food stamps 3:01 program did that impact the work you're 3:02 doing are you feeling that cut the 3:04 compliments of congress well you know we 3:06 do see an increase in guests as a result 3:08 of those sorts of things um our our meal 3:10 program again i said we serve about 18 3:12 000 hot hot meals a year uh we've 3:14 actually seen a 50 a 50 increase year 3:17 over year of demand in our programs and 3:19 are regularly actually turning people 3:20 away from our doors wow you know i want 3:22 to talk to you about i mean some people 3:23 might think oh well that's what this guy 3:24 does for a living that's really 3:25 interesting stuff to talk about your 3:27 career is a bit fascinating and who you 3:28 work with and uh you'll be fascinated by 3:30 it i'll have more with jd miller and 3:32 learn about the 530 fullerton foundation 3:34 after these words stay with us 3:44 welcome back we're talking about the 3:46 important work of jd miller and the 530 3:48 uh fullerton foundation the work they do 3:50 for homeless folks jd le i mentioned 3:52 before the break you know this is not 3:54 what you do for a living uh right you 3:56 don't run a foundation and i think the 3:58 fact that that you don't is important 4:00 that people understand what brings you 4:02 to this work yeah absolutely you know my 4:04 full-time job i'm the director of sales 4:05 for a company called bronzheimer 4:07 international it's a technology 4:08 organization you're a techie i am a bit 4:10 of a techie 4:12 but i really started to volunteer 4:13 actually at the foundation uh working in 4:16 the kitchen and i realized very quickly 4:18 i was part of a community of people who 4:19 realized they had a need to give back um 4:22 they saw a need around them and really 4:24 wanted to find a way to participate so 4:26 over the last 10 years i've moved from 4:28 being a volunteer in the kitchen serving 4:29 meals to ultimately becoming the 4:30 director of the foundation and indeed 4:32 talk about the folks who become this 4:34 community right hillary clinton said it 4:36 takes a village and i think you'd 4:38 probably agree it takes a village to 4:39 make this happen you know it sure does 4:41 before the break we talked about the 4:42 work beginning in 68 during the 4:44 democratic national convention this 4:46 church had opened its doors to really 4:48 shelter students from the violence of 4:49 the protests in that time but as they 4:51 looked around they really realized that 4:52 there were all sorts of neighbors in 4:54 need 4:55 and so over time that small group of 4:57 people who are providing some emergency 4:58 housing started to talk to local 5:00 businesses get donations from 5:02 restaurants get donations from a local 5:03 grocery store who's a huge sort of 5:05 source of support for us today 5:07 girl scout troops senior citizen groups 5:09 a whole variety of chicagoans really 5:11 reaching out to help one another 5:13 who does the funding for you guys i mean 5:15 it sounds like that so much of what you 5:16 do is based on the help you're getting 5:18 getting from as you say grocery store 5:19 and people or is it about funding that 5:21 comes in from i imagine that's one of 5:22 your messages today right people channel 5:24 absolutely you know we're always looking 5:25 for financial donations and you can do 5:27 that online at our website it's 530 5:29 fullertonfoundation.org 5:31 but it really is year over year 5:32 individual gifts from individual people 5:35 sometimes i know we were doing a show on 5:37 the disaster relief it was after the 5:39 tornadoes and all that in illinois and 5:40 and uh one of the red cross people said 5:42 you know so many people want to help by 5:44 you know here i'm bringing you a case of 5:45 water i'm bringing you this stuff and 5:47 and the message was don't do that what 5:50 we really need is your money 5:51 we will handle getting all these other 5:53 resources as we need to what is what is 5:56 your foundation's view on all of that 5:57 you want somebody showing up with a case 5:58 of can peas you know we're certainly 6:00 happy to receive 6:02 support in any way that people feel 6:04 feel called but actually financial 6:06 donations are the best there tends to be 6:08 sort of a seasonality of giving 6:09 especially around thanksgiving and 6:11 christmas time that's why we're doing 6:12 the show right now absolutely so 6:15 foundations like ours homeless shelters 6:17 and so on have waiting lists of 6:18 volunteers ready to serve a meal on 6:20 thanksgiving we actually just received a 6:22 donation of 600 pounds of poultry to 6:24 serve thanksgiving dinners with wow and 6:26 that's awesome 6:28 but we'll have the same need in february 6:30 march and september when people aren't 6:31 thinking about donating food and so 6:33 really giving cash contributions today 6:35 uh really helps us smooth that curve and 6:37 and provide services three hundred 6:39 dollars i'm guessing from what you're 6:40 saying is that even the influx of cash 6:42 you know it's also we're near end of 6:44 year so you get those end of year 6:45 contributions from people which people 6:47 should be thinking about tax deduction 6:49 and all right your taxes exactly um how 6:51 do you get people to realize this need 6:53 doesn't go away on january 2nd after the 6:55 holidays well you know it's certainly 6:56 having conversations like this and and 6:58 really because it is a community 7:00 organization it's the conversation 7:02 people have at the grocery store or have 7:04 you know with their neighbor walking 7:05 down the street and 7:06 talking about 7:08 how i felt called to to serve others and 7:10 really sharing that you know one person 7:12 at a time you're using this phrase phil 7:13 call to it's sort of religious in its 7:15 nature is much are there a lot of people 7:17 involved fairly religious is that not a 7:20 you know a key component to this um you 7:22 know certainly there are religious 7:24 organizations that are involved in this 7:26 work as well uh the 530 fullerton 7:27 foundation is not a religious 7:29 organization but we are housed in a 7:31 building that a church donates to us uh 7:33 so the religious community definitely 7:34 does support that as well so you talked 7:36 about the the critical uh use of of a 7:38 grocery store i don't know if you want 7:39 to mention them or you should do can you 7:41 mention them sure it's the big apple 7:42 store in lincoln park okay so if other 7:44 stores i mean are you more likely to get 7:46 help from the mom-and-pop operations or 7:48 are is it the big chains that can also 7:50 step in the jewels and the the costcos 7:53 actually it is the smaller mom and pop 7:56 because they don't have a lot of the 7:57 same regulations that you might see in a 7:59 giant chain in terms of what they can do 8:01 with leftover food um and big apple is 8:03 great for us as a source of fresh 8:05 produce as well we really look at 8:07 homeless nutrition and realize that 8:08 often we're the only meal during the 8:10 week that there's going to be a fresh 8:11 fruit or a fresh vegetable on a lot of 8:14 other programs are going to provide you 8:15 know a canned good or some sort of 8:16 pre-packaged thing and do you have what 8:18 kind of stores do you have at the 8:19 foundation for if somebody comes on 8:21 gives you all that poultry for 8:22 tomorrow's thanksgiving meal can you 8:24 store all that stuff uh actually we i 8:26 mean we certainly have uh storage for 8:28 you know the next couple of weeks uh you 8:30 know freezers and kitchen space uh but 8:32 if we have a giant influx over 8:34 thanksgiving uh often we need to find 8:36 another organization who can make use of 8:38 that and that's actually why a financial 8:39 contribution is great for us because it 8:41 lets us buy when we need and not have to 8:43 kind of deal with that seasonality right 8:45 and and also just curious people that 8:47 that you meant to mention mental health 8:49 issues are there other services you guys 8:50 provide is it just about the food and 8:52 sustainability no absolutely you know we 8:54 have a foot care clinic as well which is 8:56 a neat entree into a larger medical care 8:58 you know if you're homeless uh wet feet 9:00 wet shoes what socks is is one of the 9:03 initial complaints you're dealing with 9:05 and so we start our guests with 9:06 receiving a dry pair of socks 9:09 there's a local nursing school who's 9:11 also partnered with us 9:13 to help do a basic foot care and then 9:16 that sort of leads into a larger medical 9:17 evaluation where they can triage 9:20 ongoing issues and that really takes a 9:22 lot of homeless people you know out of 9:23 emergency rooms as their primary care um 9:26 which you know lights lightens the load 9:28 for us all which means the folks doing 9:29 this for you obviously donating their 9:30 time absolutely so we're really grateful 9:33 for the nursing school students as well 9:35 one of the things we're trying to do is 9:36 give them more space i talked about our 9:38 building being 150 years old we know 9:40 that we have the capacity to serve about 9:42 four times as many guests in our in our 9:44 medical 9:45 spaces 9:46 and are trying to build a new building 9:47 to support if folks want to volunteer 9:48 their time or donate money or get 9:51 involved i mean tomorrow being 9:52 thanksgiving can they start by going to 9:54 530 fullertonfoundation.org should they 9:56 show up at the foundation uh certainly 9:58 don't show up 9:59 start at the website 10:01 and there's a whole variety of 10:02 information there on how to contact us 10:03 you can email us you can give us a phone 10:05 call and we'll figure out the best way 10:06 uh to go forward from there okay jd 10:08 miller thanks for the great work you're 10:09 doing for the community it's really 10:11 super thank you paul that's really great 10:12 all right help them out if you can we'll 10:14 be right back with more politics tonight 10:16 in a few minutes 10:31 you