Chicago Opens Its 1st Food Pantry Inside A Public Library; Block Club Chicago, January 23, 2026

 Michael Liptrot, Block Club Chicago; Chicago Opens Its 1st Food Pantry Inside A Public Library

"A West Side library is entering the fight against hunger and food insecurity with the opening of a food pantry — the first of its kind in the city.

Legler Regional Library, 115 S. Pulaski Road, unveiled its expanded food pantry Thursday. A collaboration between the city, the Greater Chicago Food Depository and Chicago Public Library, the pantry is the first in the library system’s new Library-Based Food Access program.

Since soft-opening in July 2025, the food pantry has served around 600 households monthly in one of Chicago’s most food-insecure neighborhoods, according to the city. The pantry has grown since its soft launch.

“The pantry prioritizes dignity, consistency [and] reliable access to food,” said Chicago Public Library Commissioner Chris Brown at Thursday’s grand opening at Legler. “Not only are we expanding what a library can offer, but we’re exemplifying [Mayor Brandon Johnson’s] whole government approach to Chicago.”"

Chicago’s faith leaders on front lines of resistance against ICE crackdown; The Guardian, November 28, 2025

 Siri Chilukuri, The Guardian ; Chicago’s faith leaders on front lines of resistance against ICE crackdown

"For weeks, Chicago has been at the center of the Trump administration’s brutal immigration crackdown. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Department of Homeland Security officials have arrested 800 people as of 1 October, while also using violent tactics such as body-slamming and deploying teargas in residential areas.

Amid the raids and arrests, which have created a pervasive sense of fear, faith leaders have stepped up, putting themselves on the front lines of resistance.

“Faith leaders bring a very powerful prophetic and moral compass into the space,” said the Rev Ciera Bates-Chamberlain, executive director of Live Free Illinois, a group that mobilizes Black churches around social justice issues in Chicago. “While many others may be able to argue the economic impact, or argue the law, faith leaders are typically the ones who are arguing and standing on the side of humanity and for people.”

Architect Sought for Obama’s Presidential Library Complex; New York Times, 8/26/15

Julie Hirschfeld Davis, New York Times; Architect Sought for Obama’s Presidential Library Complex:

"The foundation overseeing the development of Barack Obama’s presidential library began a global competition on Wednesday to select the architect who will design the elaborate Chicago complex.

The start of the selection process is the latest step in Mr. Obama’s quiet but painstaking planning for his post-presidential initiatives, which his advisers say could cost as much as $1 billion.

The library, to be located on the South Side of Chicago, where the president had his political start as a community organizer, will be the crown jewel of the effort, a high-technology take on the traditional archival presidential library that will include space for innovation labs, a community garden and sports...

“We think there’s a real value to having a diverse group of participants in every element of this process,” Mr. Nesbitt said in a conference call Wednesday. “We feel really good about the group that has been invited to respond.”

The firms have until Sept. 16 to submit statements of interest in the project, including company profiles, résumés of their staff members, photographs and drawings of past projects, and examples of their diversity efforts."