People's Resource Center

In 1975, a group of concerned neighbors asked their friends to bring bags of groceries to a small house in Wheaton to help feed hungry families. That first year, they shared groceries with 125 families; last year, we served more than 8,000. Today, we are a food pantry -- and so much more.

We continue to respond to needs that our community faces through emergency assistance to end and avoid household crises and educational tools that can lift families out of poverty.

Over the next three years, our goals align with a new strategic plan that focuses on four themes: Strengthen Our Foundation; Prepare for Growth; Build our Resources; and Stay True to PRC Roots.

We’ll deepen our understanding of client needs and proactively shape the solutions while leveraging the power and energy of volunteers who deliver all programs.

This coming year, we will continue to assist neighbors struggling to make ends meet through vital services and enriching programs to help stabilize them today and strengthen their futures tomorrow. In order to best meet the community’s needs, we will be conducting an assessment of our facilities to serve more people and expand our IT capacity to improve clients’ transition between programs. We plan to enhance our client-, volunteer-, and employee-listening mechanisms to provide the highest quality services to low-income persons in DuPage County.

Since our humble beginnings in 1975, handing groceries out to neighbors in need from a small house in Wheaton, Illinois, People's Resource Center has grown to become a multi-site, multi-service organization serving nearly 30,000 people each year. All the while, we've remained grounded in grassroots support.

More than 2,600 volunteers carry out our “neighbor to neighbor" model of service, and the majority of our support comes from the donations of caring neighbors in DuPage County. We could not touch as many lives as we do each year without their valuable contributions.

Our latest strategic plan sets forth three main strategies to address and anticipate the issues our neighbors face:

Support People:
- We will help neighbors overcome barriers, including financial literacy, transportation access and senior needs.
- To inspire more neighbors to join in PRC’s mission, we plan to improve and increase outreach and services across DuPage County.

Improve Experience and Environment:
- As the county changes and our programs grow, we must use all of our physical spaces more efficiently, maximize partnerships and
improve our full-service space in Wheaton.
- To improve the PRC experience for guests, volunteers and donors, we will modernize our website and technology systems.

Prepare for Growth:
- To deepen the impact of our work, we will expand partnerships with community, faith and partner groups.
- To engage and energize a new generation of volunteers, we will launch a Junior Board initiative for high school students.

People's Resource Center has built a solid reputation within the community as the agency that evolves to meet the community’s needs head-on and develops programs that are client-focused and flexible.

Because of this approach, we are one of the only human services agencies in the suburbs of Chicago offering a comprehensive array of services for emergency needs and educational and job assistance resources. If we don’t offer a service in one of our locations, we can refer individuals and families to other providers. This model has led to deep relationships with many organizations, businesses, community leaders and more, contributing to our good standing in the area. It’s also earned the trust of struggling households that refer their friends and family to us in times of trouble.

As a volunteer-driven organization, our volunteers deliver our programming and receive support from our staff. This culture has contributed to a strong financial position, showing the community that we use our resources effectively.

We maintain a leadership presence in health and human services initiatives across the county, plugging us into conversations about everything from homeless prevention to health access to food insecurity and more. By holding leadership positions in these initiatives, we get a broader picture of the challenges facing our clients and the solutions needed to alleviate them.

Since our founding in 1975, People’s Resource Center has served tens of thousands of individuals. In the last decade alone, we have distributed 442,266 grocery carts of food to families in need.

In the last five years, PRC successfully opened a permanent, full-service facility in Westmont to better serve residents of DuPage County who face daily transportation challenges; started to enhance the capacity of our data tracking technology; and invested in job roles that provide direct support for client and deepen coordination and across all PRC programs.

We know that transportation, employment and food access are some of the most pressing issues for those we serve. By expanding our partnerships in the community and expanding our food services to reach those who face these challenges, we can adapt to evolving needs—while remaining present for those when they need us most.