Amid city delays, state pitching in additional $2M to feed migrants

Citing further “delays” in the city’s procurement process, Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration on Friday said it would chip in an additional $2 million to feed asylum-seekers in Chicago through the end of the year.

Another $2 million will be matched by the Chicago Food Depository, which has already been providing meals to migrants since June, in partnership with 15 minority-owned restaurants in Chicago.

It’s the latest in a back and forth between the city and state for resources to shelter, feed and resettle thousands of migrants sent to Chicago, mostly by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has said his state cannot handle a ramp-up in border crossings.

The Illinois Department of Human Services said the state stepped in as the city continues to search for additional food vendors. The department attributed the fund shortage to “delays in the procurement process.”

The city in June approached the state, asking for help in providing food for the shelters beginning in July and lasting about 10 weeks. City officials said then they would put out a requests for proposal (RFP) to find a contract that would provide better quality food at a better price. The state, however, has been funding the food since then, according to state officials.

The request for further funding came this week, and the state agreed to help until the end of the year with an understanding the city will assume the cost in January.

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The new funds will go toward food for migrants in shelters and police stations.

Mary May, a spokeswoman from Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications, said in a statement the deadline for an RFP for the food contract closed on Friday and was delayed because the city received more than 200 questions from applicants. May said the new contract is slated to begin Jan. 15.

It’s unclear who will be funding the food between Jan. 1 and Jan. 15, when the city said its contract would begin. The city did not comment on that gap.

The Greater Chicago Food Depository, with over $10 million from the state plus several million from private donors, has already been providing meals at 20 of the city’s 26 shelters, said Jim Conwell, a spokesman for the nonprofit.

The depository serves lunch and dinner for around 10,000 migrants daily, Conwell said. That includes the majority of the 13,000 migrants in shelters and all those at police stations.

The nonprofit cooks about 2,000 meals at its own facility on the Southwest Side and provides the remaining meals through local restaurants and catering businesses it funds.

The state will also be providing meals at the new shelter sites in Brighton Park and Little Village, which will house up to 2,200 people at full capacity, the department said.

The first tent frames for winterized tent camps first went up on Wednesday for the Brighton Park site. The city has said construction will take just days.

Mayor Brandon Johnson said Tuesday an environmental assessment of that site — which was found to be polluted with heavy metals — would be released “by the end of the week.”

City officials made the nearly 800-page report public shortly after 8 p.m. Friday.

“The environmental errors that have been ongoing in this city for generations now is something that I get to address, and I’m happy to do it,” Johnson told reporters earlier this week. “I consider this is further proof that I’m committed to environmental justice.”

The state will require the study to be reviewed by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

Pritzker in mid-November announced the city would receive an additional $160 million for an intake center, a winterized tent shelter and other help in resettling migrants. That announcement came a day after Johnson passed his first budget, which included just $150 million for migrant arrivals.

Pritzker at the time said the funds were needed to help migrants in temporary shelters as dangerously cold temperatures make their way to the city.

Johnson has also imposed a 60-day shelter stay limit for migrants, following New York City’s lead. The mayor’s office said exceptions will be made for “medical crises or extreme cold weather.”

More than 1,000 migrants remain camped out at O’Hare International Airport and temporary shelters as of Friday, according to the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications.