The Common Pantry in Roscoe Village helps Chicago fight hunger - FOX 35 News Orlando

A Chicago pantry has been serving the community for nearly a half century. They're also one of the first pantries to partner with the Greater Chicago Food Depository – which FOX Chicago News has also done this year, to help fight hunger.

The Common Pantry on the North Side has been assisting those in need for 45 years. Tucked away in the Roscoe Village neighborhood, the pantry serves over 1,200 people every month.

"It's really understanding that new face of hunger, that new face of need given economic situations, health care situations and all these other factors that play into it," Executive Director of The Common Pantry Scott Best said. "It's affecting our neighbors, it's affecting people that live next door to us, down the street from us, no matter what neighborhood you're living in. Being able to identify and help those pockets of people is making the community stronger."

Carlos was a client here at North Center. But today he's a volunteer, giving back to the facility that helped him.

"I worked for one place for 22 years and lost that without notice," Carlos said. "I was fortunate enough to find the pantry so I came and then I started volunteering. It was perfect for me, it was a lifesaver."

To commemorate their 45th anniversary, the Common Pantry released "I Am Your Neighbor - Voices from a Chicago Food Pantry."

The book contains real stories of Common Pantry clients told in their own words with 100 percent of the proceeds going to the pantry.

"Just felt like these people's stories really needed to be told. A lot of statistics get lost with people and we thought rather than show a lot of statistics was to let these people share their stories," Author David Brown said. "Hopefully is what readers will see is that a lot of their experiences are the same experiences that we all face in our lives and some of us have better support networks or the ability to deal with that than others and for those who don't that's why the Common Pantry is here."