A boy about to turn 9 spent his birthday weekend giving away groceries instead of opening presents, organizing a 500-bag food distribution Friday afternoon at the Montessori School of Englewood for families who needed it most. Alex Anning, who turns 9 on Monday, put together the giveaway with his mother, and it wasn’t his first time doing it.
Alex organized the event with his mother, Kymbria Young-Anning, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, which reported that organizers prepared 500 grocery bags stocked with bread, pasta sauce, macaroni and cheese, meat, milk and vegetable oil. Young-Anning serves as executive director of Season to Soar, a nonprofit focused on developing young community-serving leaders, and NBC Chicago reported that the giveaway served as the kickoff to the organization’s holiday giving season. The goal, per that report, was to pack and distribute 500 bags to Englewood residents and families experiencing food insecurity, homelessness or hardship.
This wasn’t Alex’s first rodeo. For his eighth birthday the year before, he led his first grocery drive with his mother’s support, and ABC7 Chicago reported that he chose to organize a community food giveaway instead of throwing a big birthday party, with the goal of helping hundreds of people in need.
Families Lean on the Giveaway as SNAP Benefits Disappear
For some families at Friday’s event, the groceries weren’t just a nice gesture — they filled a gap left by recent cuts to federal food assistance. Abenaa Adjei, who said she lost SNAP benefits that had provided her $800 a month in October, told the Sun-Times that “we needed these groceries, so it means a lot to me, and I’m blessed and grateful.”
Kikanza Harris Scott, director of community impact at the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, which partnered with organizers on the event, said community members continue to face food insecurity, including those who have lost access to SNAP benefits. Organizers raised more than $5,000 for the event, Scott said, according to the same Sun-Times report.
The hardship Adjei described reflects a broader shift in SNAP eligibility rules. The Illinois Department of Human Services has stated that a court ruling moved the start date for new SNAP work requirements to February 1, 2026, making that month the first eligible to count toward a three-month time limit for benefits.
Hunger Numbers Point to a Wider Crisis
Food insecurity in Chicago has been described in differing terms by recent reports. The Chicago Tribune reported that approximately 417,000 Chicago households, or about one in three, were facing food insecurity as of June, while the Greater Chicago Food Depository put the figure at 36% of households lacking consistent access to enough food, and WBEZ cited an estimate of 35%. Accounts of the South Side specifically also diverge, with the Tribune citing a 41% food-insecurity rate there and the food bank’s own figure reaching 51%.
The food bank also reported that food insecurity hit 47% of Chicago households with children, compared with 30% of households without children, and that SNAP enrollment in Cook County had dropped by 23% since July 2025 — nearly 196,000 fewer people connected to the program. The Tribune’s report additionally found that between 173,000 and 200,000 Illinoisans had been removed from SNAP statewide as of July 1 after new work requirements took effect.
Englewood itself has long struggled with basic grocery access. A page from Experimental Station notes that 63.5% of Englewood residents have limited access to food, meaning they must travel more than half a mile to reach the nearest supermarket. The organization’s Link Match program, which stretches SNAP dollars at partner stores, is now available at 28 stores across 20 Illinois neighborhoods, including West Englewood, and three partner locations in South Shore and Englewood provided $36,000 in Link Match vouchers to SNAP customers last year.
A Birthday Giveaway With a Message
Young-Anning said the event also honored the recent death of Javits Frimpong, a 15-year-old student from Ghana who was shot and killed in New York City the previous week. She said the giveaway was meant to honor Frimpong while promoting kindness and generosity among young people, and said she was honored that her son exemplified servant leadership and a global perspective.
Volunteers from the University of Chicago Divinity School helped pack and distribute the grocery bags to residents and parents who came through. The scale of need beyond Englewood remains significant — WBEZ reported that Dion’s Chicago Dream, a separate food-delivery program, currently has more than 5,000 households on its waitlist.
