Looking for a way to support Lakeview Pantry and enjoy your Wednesday night? For one day only – May 23, 2012 – Lakeview Pantry will receive a donation for every purchase made at the HomeMade Pizza Co. store on Southport Avenue in Lakeview.

They will donate:
•    $5 for every large pizza sold.
•    $5 for every gluten free pizza sold.
•    $2 for every large salad sold.
•    $1 for every breadsticks order sold.
•    20% from every gift card purchase

It’s that easy!

Visit www.homemadepizza.com, place your order online; online orders can be placed up to three weeks in advance. The day of the event pick-up your order between 1:00-8:00 pm to support our cause. Be sure to tell your friends, too.

Hope to see you on the Wednesday, May 23rd!

Let’s turn pizza dough into dough for Lakeview Pantry!

Lakeview Pantry has many donation pick-ups throughout the week and we could use volunteer drivers.  Volunteers would need to be comfortable driving our vans (they are Ford cargo vans) and have a good driving record.  This is also a pretty physical task, moving around lots of bags and boxes of produce, bread and much more.  Think of it like a free gym membership!

We currently have a need for regular drivers for the following shifts:

• o Tuesdays, from 10am to noon:
• o The volunteer would be picking up donations from Trader Joe’s on Clybourn and some local Starbucks and delivering them to the West site (1414 W. Oakdale).  The volunteer would use the West site van and we usually receive an average of 600-800 pounds from this pick-up.
• o Saturdays, from 9am to 11am: 
• o The volunteer would be picking up donations from Trader Joe’s on Clybourn and delivering them to the West site (1414 W. Oakdale).  The volunteer would use the West site van and we usually receive an average of 600-800 pounds from this pick-up.
• o Saturdays, from noon to 2pm: 
• o The volunteer would be picking up donations from Green City Market and delivering them to the West site (1414 W. Oakdale).  The volunteer would use the West site van.  We usually receive an average of 10-40 bins of produce each Saturday, depending on the time of the year.  Each bin weighs 25-30 pounds.

While these pick-ups happen every week, volunteers are not obligated to every week.  If an interested volunteer would like to sign up for a regular shift every week, that is most ideal.  However, we are also trying to build a group of volunteers that can manage these pick-ups throughout the month.

There are more details, which we will get to any volunteers interested in helping in this capacity.

To get involved, please contact:

Erin Stephens, Director of Volunteers

erin@lakeviewpantry.org

773-525-1777 x15

By Sreya Sarkar

There are about 600,000 manufacturing jobs nationwide that are unfilled including 28,000 in Illinois. In fact, chemical manufacturing is the leading industry in the state followed by food manufacturing and machinery manufacturing. With unemployment rate in Illinois hovering around 9 percent, why aren’t the unemployed filling these manufacturing jobs?

“There is a skills gap that continues to grow as the manufacturing industry becomes more high-tech,” says  Liz Czarnecki, senior policy associate, Chicago Jobs Council, a coalition of community-based training organizations, advocacy groups, businesses and individuals working on behalf of people living in poverty.  “Current workers need to upgrade skills in order to keep their jobs. And as workers retire, a skilled workforce isn’t there to fill their jobs.”

Perception vs. Reality in the Manufacturing Sector

Over the past few years most manufacturers have redesigned and streamlined their production lines by implementing more process automation. But the worker recruitment process has not changed much over the last decade. Manufacturers still depend on outdated, informal methods such as word-of-mouth recruiting. Manufacturers need to do better job of branding and marketing their companies to prospective employees, particularly younger workers. There is a perception in the marketplace that manufacturing jobs are low-skilled and “dirty.”  In fact, manufacturing ranks last among 18 to 20 year olds when asked which industry they would like to start their career in, according to a 2011 survey by Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute.

More Skilled Workers Needed

Today, the manufacturing jobs are skilled and computerized, requiring strong math skills and sometimes extensive training. Manufacturing training programs, often focused on Computer Numerical Control (CNC) are improving and expanding in the Chicago region. Community organizations in Chicago like Jane Addams Resource Corporation (JARC) that offer vocational training to lower-income working adults help them gain access to manufacturing jobs.

“JARC follows the sectoral approach to training and workforce development,” said Jessica Newsome, Income Support Specialist at JARC. “The emphasis is on manufacturing jobs because this particular sector has jobs and these are not dead-end jobs but one’s with career development opportunities.”

Czarnecki agrees. “There has been an effort by the community college system, as well as Chicago Public School, to improve the quality of manufacturing training that is offered, so young people can gain the skills needed to enter the industry.”

The state of Illinois is also involved and is offering manufacturers incentives through the Employer Training Investment Program which reimburses companies up to 50 percent of employee training costs. In 2011, the state also awarded about $11 million in grants, which helped train workers at nearly 1,100 companies in manufacturing and service industries, according to Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

Hope for the Future

There are no quick solutions to close the growing skills gap between manufacturers and the unemployed. But the joint efforts of businesses, government and community organizations are making a difference and will continue to help bridge the gap and bring manufacturers together with a more skilled labor force.

Visit http://www.jane-addams.org and http://www.chicagomanufacturing.org/about  for more information.

Gary Garland and Jenny Dwyer discuss Lakeview Pantry’s various client programs. LISTEN