Aurora gives away free food to 1,200 families at pop-up pantry

More than a thousand families were given a welcome supply of free food on Monday as Aurora worked with two food pantries to provide a pop-up giveaway.

About 1,200 families lined up hours before the event started at Phillips Park.

The food boxes were provided by the Northern Illinois Food Bank and the Marie Wilkinson Food Pantry through the federal Coronavirus Food Assistance Program and included meat, dairy and produce. Families did not have to prove they needed it.

Aurora Mayor Richard C. Irvin celebrated his 51st birthday by volunteering at the event.

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"There's no place that I'd rather be than here making sure that our residents of Aurora have the food they need during this pandemic," Irvin said. "We see the light at the end of this tunnel, we're almost through this. But we're not through it yet. And there's still food insecurities here as you can tell."