Endeavor Health Awards $5 Million to Loaves & Fishes to Expand Regional Food Access

Five-year investment comes amid federal cuts and growing demand for food support

EVANSTON, Ill., Dec. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Endeavor Health^SM announced today that Loaves & Fishes Community Services has been selected as the inaugural recipient of its Community Investment Fund (CIF) Impact Award, helping transform the charitable food system across the Chicago region.

As the 2026 CIF Impact Award recipient, Loaves & Fishes will receive $1 million per year for five years, totaling $5 million, to expand infrastructure, grow partnerships, and reduce logistical barriers. These investments will enable Loaves & Fishes and multiple partner food pantries to improve access to fresh, healthy foods for Chicagoland residents. Loaves & Fishes previously received CIF awards in 2022 and 2024 to expand their mobile food program and to extend hours at their Naperville grocery market.

Endeavor Health created the new CIF Impact Award to support ambitious, five-year initiatives that emphasize innovation and partnership to address complex social drivers of health. This award complements the CIF Capacity Builder awards, which are one- to two-year awards designed to improve capacity, effectiveness and impact of non-profits.

"Access to nutritious food is foundational to health, yet many families in our region still struggle to find it consistently," said Kristen Murtos, Chief Innovation and Transformation Officer of Endeavor Health. "Through their innovative hub-and-spoke model and deep community partnerships, Loaves & Fishes is expanding access to healthy food in neighborhoods where the need is greatest and helping address food insecurity as a social driver of health."

Federal cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are expected to drive more Illinois households to seek food assistance. An estimated 470,000 residents statewide are at risk of SNAP benefit reductions or loss, according to the Greater Chicago Food Depository's 2025 Hunger Report. Reductions in federal support for food banks may also limit access to healthy, nutritious food and increase pressure on local pantries to source and distribute more food on their own.

CIF Impact Award funding will support Hub 2.0, an expansion of Loaves & Fishes' regional food distribution network anchored by its central hub in Aurora, which opened in 2021. The Hub 2.0 expansion will:

• Add 32,000 square feet, doubling overall space and quadrupling cold storage capacity
• Enable shared storage with multiple pantry partners, shared procurement and healthy eating support
• Support new food distribution "spokes" in high-need communities

Through these investments, Loaves & Fishes will now have the capacity to significantly increase the availability of fresh, healthy food, and more than double the number of residents they can serve.

In addition to food assistance through pantry, curbside pickup, home delivery and online ordering, Loaves & Fishes' CARES program provides wraparound support services including mental and financial health resources, health screenings, employment assistance, legal support, public benefits navigation, transportation assistance and English classes.

"We are incredibly honored to be the first recipient of the Endeavor Health CIF Impact Award," said Mike Havala, CEO of Loaves & Fishes. "This transformational support will change the trajectory of how families facing food insecurity are served and deepen collaboration with pantries across the region. We are grateful for Endeavor's extraordinary partnership and the shared commitment that strengthens our entire community."

Fresh, healthy foods play an important role in reducing the risk of chronic conditions such as heart disease and stroke, type 2 diabetes, cancer and high blood pressure. Food insecurity disproportionately affects residents of high-need communities, where access to fresh food is limited and rates of chronic illness are higher. Research shows food insecurity is linked to significantly higher rates of depression and anxiety, as well as increased use of emergency rooms, underscoring the connection between reliable access to food and overall health.

Since its launch in 2022, Endeavor Health's CIF has awarded $31.2 million to 54 local partnerships, helping create more than 650 jobs and touching nearly one million lives across the communities it serves. Endeavor Health will announce the recipients for the 2026 CIF Capacity Builder awards in January.

See a complete list of the CIF partners and the programs supported by the CIF: endeavorhealth.org/cif.

Learn more about Endeavor Health's community impact: endeavorhealth.org/community.

About Endeavor Health
Endeavor Health℠ is a Chicagoland-based integrated health system driven by our mission to help everyone in our communities be their best. As Illinois' third-largest health system and third-largest medical group, we proudly serve an area of more than 4.1 million residents across seven northeast Illinois counties. Our more than 28,300 team members, including more than 1,900 employed physicians, are the heart of our organization, delivering seamless access to personalized, pioneering, world-class patient care across more than 300 ambulatory locations and nine hospitals, including eight Magnet-recognized acute care hospitals – Edward (Naperville), Elmhurst, Evanston, Glenbrook (Glenview), Highland Park, Northwest Community (Arlington Heights), Skokie and Swedish (Chicago) and Linden Oaks Behavioral Health Hospital (Naperville). For more information, visit www.endeavorhealth.org.

About Loaves & Fishes
Loaves & Fishes Community Services is a registered 501(3) organization serving over 10,000 people a week by providing healthy food and impactful programs for self-sufficiency. It is the largest food pantry in the state of Illinois. Clients receive a healthy variety of food, including fresh fruits and vegetables, milk, and eggs. The Loaves & Fishes CARES programs help clients become self-sufficient through opportunities such as emergency assistance for rent or utilities, assistance with public benefits, car donations, tax preparation, job readiness, budgeting, and credit classes, as well as Moving Up. This intensive program helps clients overcome barriers preventing them from achieving self-sufficiency. Loaves & Fishes serves DuPage, Will, Kane, and Kendall counties. Loaves & Fishes Grocery Market and its administrative offices are located in Naperville, and the Food Distribution Hub is situated in Aurora. For more information, visit loaves-fishes.org.

Contact: Keith Hartenberger
(312) 771-2525
[email protected]

SOURCE Endeavor Health