ISBA honors winners of Lawyers Feeding Illinois Competition

ISBA President John E. Thies and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan presented plaques today to winners of the ISBA Lawyers Feeding Illinois food and fundraising campaign during an awards ceremony at the ISBA’s Chicago Regional office. During the ceremony, checks were presented to representatives of Illinois’ eight regional food banks (see list below).

The campaign, whose goal was to raise at least one million meals, surpassed its goal and raised more than 3.7 million meals with the help of lawyers, lawyer teams and more than 2,000 donors for the benefit of Illinoisans facing hunger in a statewide campaign held February 18-March 1.

This latest figure takes into account the announcement of Attorney General Madigan that her office would distribute $500,000 in funding from several legal settlements to food banks across Illinois to help feed families and people in need. Madigan said the money will make food available to local food pantries that serve each of Illinois’ 102 counties.

“With this contribution, the total number of meals provided through Lawyers Feeding Illinois will be more than 3,780,635,” said Thies. “The participation of our state’s chief legal officer demonstrates the strong commitment of the legal profession to this important cause.”

At the event, law firms, individual lawyers and organizations who received awards were:

• Hunger Relief Partner (Overall) and Large Law Firm Award:Attorneys’ Title Guaranty Fund, Inc., Champaign, $25,395 and 732 pounds of food;
• Mega Bar Association Award: DuPage County Bar Association, Wheaton, $23,682 and 23 pounds of food;
• Mega Law Firm Award: Heyl, Royster, Voelker and Allen, P.C., Peoria, $12,849 and 2,547 pounds of food;
• Large Bar Association Award: Champaign County Bar Association, Champaign, $8,740;
•  Medium Law Firm Award:Webber and Thies, P.C., Urbana, $7,557 and 471 pounds of food;
• Best Government/Non-Profit Award:Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation, East St. Louis, $6,801 and 144 pounds of food;
• Small Law Firm Award:Fombelle and Fombelle, LLP, Forsyth, $3,050;
• Hunger Relief Partner (per capita) Jim Reichardt (DuPage Solos), Villa Park, $2,540;
• Medium Bar Association Award:Vermilion County Bar Association, Danville, $2,231 and 84 pounds of food;
• Small Bar Association Award: Warren County and Henderson County bar associations, Monmouth, $1,425 and 97 pounds of food;
• Best Law School Award (per capita):Northern Illinois University College of Law, DeKalb, $920.58 and 103 pounds of food;
• Food Bank Award (for earning the most points, based on population):Eastern Illinois Food Bank, Urbana, 186,290 points earned; total population of all counties served: 520,848.

Lawyers Feeding Illinois was also supported by Illinois judges, who placed collection containers for non-perishable food items in courthouses in all parts of the state. Additional financial support for the project came from Attorneys’ Title Guaranty Fund and ISBA Mutual Insurance Company. Numerous local, ethnic and special bar associations also participated. Information about the campaign is available at www.lawyersfeedingil.org.

Feeding Illinois is a coalition of eight Feeding America food banks providing food to 1,885 agencies, including food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters that feed 1.4 million residents across the state. The organization is committed to educating people about the role of food banks in addressing hunger and raising awareness of the need to devote more resources and attention to hunger issues. Feeding Illinois is made up of Central Illinois Foodbank, Eastern Illinois Foodbank, Greater Chicago Food Depository, Northern Illinois Food Bank, the Peoria Area Food Bank, River Bend Foodbank, St. Louis Area Foodbankand Tri-State Foodbank.