Marathon Pundit: Food line in Skokie

Line at the Niles Township food pantry

During my morning run yesterday--yes, my tendinitis appears to be healed--I saw a group queued up in front of the Niles Township food pantry in Skokie.

I've lived four blocks from the the pantry for eleven years--and I've never seen a line in front of the place. So I asked an elderly woman who had just left, "What's everyone lined up for?"

"Food," she exclaimed in a classic Chicago axe-cent. "But ya gotta register first!" Yes, that's why they were lined up. However, I believe the lady was incorrect about the registration part.

But still, yikes! Things are bad here. Between my home and the pantry I saw a Fannie Mae foreclosure house for sale during that run. There are now two of them within a block of me.