Tomorrow’s Harvest Society Members: Jim and Cathy Truesdale

When Sister Rosemarie first asked Jim and Cathy Truesdale to help start an organization to feed the hungry in DuPage County back in the early ‘80s, it would have been easy for them to say no. They were recently married, just starting their family, and Jim was finishing up his master’s degree.

But instead, they said yes.

“I was raised Catholic,” Cathy shares. “I heard it at every mass I attended, all the songs we sang at church—it was our call to serve the poor.”

Jim adds his own perspective. “I came from the south side of Chicago. We didn’t realize we were poor growing up, because everybody was in the same boat. I never starved, but our food was a lot of hot dogs and beans and tater tots. I know what it’s like to live on a real low income. [And] on the other side of the coin, Cathy and I knew about food being tossed out in DuPage County [from grocery stores and companies]. To me, being an engineer, it made no sense. Here’s a huge amount of perfectly fine food and hungry people. Let’s connect them.”

So began a decades-long commitment to their community, starting from the earliest days of what was then the Bethlehem Center, now Northern Illinois Food Bank.

Jim and Cathy were involved in all of the Food Bank’s first milestones: the first building on Easy Street in Carol Stream, first distribution at People’s Resource Center in Wheaton, hiring Mary Hayes as the first official employee, getting the first walk-in freezers from Greater Chicago Food Depository, even sitting on the first Board of Directors.

Now, they’re planning to be a part of the Food Bank’s future, too.

“Both of us see hunger and we want to help solve it,” Jim says, explaining that they chose to include the Food Bank in their estate planning as another way of paying it forward. Cathy cites inspiration from the local community as well.

“The Morton Arboretum wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the Morton family,” she says. “Same with Cantigny. We wouldn’t have so many things if it wasn’t for people doing what they can. We don’t have a lot of money, but a little bit is enough.”

From day one at the Bethlehem Center to more than 35 years later at the Food Bank, Jim and Cathy are still compelled to do every little bit they can to help the hungry and serve the community. Throughout the years, there’s been a mantra the two have long modeled. Today, they say it in turn and in closing:

“If not now, when? If not us, who? If not for the kingdom, why?”