On Tuesday, December 22, 2020, the Springfield YMCA in conjunction with the Lieber Foundation and Lieber’s Boxcar Express from Galesburg, Illinois, offered a free sack lunch for those in the community who needed it most. Lieber’s Boxcar Express is a restaurant in Galesburg, Illinois and they feature sandwiches, pizzas, salads, and baked potatoes. Lieber’s Boxcar Express has been in business for over 40 years and started Feed The 5000 Program in March of 2020 to honor their mother, Karen Susan “Suzy” Lieber. They wanted to do something they knew their mother would be passionate about. The Feed the 5000 is a reference to a biblical story when Jesus fed a multitude of people with just five loaves of bread and two fish. They have already given away over 13,000 meals in Galesburg and were looking at other communities who could benefit from their generosity.
On December 22, the Lieber Boxcar Express truck pulled up with over 2,700 meals ready for distribution to nine agencies in the Springfield area. Mercy House, Helping Hands, Springfield Housing Authority, Salvation Army, St. John’s Breadline, Inner City Mission and Enos Park Neighborhood are some of the agencies who benefitted from this initiative. Tiffany Lapp, a representative for Enos Park neighborhood, participated in this program and distributed over 160 meals. She said, “The families I delivered the meals to were very happy to get them. I have many shut-ins including seniors, disabled, and veterans who I brought food to in nearby high rises so the 160 meals were gone in a flash!”
Lieber Boxcar Express recently reached out to the YMCA to see if they could continue with their goal of delivering 5,000 meals to the Springfield community. The next food delivery will be here on January 26 and another ten organizations will be the recipients of of their generous gift. Angie Sowle, YMCA of Springfield CEO, says, “We are excited to have the opportunity to provide individuals and families with fresh, healthy food. We are honored the Lieber Foundation and Lieber’s Boxcar Express selected us to partner with them on this incredibly important project.”
LIEBER FAMILY HELPING WITH THE SANDWICH DISTRIBUTION