Maman Zari is abuzz. Waiters flit from table to table as the room rings with laughter, conversation and the sound of clinking glasses. In the warm light of the Albany Park restaurant, guests sit in front of pristine white tablecloths as servers unveil smoked eggplants, cucumber salads, branzino with saffron sauce, lamb meatballs and tiny desserts arrayed in neat rows on plates. The mood is light, but the diners aren’t just there to eat. They’re united by a cause.

On Wednesday, Feb. 12, Persian restaurant Maman Zari hosted a fundraiser for Bigger Table, an organization under the Chicagoland Food & Beverage Network. Amid the lighthearted environment of the restaurant laid a more serious acknowledgement of the Chicagoland area’s food insecurity and what Bigger Table is doing to combat it.

Bigger Table board members gave a presentation expressing the organization’s mission and its goals — and what it has been able to accomplish. The list is long. 

“I think everybody’s head nods when they understand what we’re trying to do …,” Andy Dratt, chairman of Bigger Table’s board, said. “Like any nonprofit, it’s always hard, where you’re constantly chasing dollars … people gave what they could, which is all we were asking.”

In its four years of existence, Bigger Table has produced over five million servings of food for Chicagoland food pantries and food banks.

How do they do this?

Bigger Table pools donations from groups across Chicagoland to produce food products for people struggling with food insecurity. Donations can be extra ingredients (for example, a surplus of maltodextrin), time on manufacturing lines, modes of transportation or expertise. 

“We still have to pay the cost of the packaging, but the companies are giving up their profit,” Alan Reed, executive director of the Chicagoland Food & Beverage Network and Bigger Table, said. “So we’re able to do quite a bit.”

Then Bigger Table develops a recipe and distributes the product to people who need it.

One such recipe is a smoothie — incorporating large amounts of excess whey protein, Bigger Table distributes a powder that can be mixed with water or other drinks. Reed said it’s important to the organization that recipes are adaptable and can work for a wide range of people.

Reed said Bigger Table’s goal is not to build its own distribution network.

“We’re using the distribution system that is there,” he said. “Then, with a relatively small staff, we’re able to put together … servings of healthy food with relatively little overhead.”

The response has been positive. Reed said the Bigger Table Instagram often gets messages from people sharing their stories and thanking the organization.

“I got one just the other day that said, ‘I’d like to buy three cases of the smoothie, please,’” Reed said. “And I had to say, … ‘I’ll send you a note when I know what’s going to be distributed.’”

Bigger Table board member Katie Kimble got involved with the organization because she appreciated their impact — and saw ways that she could help.

“I really love the mission here,” Kimble said. “We’re trying to solve the food insecurity crisis in Chicago, and also, I’ve worked in food manufacturing, so (I’ve been) able to leverage all of the work done locally.”

Kimble and Bigger Table’s team has been able to use connections in the food and manufacturing industries to spread awareness and gain resources — right from the organization’s beginning.

Bigger Table was founded by Reed and Dratt in 2019 after food producers came to them with the issue of what to do with excess food supplies that couldn’t go straight to a consumer.

“We grow and we make more than enough food to feed absolutely everybody,” Reed said at the fundraiser. “That seems shocking, right? Because we all hear about how people are hungry. … The food is there. Here’s the problem. It’s in the wrong place.”

After the onset of Covid-19, Reed and Dratt considered pausing operations, but after the food distribution system told them need was still present, they decided to continue. With no other options, Reed and Dratt themselves drove U-Hauls full of products to each food pantry.

The organization has grown since, and Reed said he hopes it will continue to grow — perhaps even past Chicagoland. At the time of interview, the estimated total raised at Maman Zari was $10,000.

“There’s no shortage of need for healthy food and healthy products and food banks and pantries,” Reed said. “There’s no shortage of food waste, and our mission is, how do we start to bridge the gap for this? … We want to provide a solution, and we want (the industry) to help us come up with what that looks like.”

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