The IMAN Food and Wellness Center

The Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN) was founded to address health disparities, violence and poverty on Chicago’s South Side by challenging larger structural inequities and responding to acute day-to-day community needs. In 2021, responding to a deep community need for stabilization and food security, IMAN partnered with the Greater Chicago Food Depository to add a formal, fully functioning food distribution site known as the IMAN Food and Wellness Center— but distribution is only a fraction of the resources available to the neighborhoods the Center serves. The Food and Wellness Center promotes the benefits of nutritious foods through their programming while addressing systemic barriers to health and wellness resources. Visitors can be connected with healthcare and behavioral health resources to promote healthier eating and mitigate or treat common health conditions like hypertension and diabetes through lifestyle adaptations. The Center also offers access to a registered dietitian on staff as well as chef demonstrations. The Center’s food distribution takes place in a “client’s choice” setting, which allows people to select the items they want—a dignified process decreasing the stigma around food access and traditional food pantries. During the pandemic, the Food and Wellness Center added emergency food distribution to get urgent aid to community members in need, as well as COVID-19 testing and vaccine drives.