Self-Help' Group Seeks Use of Van

’Self-Help* Group Seeks Use Of Van Maine Township will have to check with its insurance carrier before it can decide whether to allow the Self- Help Closet and Food Pantry of Des Plaines to use the township's van twice a month, supervisor Joan Hall said this week. Jane Horn, president of the charitable organization, and Aid. Margaret "Peggy" Wet- ter (3d) asked Hall at Tues- day's Maine Township Board meeting for permission to use the van for trips to a food de- pository on Chicago's South Side, which are made every oilier Monday morning. The organization currently rents a van to make the twice- monthly, 2-1/2 hour trip to pick up surplus food at the Greater Chicago Food Deposi- tory, 4529 S. Tripp Ave., and bring it back to Des Plaines for distribution. But it costs $110 a month to rent the van, Horn said, and the money "could be put to better use" in helping to feed •ow-income people in the Des Plaines area. Hall said Tuesday she had no objection to making the van available. But she said she needed to check the specifics of the township's coverage before doing so. The Self-Help Closet and Food Pantry of Des Plaines was established in 1971, and it now provides food and cloth- ing to nearly 500 people in Des Plaines every month, including elderly persons living on So- cial Security and many of the "working poor" and their chil- dren, according to Hon. It re- lies on donations front church- es and other charitable organi- zations.