Barack Obama joins volunteers at Chicago food bank

Former president donned gloves to help volunteers bag potatoes for Thanksgiving food parcels

barack obama
Barack Obama speaks at the University of Chicago
(Image credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Volunteers at a Chicago food bank were joined by an unexpected guest to help them prepare Thanksgiving food parcels – former president Barack Obama.

The Greater Chicago Food Depository distributes free groceries to the city’s neediest families all year round, including special Thanksgiving meal packages to mark America’s national holiday, which falls today.

The organisation’s volunteers were working to prepare the holiday food parcels on Tuesday when the former president “arrived with bags of donated food and donned latex gloves to work side by side with volunteers”, CNN reports.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

During his stint, Obama chatted with fellow workers and “helped fill bags of potatoes”, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

Mobbed by starstruck volunteers, the ex-commander in chief “dished out hugs and handshakes” as well as food, says ABC, but otherwise kept a low-profile in jeans and a baseball cap.

Obama, who began his political career in Chicago, was back in the city for the annual conference of the Obama Foundation, a philanthropic organisation he founded with his wife, Michelle, after leaving the White House.

After the Obama Foundation shared a photo of the surprise appearance on its Twitter account, the former president retweeted the image with his own holiday message.

See more

“I am grateful for the next generation of leaders – the young people who are tolerant, creative, idealistic and doing the work to create the world as it should be. Who understand that hope requires action,” he wrote. “From the Obama family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving.”

To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us