Jennifer Malloy Quinlan is a force of nature – and when she’s on a mission, which she usually is, heaven help anyone who gets in her way.
Last month she was crowned King of Hearts at Robert’s Westside in Forest Park, a Valentine’s Day event designed to recognize local people who “spread love and joy.” Quinlan was honored primarily for her work with Soup and Bread West, an initiative addressing local food insecurity, but her impact extends throughout the community through many other organizations that she helps.
“Jennifer is one of the most selfless people I’ve ever met,” said Donnie Biggins, owner of Robert’s Westside. “She always shows up for anyone in need. And she doesn’t look at making it about herself, especially on social media. She just does the hard work.”
Quinlan co-founded Soup and Bread West in 2023 with several other local residents after participating for many years in Chicago’s Soup and Bread program at the Hideout. The local program was launched at Exit Strategy in Forest Park but, when that establishment closed, operations seamlessly shifted to Robert’s Westside.
Held the third Tuesday of every month, the community meal features a variety of soups prepared by volunteers and bread donated by local businesses. The program typically collects about $1,000 in donations, which are passed on to nonprofits including Beyond Hunger, Austin Eats and the Migrant Ministry.
“We really just fly by the seat of our pants,” said Quinlan. “We usually have about 10-15 crockpots of soup. We don’t plan and we don’t count, and it continues to work. We always seem to have something for everyone. It’s like the loaves and fishes.”
Quinlan has also been very involved with YEMBA, an Oak Park nonprofit serving youth through mentorship, tutoring and basketball. She got involved when her son was welcomed into the program after not making his sixth-grade basketball team.
“William was devastated – the rejection by the coach was not handled well. I was livid! But YEMBA provided him with the opportunity to play and he really thrived,” Quinlan said. “At the end-of-year awards ceremony, when I saw how much the program meant to all the kids, in addition to William, I just marched up to [Executive Director Edward] Mr. Redd and said, ‘Listen, I don’t have money but I can connect you to people in the community and if I can ever do anything for you, I will.’”
“He has taken me at my word,” she said, laughing.
A Carthage College student with plans to become a middle school gym teacher, William is now a YEMBA mentor working with students at Oak Park’s middle schools, running basketball drills and helping with homework.
“That’s the full circle of volunteering. YEMBA saved William and he understands the importance of giving back. In my family, service is just part of the rent you pay,” Quinlan said.
Said Cornick Harris, philanthropy officer for YEMBA: “Jen has been with us through every step of our growth. Her whole family is involved, collecting and delivering personal care products for our underprivileged kids, handing out flyers, and filling backpacks for our annual Back-to-School event. She is so generous with her service, time and her family.”
Quinlan insists that she is just carrying forward what she learned as a child, the product of progressive parents who created a lifestyle in which volunteering was expected. Both her parents were Chicago Public Schools teachers for a time; her father was a reading specialist for disadvantaged students and a delegate for the teachers’ union, and her mother was a social worker and union delegate for city workers.
At Chicago’s Academy of the Sacred Heart, Quinlan co-founded a social justice club, accompanied the nuns to peace marches and volunteered at a domestic violence shelter. During Christmas breaks, she volunteered at Rape Victim Advocates, where her mother was a board member, answering phones and learning about what happened to women who went to the hospital or were interviewed by police after being raped.
“It made me realize, at a young age, the importance of being an advocate,” she said.
Quinlan was particularly inspired by Sister Monica Cahill, who founded Taproots, an outreach program for adolescent mothers on the west side.
“She didn’t just take care of the kids, she got the mothers diapers, helped them obtain birth certificates, enrolled their children in school and got them lawyers if there were custody or domestic violence issues. She did all the stuff to change young women’s lives that no one talks about or sees,” Quinlan said.
Her father, who passed away last year, also served as a role model. She remembers once walking with him on Michigan Avenue and running into a professional-looking young man who asked, with great reverence, if her father was his former teacher.
“He told my dad that he had given him his first book and that he changed his life. My dad kind of collapsed into his arms and they hugged each other for a long time. That image has been stuck in my head since the 1990s. I realized that my dad did something for another kid that he also did for me,” Quinlan said.
For many years, Quinlan has served as a mother figure to a passel of kids who are not biologically hers. She is known as “Mama Jen” to two boys born into tumultuous family situations and adopted by Oak Parkers Bryan and Mark Grayson. She refers to them as the “boys of my heart.”
“The day we brought a new four-year old into our home, Jen was on our doorstep with Legos and clothes and supplies for a month. She did the same thing when we brought home a newborn couple a few years later. She’s just irreplaceable in both of their lives,” said Bryan.
“There is Earth, Wind and Fire – and Jen Quinlan,” said Mark. “We are a family with a target on our back – gay, with African American and Hispanic kids, kids with special needs. Jen shields people like us. She will be the reason our family survives this administration.”
Quinlan has also taken in youth who have needed temporary homes, including Maura, the child of a friend of hers whose tattoos and piercings and bright hair made her stand out in her small, conservative town in Arkansas. Her family also sheltered a young transgender male whose parents left the local area during the pandemic.
“We have a houseful of kids and they’re all part of the family. I’ve learned that there’s always more to share. I don’t do ‘just sufficient.’ Remarkably, I never run out of stuff. I can give it all away and still find more,” Quinlan said.
Just like the loaves and fishes.