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Wisconsin Food Banks Delivering More Compared To Last Holiday Season

Increase Is Partly Due To Boost In Donations, Says One Bank Director

By
Howard Kang (CC-BY-SA)

The amount of food being distributed to nonprofit organizations around the state from food banks is up compared to the same time last year.

The Second Harvest Food Bank of Southern Wisconsin serves around 225 food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters across 16 counties in the region. It’s expected to deliver around 14 million pounds of food this year, up from roughly 12 million last year and about 13 percent more than what’s been delivered in years past, according to CEO and president Dan Stein.

The Second Harvest Northern Lakes Food Bank, which serves around 180 nonprofits in eight counties in northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin, is also sending out more food. Shaye Moris, the bank’s executive director, said one reason for the increase is that they’re bringing in more donations from national and regional wholesalers, retailers and growers.

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“It’s a good sign because it just means that there’s accessible food in our region,” she said. “It doesn’t really matter to us what the demand is. We’re going to move as much food as we can to this region so people have access to that food.”

Leaders of both banks indicated that demand for their food has been consistent. At the Northern Lakes bank, Moris said around 18,000 people are visiting food shelves at any one time in the region, reaching an estimated total of around 44,000 people each year. She said they’re on pace to distribute 5.3 million pounds of food for the year.

Stein, with the southern Wisconsin bank, said they saw around 1 million requests for food in their service area last year.

He said demand for food hasn’t dropped off, even though the economy has recovered and the unemployment rate has declined.

“People that were without work seven years ago had their jobs replaced with $10-$12 an hour jobs, so they continue to struggle,” he said.

Stein said more than half the people they serve have someone in their household with a full-time job.

Some pantries are seeing an uptick in visitors. Liz Seefeldt, the executive director of the BRICK Ministries in Ashland, has been stocking up on whole turkeys, turkey breasts, cranberries and stuffing to help pull together a feast for families who are less fortunate. She said the BRICK has seen more people in recent years after cuts to Wisconsin’s food stamp program FoodShare.

She said changes to income guidelines for the federal Emergency Food Assistance Program have also made more people eligible to receive food.

Seefeldt said it’s a stressful time of year for people who can’t afford groceries.

“When you’re experiencing food insecurity and then a holiday rolls around, there’s this added pressure, not only to put healthy nutritious food on your table every day, but then you’re supposed to somehow magically come up with extra food that’s extra special for a big feast,” said Seefeldt.

Seefeldt said around 1,600 people use the BRICK’s four food pantries each month in Ashland and Bayfield counties.

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