Central Wisconsin Volunteers Work To Fight Hunger With Lots Of Mac N’ Cheese

More than 100 volunteers this week put together 6,000 packages of macaroni and cheese for food pantries in the Wausau area.

The volunteers were young professionals in the Emerging Leaders program of the local United Way chapter. Tara Glodowski helped coordinate what she called an assembly line of more than 100 people, packaging more than 5,500 pounds of food.

“They did everything in assembly lines: Bring the macaroni, the cheese, the soy protein which is vitamin fortified, put them into a package, seal them, and put some labels on them,” Glodowski said. “And all 6,000 of the packages will go to the Marathon County Hunger Coalition and to local food pantries.”

There are six servings to a package, each costing about 25 cents, paid for in part by a donation from the B.A. and Esther Greenheck Foundation.

Organizers said the action addresses a persistent hunger problem in central Wisconsin. The Marathon County Hunger Coalition received more than 110,000 requests for food last year.