Stock the Shelves campaign in Oshkosh aims to help hungry
The first time I realized how big a struggle food insecurity was during the COVID-19 pandemic was when I answered an email asking for volunteers to deliver food to school district families.
I was living in Madison at the time, and I thought it’d help me feel useful — and get me out of my apartment. I expected to go once or twice, maybe until the school year ended.
I ended up delivering six to 12 meals to families most Wednesdays, which was later changed to Fridays, from May 2020 until I moved to Oshkosh in June 2021. The organizers went from a well-intentioned group of school staff to a fully fledged organization, the Madison West High Area Collaborative, delivering 30-plus pounds of food to each family each week, a mix of nonperishables and fresh produces. Food delivery turned into supplies including toilet paper and diapers — whatever families needed.
When I moved to Oshkosh, my editor told a story about how he saw cars lined up bumper to bumper in Menominee Park, families just like the ones in Madison waiting to receive nutritious food from Feeding America’s Farm to Family Drive-up Food Distribution.
Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin is a food bank that supplies products to local pantries, such as Salvation Army Oshkosh and Oshkosh Area Community Pantry. It was a vital resource during the pandemic, said Patti Habeck, the organization’s CEO and president.
The organization saw the need increase by about 30% since before the pandemic started, serving at its peak about 600,000 people, up from 400,000 before the pandemic. About 40% of those people had never needed hunger relief assistance before.
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“The demand for food not only increased, but the demand for healthy food was particularly important,” she said. “Recognizing where the pandemic caused gaps and getting into those gaps to make sure every community had access.”
She doesn’t expect that need to go away. Neither does Don Hazaert, Salvation Army Oshkosh’s development director. Indeed, the organization is in the process of constructing a 20,200-square-foot, $5 million new facility, including a new basement to house its food pantry, to address the community’s growing needs.
“It’s an unfortunate acknowledgement of reality, but it is reality: The Salvation Army is going to be needed for decades to come,” he said in a June interview.
About 1 in 10 households in Oshkosh rely on the organization’s food pantry every year, and he expected after the extra $300 in federal unemployment benefits expired this month that even more people would need assistance.
According to data from Feeding America’s latest “Map the Meal Gap” study, Winnebago County’s food insecurity rate was 9.3% in 2019, or 15,890 food-insecure people. The organization is tracking how the coronavirus pandemic will impact food insecurity and projects Winnebago County’s rate will jump to 11.5% in 2020.
That’s the bad news. The good news is, we can help families make sure they get the healthy food they need.
Want to help? Stock the Shelves donation window is open throughout October
Stock the Shelves is an annual campaign by the USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin in partnership with Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin that encourages readers to donate money to help fight hunger in their local communities.
Since 2010, Stock the Shelves has raised more than $5 million for food pantries across Wisconsin thanks to the donations of readers and support of community partners, including credit unions.
“We are excited to continue our partnership with the Stock the Shelves program in 2021,” said Andy Fisher, chief business executive for USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin. “Over the years this program has helped countless numbers of individuals and families throughout eastern Wisconsin. Last year over $150,000 was raised through this program. COVID-19 has impacted and continues to impact many of our families, friends and neighbors throughout our communities and there has not been a more important time to band together to help these people in need.”
The money raised provided about half a million meals to those in need in our communities.
“We are committed to supporting the communities throughout our USA TODAY-Wisconsin Network and our team is excited to partner with this amazing program again this year,” Fisher said.
Stock the Shelves aims to help those in need in the communities served by the following Northeastern Wisconsin newspapers: Door County Advocate, Green Bay Press-Gazette, Oconto County Reporter, Kewaunee County Star-News, Appleton Post-Crescent, Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter, Oshkosh Northwestern, Fond du Lac Reporter, The Sheboygan Press, Wausau Daily Herald, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, Marshfield News-Record, Stevens Point Journal and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Donations will help support the community in which the donor resides.
Checks should be made payable to Feeding American Eastern Wisconsin, ATTN: Stock the Shelves, and mail to 2911 W. Evergreen Drive, Appleton WI 54913. Enclose alongside your contribution the donor’s address with city, state and ZIP code for internal processing, a notation of whether or not the donation should remain anonymous, whether the donation is in the memory of someone special, and the donor’s name as it should appear in the thank-you advertisement to be published in the Thanksgiving edition of USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin’s daily newspapers.
To donate online, visit feedingamericawi.org/stocktheshelvesdonate.
Feeding America partners with these local pantries
Food pantries in Winnebago County include:
- Salvation Army Oshkosh, 338 Pearl Ave. Open. 920-232-7660 or centralusa.salvationarmy.org/oshkosh. A hot meal lunch program is also available.
- Oshkosh Area Community Pantry, in St. Vincent de Paul Society, 2551 Jackson St. Open 2 to 6 p.m. Monday and 10 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays. Registration and proof of current address required; shoppers use a point system based on family size. 920-651-9960 or oacptoday.org.
- Lutheran Food Pantry, 714 Division St. Open 8 to 10:30 a.m. Mondays through Fridays. 920-379-4774 or zionoshkosh.com/lutheran-food-pantry.
- Emmanuel United Church of Christ, 1306 Michigan St. Call between 8 to 9:30 a.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays; food pick-up at 9:30 a.m. Must show ID. 920-235-8340 or emmanueloshkosh.org.
- Omro Community Food Pantry, 310 N. Webster St., Omro. Open 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. Serving clients within Omro School District. 920-231-7546.
- St. Vincent de Paul Neenah/Menasha Food Pantry, 1425 S. Commercial St., Neenah. Open 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. Wednesdays and 10 a.m. to noon Saturdays. Free to residents of the Neenah/Menasha area, ID and proof of residency required. 920-729-4571 or svdpneenah.org/food-pantry.
- St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, 140 S. Green Bay Road, Neenah. Open 9 to 11 a.m. Wednesdays. 920-725-2828 or stmarksneenah.org.
- Double Portion Food Pantry, in St. Thomas Church, 226 Washington St., Menasha. Take-out meals and food pantry open 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. 920-725-5601 or doubleportionsoupkitchen.com.
- Christ the Rock Food Pantry, W6254 Highway 10 #114, Menasha. Call to schedule a pick-up time; pick-ups are 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. and 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays. All food pantry requests must be received by 5 p.m. Friday to be included in the next Tuesday’s pickup. 920-730-8383, ext. 416 or christtherock.org/food-pantry.
Contact Katy Macek at [email protected] or 920-426-6658. Follow her on Twitter @KatherineMacek.
