Wisconsin farmers deliver 220,000 pounds of fresh vegetables to food pantries each year. Here's how
When the cabbage is good, Audrey Wilson hears about it.
Wilson, director of the WestCare EATS Food Pantry at the Harambee Community Involvement Center in Milwaukee, on Wednesday afternoons greets families and senior citizens picking up food with a smile. In return, she hears stories of what clients made with last week's crop of fruits and vegetables, produce grown on a farm about 15 miles away in Menominee Falls.
The produce fills clients’ stomachs; their stories fill Wilson’s heart.
“It does my heart good to watch their eyes light up, to see how excited they are,” Wilson said. “When they see we have produce straight from the farm, out the dirt, the tomatoes, the corn, the peppers, the squashes, they’re very excited.”
A new link between Wisconsin farmers and nearby food pantries
EATS (Everything And Then Some) is one of dozens of pantries in Milwaukee, Green Bay, Appleton, and beyond that help make sure no one in Eastern Wisconsin goes hungry. These pantries can now provide clients a lot more fresh, nutrient-rich produce thanks to Farm Link, a Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin program that pays farmers to grow produce for direct delivery to pantries and related meal sites.
From 2019 to 2022, Farm Link distributions to pantries increased 154% to 229,747 pounds. Distributions in 2023 remain on track to exceed last year's total, said Kara Black, Feeding America’s procurement and programs manager.
"We’ve been successful but we hope to continue this work," Black said.
Pantries see demand spike after emergency FoodShare benefits end
Feeding America expects Farm Link will distribute about 235,000 pounds of produce for pantries by the end of this year.
The added volume took on even greater importance this year, as pantries have seen a spike in demand for all products after 700,000 Wisconsinites in February lost supplementary FoodShare benefits approved in a package of COVID emergency response bills.
"The need is always growing," Black said.
She said the message Feeding America receives back from pantries since Farm Link started has consistently been "more fresh produce."
Wilson said demand has almost tripled at EATS Pantry compared to last year. In August 2022, the pantry served 124 clients; in August, it served 313 clients. She said Feeding America programs like Farm Link and Direct Connect, which links pantries with nearby grocers, help ensure no one who stops by EATS Pantry goes home without healthy food. Even seniors who can't travel get produce delivered to them.
"We’re out there to serve the community. We’re out to help the community with hunger," Wilson said. "It’s imperative we make sure they not only have food but healthy food items to assist them with their daily needs."
Farm Link started with a call from the Medical College of Wisconsin
Farm Link started in 2019 when the Medical College of Wisconsin and Feeding America sought a way to build direct connections between farmers and food pantries.
It’s a new approach that has, in five years, reduced transportation costs and emissions, increased the volume of produce pantries distribute, lengthened the shelf-life of that produce and eliminated a lot of time, materials and effort, Black said.
In the past, produce came in much larger volumes that Feeding America had to receive, divide up into smaller quantities for pantries, and ship out to those pantries across eastern Wisconsin. Bulk produce also could be a toss-up: It might stay fresh for two weeks or turn a day later. The volume approach meant a lot of smaller farmers couldn’t participate.
With Farm Link, Feeding America in essence cut itself out of the supply chain and enabled smaller, local farmers to get involved.
Feeding America contracts with farmers to grow specific produce for five to seven pantries, ideally within 5 to 10 miles of the farm. Feeding America purchases the produce and farmers deliver it straight to the pantries, sometimes the same day.
“They’re getting produce that was picked that morning,” Black said. “For us, that’s just a really important way to make sure the food our neighbors are receiving is nutrient-dense, the healthiest and freshest it can be.”
In Appleton, 'it's like a big circle of giving and giving back to the community'
Appleton's Riverview Gardens joined the Farm Link program in 2021 and has delivered a total of 65,000 pounds of produce over those three years.
Angie Bleck, Riverview Gardens' vice president of development strategies, said Farm Link's holistic mission fit with the nonprofit's own mission to use its organic farm to help people who face various barriers to employment learn the skills to secure stable, family-supporting jobs.
In an added bit of serendipity, Bleck said some of the people Riverview Gardens helps quickly realized the food they were growing was supplying the pantries they used.
"It's like a big circle of giving and giving back to the community and helping the people who need it most," Bleck said. "There's tremendous challenges with climate change, transportation and energy, so the closer your food sources, the better off everyone is. If your lettuce doesn't have to come from California, it's more helpful."
Farm, food pantry connections enable culture-specific connections
The relationships Farm Link establishes enables pantries to provide culturally-specific produce in demand in the communities they serve.
"We have to be mindful and intentional about what food we share with our neighbors. We want to give everyone the tools to eat healthy," Black said.
Feeding America also has sought to connect Hmong farmers with pantries that serve the Hmong communities, but it's far from alone in focused on the issue. In the Green Bay area, local farmers started to grow jicama, a crunchy root vegetable popular with Latino residents, after Casa ALBA Melanie clients mentioned they'd like to see it added to produce boxes delivered to the Hispanic community resource center.
Bleck, at Riverview Gardens, said more pantries have started to ask for bok choy or collard greens. And in March 2022, it partnered with NEW Hmong Professionals to launch the Hmong Elder Herbal Gardens Initiative which grew fresh produce for a community supported agriculture program and Feeding America.
"Food is always the great connector," Bleck said.
How to donate to Stock the Shelves
During October, USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin newspapers and Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin are working together to raise enough money from readers and donors to provide 750,000 meals to Wisconsin families through the annual Stock the Shelves campaign. Each dollar donated equals about four meals, or $10 in food.
More about the campaign: Last year, readers donated $182,400 to fight hunger in Wisconsin. But that fight is ever-present
The campaign will support communities served by the following newspapers: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Green Bay Press-Gazette, Appleton Post Crescent, Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter, Oshkosh Northwestern, Fond du Lac Reporter, Sheboygan Press, Wausau Daily Herald, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, Marshfield News-Herald, Stevens Point Journal, Door County Advocate and Oconto County Reporter.
Donations will help support people in the same community where the donor lives.
To donate online, visit feedingamericawi.org/stocktheshelvesdonate.
To donate by mail, checks made payable to Feeding American Eastern Wisconsin, ATTN: Stock the Shelves, should be sent to 2911 W. Evergreen Drive, Appleton WI 54913.
Enclose with your contribution the donor’s address with city, state and ZIP code for internal processing, a notation of whether the donation should remain anonymous, whether the donation is in the memory of someone special. Also list the donor’s name as it should appear in a thank-you advertisement to be published in the Thanksgiving editions of USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin’s daily newspapers.
For a list of pantries supported by Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin, visit feedingamericawi.org/find-help.
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Contact Jeff Bollier at (920) 431-8387 or jbollier@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JeffBollier.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Wisconsin farmers stock Milwaukee, Appleton pantries with fresh produce
