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Holiday Season Guide

How You Can Get Involved

 Holiday Meals * Baking Baskets * Winter Food Drives

Give Holiday Meals

You can help people in our community honor their holiday traditions. WayForward food pantry guests can choose from items that are meaningful to their families, including turkey, stuffing, gravy, collard greens, ham, curry powder, coconut milk, masa harina and wild rice. Your donations will ensure our food pantry can purchase enough butter, milk, eggs and other ingredients needed for baking and holiday meals that make this time of year special and joyful. You can also purchase holiday pantry items from our Amazon Wish List.

Donate Holiday Meals Amazon Wish List

Holiday Baking Baskets

Put together a basket or box of shelf-stable and non perishable essentials for holiday baking to donate to our pantry. All baskets should contain: flour, white sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, vanilla, and vegetable oil. Consider personalizing your baking basket with a couple of add-ons such as: decorating sugars or sprinkles in a variety of colors, spices like cinnamon and nutmeg, cocoa powder, baking mixes, canned frosting, food coloring, packets of instant yeast, cookie cutters, oven mitts, spatula, a cookie sheet, or a rolling pin. Drop items off at the main office of WayForward before December 18th. Have fun and make it festive!

Want more information? Contact Community Engagement Manager Jill Bradshaw, jill@wayforwardresources.org or (608) 836-2751.

Holiday Recipes

We’ll share some favorite recipes from pantry guests and volunteers leading up to the holiday season, along with ways you can donate the ingredients needed to make them. We’ll include items on our Amazon Wish List and update you via our email newsletter and social media. 

See Recipes

Winter Food Drives

stock the pantry shelves

Looking for a way to bring your colleagues, congregation or team together? Plan a food drive to help stock the WayForward food pantry. 

  • Get started by filling our food drive form
  • Consider Printing and attaching shopping list to empty paper grocery bags and hand out in your office, church, or school
  • Reach out to us to discuss the details of your drive, including when you will be dropping off your donation.
    Businesses: contact Beth at
    beth@wayforwardresources.org or 608-826-3414
    Other groups: contact Jill at
    jill@wayforwardresources.org or 608-836-2751

 

Holiday Art Market

Thank you for joining us on December 7 & 8!

Kick off your holiday shopping at a fun and festive holiday market that benefits WayForward. More than 50 local makers will be on hand at FCI in Middleton, with each of them donating at least 20% of their sales to benefit WayForward’s food and housing programs. The popular Gift To-Go Boxes will be back for this year’s market, along with door prizes and the crowd favorite Plinko game.

Saturday, December 7 — 10 am to 5 pm
Sunday, December 8 — 10 am to 3 pm

2551 Parmenter Street in Middleton

Sponsorship opportunities are available, contact beth@wayforwardresources.org.

Event Details
Thank you to the Holiday Art Market Sponsors:
Presenting:

Title:

Gold:
The Byrd Family
Hoffman Manufacturing Corp
Laird Plastics
Lake Ridge Bank
L&M Corrugated Container Corporation
Our Family Brand (found at Metcalfe’s)
Star Holdings Group
State Farm Agent Michael Wegner
Total Administrative Services Corporation (TASC)
Bronze:
Alpina Manufacturing
Carrington Lawn & Landscape
Environment Control of WI
Living in Madison
Molina Healthcare
NEMCO Food Equipment
Systematics
Uline
Wisco Industries, Inc.

Giving Tuesday

Thank you for helping us reach our goal!

Thank you for being part of our celebration of giving on social media on December 3. WayForward Resources hosted a #GivingTuesday #BlockParty  to raise $75,000. We are excited to share that we surpassed that goal and raised $83,890 to support our food and housing programs as demand continues to rise. We spent the day sharing stories about the amazing people who support our mission and how lives can change when we #BuildTogether and create a community where everyone has the basics they need to thrive. Follow us on Facebook to join the fun.

Learn More

You Can Help

Build Stability in Our Community

Now, more than ever, your support helps ensure that people in our community have enough nutritious food to eat and can remain in stable housing.