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Gina Patel, President & CEO of Patel Kwan Consultancy, has a strong and personal motivation for supporting WayForward Resources.

Patel’s company donated and packed 35 kindergarten backpacks for this year’s Back to School Program. Members of her team also volunteered to organize school supplies and get them ready for distribution, joined by her own kindergartner, Hari (in photo at left with Patel Kwan intern Grace Liew).

“Way Forward provides much-needed resources to families in our area,” says Patel (at left in photo at top).

“I am originally from the UK, but as a child I received free school lunches, uniform, etc. As a family we received about 40 GBP per week in ‘benefits’ to use for food, heat, transport, and anything else needed. That is approximately what it ended up costing for these backpacks including supplies. Having this extra cost burden can mean the difference between families going without heat or food and being able to send their kids to school with backpacks ready for the school year. There is a lot of drive in our community to support one another, so thank you, WayForward for facilitating this.”

 

This is the 10th year that Middleton-based NET (Network Engineering Technologies) has made it easy for its employees to get in on the fun of supporting Winter Wishes and the reason is both simple and powerful.

“We care about our community and we really believe that helping others strengthens those bonds that hold us all together,” says Laura Duffield, NET’s Accounts Receivable Manager, who organizes the effort.

Winter Wishes provides $30 gift cards to participants. It’s a great opportunity for co-workers, teams, families and groups to come together to make the holidays special for people in our community. 

Last year, NET sponsored 100 Winter Wishes participants. This year, the company is increasing its commitment and purchasing gift cards for 200 people. 

About 30 employees typically take part by going out to shop for cards and if they choose to, they can donate small trinkets or stocking stuffers geared toward the age of the recipient to add to the bag with the gift card. Employees also donate wrapping paper to add to the stash recipients can choose from when picking up their gift cards at WayForward so they can wrap up the gifts they buy.

Duffield says the program resonates with employees who started at NET early in their careers and now have families of their own and want to support other parents.

“We’ve all had times in our life where we needed help without judgment or just a little boost to get us through,” Duffield says. “The holidays are hard. … so anything we can do to try to lighten the load for a parent, it just feels so worth it.”

WayForward is seeing increased demand across all of our programs this year and we are expecting a record number of people to sign up and qualify for Winter Wishes this year. Supporting Winter Wishes is a great way to engage your employees during the holiday season and bring joy to others in our community. 

Sign up by December 4 to get matched with participants or donate funds to help purchase gift cards. Have questions? Contact Jill Bradshaw, Community Engagement Manager, at jill@wayforwardresources.org

WayForward was honored this week for being named to the Wisconsin Association of School Boards 2023 Business Honor Roll, which recognizes outstanding local businesses that support their schools.

The Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District nominated WayForward, which was among five nominees in the community selected, including Bridging Brighter Smiles, Lake Ridge Bank, One Community Bank-Middleton, and USI Insurance Services. The district’s nomination highlighted WayForward’s role in ensuring that individuals and families throughout Dane County have access to nourishing food. WayForward Executive Director Ellen Carlson and Case Manager Claire Baker accepted the honor at this week’s school board meeting from Superintendent Dr. Dana Monogue and Board of Education President Sheila Hibner (center in above photo).

“Their remarkable efforts have made them an invaluable partner to our social workers and education foundation,” Monogue said. “We extend our sincere gratitude to WayForward Resources for tirelessly providing us with food and personal hygiene items to better support the students, staff and families in our district. Their dedication to helping others is both humbling and inspiring, and we deeply appreciate the role they play in our mission to uplift and empower those around us. With their unwavering support, we can make a meaningful impact on the lives of those we serve. WayForward Resources, thank you for being such a crucial partner in our pursuit of a better and brighter tomorrow for all.”

We are proud to partner with the Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District to build a community where everyone has the stability to thrive.

 

Members of St. Bernard Catholic Church’s Human Needs Commission devised a simple plan for a food drive that yielded amazing results. 

During the weekend of October 7, they handed out paper grocery bags with WayForward’s shopping list stapled to them and encouraged families to fill them with items from the list. Churchgoers were invited to return the bags the following weekend and drop them in food barrels stationed at the entrances to the church parking lot. That weekend the barrels were overflowing.

“The participation was great,” says commission member Barbara Roberts, who delivered the results of the church’s drive along with Dick Seifert (pictured above).

The group handed out an estimated 200 bags and about 170 came back. The drive collected 1,212 pounds of food for WayForward’s pantry, the equivalent of more than 1,000 meals.

Roberts says she thinks giving people a physical reminder to take part was the difference in making the food drive a success.

“What people have told us is that it’s a visible reminder during the week,” she says. “You see it on the kitchen counter and you’re reminded, ‘I’ve got to stop at the grocery store.’”

You can hold a food drive in your office, school, team or organization. Our shopping list includes: breakfast cereals/oatmeal, rice, pasta and sauce, mac and cheese, peanut butter, canned soup, snacks, condiments, canned chicken and tuna, flour and sugar, cooking oil, toiletries, diapers and wipes.

Our Clothing Center offers free clothing and household items thanks to your generous donations. As we continue to adapt to the need in our community, we recently updated our guidelines for what items we can accept due to space and volunteer capacity.

Please review the list below before you bring donations and remove items we cannot accept. Otherwise, we have to dispose of these items, which unfortunately adds to our costs.

We CAN accept these items:

We CANNOT accept these items:

Tania* was preparing to start her last year of college when she was laid off from the job she counted on to cover the rent on her apartment.

She was on the path to becoming a teacher. Her landlord suggested reaching out to WayForward for help.

Tania received financial assistance from WayForward’s Housing Stability Program that allowed her to stay in her apartment while she looked for a new job and start the academic year without the stress of facing eviction.

Thanks to your support and commitment, last year we provided financial assistance and case management to more than 600 households, key tools to helping them stay in their homes.

 

*name and identifying details changed

For the last year or more, we’ve kept you informed about the rising numbers at our food pantry. With your support, we continue to meet the need in our community despite the challenges we face.

No one is turned away who needs food.

Everyone who comes to the pantry can choose from a variety of healthy foods and essential items. What is in stock changes from week to week, partially depending on what food we receive that week. We receive food from Second Harvest Food Bank, Community Action Coalition and local retailers who pass on surplus items, along with our gardens, community food drives and your individual donations.

All of these are critical sources of food for the pantry and allow us to meet the growing need, with more than 147,000 pounds of donated food coming in last year. We also received more than 200,000 pounds of rescued items donated by local retailers that provide more options to our guests and at the same time help reduce food waste.

Visits per month are up 197% since January 2022, because of large scale factors that are also impacting other food pantries, including additional federal food and rental assistance put into place during the pandemic coming to an end earlier this year.

Due to increased demand, we are purchasing significantly more food now than in the past, buying more than 130,000 pounds last year.

We’re grateful to have you join us in meeting this increased demand. Any amount of food donated by the community is important, because that is food we don’t have to purchase.

Whether you organize a food drive with your co-workers or neighbors, shop our Top 10 list and bring food to donate or purchase items directly from our Amazon wish list, all of these actions help ensure that people in our community have access to nutritious food.

Join us in building a community where everyone can thrive.

Ryan and Lexy* began visiting WayForward’s food pantry after he was laid off from a marketing firm where he had a promising career path. Lexy is in treatment for cancer and has significant medical bills. The couple is using all of their savings to maintain the health insurance coverage from Ryan’s former employer while he looks for another job. The pantry is a critical piece of their stability, allowing them to stay in their apartment.

 

Food from the pantry has also been a lifeline for Ana and her two children since she arrived here from Venezuela — a country in crisis — to stay with her sister. Ana’s husband has been working in Arizona for the past year and will join them as soon as he can find a job here. In the meantime, WayForward’s food pantry is how Ana ensures that her kids have enough nutritious food to eat.

 

 

Jade was struggling to pay rent after unexpectedly needing to care for her infant grandson. High angle of cute newborn touching finger of anonymous parent while lying on soft bed in bedroom
She came to WayForward for financial assistance once the costs of caring for a growing baby hit her monthly budget. Jade regularly visits the food pantry to help bridge the gap, so she can provide a safe and stable home for her grandchild.

Everyone who comes to the pantry has a story that is uniquely their own — what they all share is the increased stability that comes from access to nutritious food. Together, we’re providing food to more people than ever before in our 40-year history.

Demand has doubled in the last year due in part to pandemic-era food and rental assistance from the federal government coming to an end. In addition, the cost of housing continues to rise at record levels – a recent national study found that Madison has the fastest-rising rent of any major city in the United States.

We are proud that we continue to meet this need as we grow and change significantly post-pandemic. We are using more donor dollars to purchase food than we did in the past and we work hard to make strategic choices about what and when to buy to maximize our purchasing power. Your partnership is critical to how we’ll sustain what we offer and ensure that everyone who walks through our door has access to a fully-stocked pantry.

When you give to WayForward, you join a community effort along with other donors, partners, volunteers and staff to provide access to nutritious, culturally specific food for children and adults in Dane County. All donations will be used for the greatest need across our food security and housing stability programs.

GIVE TODAY

*names and identifying details changed

Hunger Action Month is a nationwide initiative to raise awareness of hunger, encourage people to take action towards supporting those facing hunger and address the systemic inequities that can lead to someone being food insecure.

We’re sharing four ways you can get involved and help make a difference.

 

#1  Donate to your local food pantry

#2  Wear orange

#3  Learn more about food insecurity

#4  Organize a food drive!

Last year brought many milestones, but the most striking is the number of people we served across all of our programs — 6,665. It’s more than at any time in our 40-year history, and it speaks to the way we have adapted and responded to the challenges people in our community face in seeking a path to stability. You can learn more about our year in our online annual report.

Our biggest shift of the year was resuming in-person shopping in our food pantry after the COVID-19 pandemic caused us to operate exclusively through drive-thru and deliveries for over two years. The number of visits to the pantry — more than 60,000 this year — has steadily increased since then, with no sign of reversing. As a result, expenses for our food security programs nearly doubled during the year.

We also saw increased demand for our housing stability programs and we provided housing stability support to more than 600 households in our community.

We marked the first anniversary of our Connections Program, which helps people in doubled-up living situations find and maintain housing of their own.

As pandemic-era supports continued to fade, our case managers worked with families and individuals to prevent eviction and connect them with critical services. Other programs like our Seniors Program, Clothing Center and Seasonal Programs relieved financial pressure so families could focus on other expenses.

Even as demand increased, our community responded through individual and group volunteering, food drives, generous financial donations and more. Your partnership and support through this rapid period of change is what allowed us to meet critical needs and work to create food and housing security for people in our community. Together, we can make sure that next year even more people have the stability necessary to thrive.

Ellen Carlson
Executive Director