
Miscellaneous
October 3, 2024
Because you answered the call

A few months ago, we shared with our community that we were experiencing record demand at our food pantry. Visits had increased nearly threefold in two years. Despite spending more money on food than at any other time in our over 40 year history, we were struggling to keep up with this demand. This was leading to emptier shelves and fewer choices for people in our community who needed food.
We set a goal of raising $150,000 to buy additional food for our food pantry. And you responded. We greatly appreciate the people in our community who have made donations over these last couple of months. Your response has made a difference. We have been able to purchase more food, meaning there is more food on our shelves ready for the long line of people waiting outside for our doors to open. This could not have been possible without your generosity.
Once we open our doors, most of the food on the shelves is gone in a few hours. But there’s good news — your ongoing support means we can keep restocking the pantry shelves and keep providing access to nutritious food. We can keep buying more proteins, bread, eggs, milk and other basics people rely on us for. You answered our call to action this summer after we joined forces with 35 other local food pantries and gathered at the state Capitol to release a letter to the community. Our message began with a simple call to action: “Dane County, we need your help.”
Your response helped us fill a critical food gap. But the pressure on our pantry is not going away.
Food pantries continue to face a serious challenge as food insecurity rises. Last year we distributed the equivalent of 1.3 million meals, an unprecedented Because You Answered the Call number in the history of our organization. We led this coalition to sound an alarm about the rising demand for food assistance and the need for both immediate community support and longer term solutions to fill the gap.
The letter from the pantries was published as a full-page ad in the Wisconsin State Journal in June. It was sponsored by United Way of Dane County and the Wisconsin State Journal and supported by Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin.
Our letter explained what is driving demand, including higher food prices, dramatic increases in rent and the fact that federal assistance that helped people make ends meet during the pandemic is gone. In Dane County, which is growing faster than anywhere else in the state, nearly 13% of kids were food insecure in 2022, up from 7.5% in 2021. That was before our food pantries started seeing drastic increases in demand.
The result of this increased need is pantries are spending more money on food than ever before as the options they have to keep shelves stocked continue to shift and are more limited than they were just a few years ago. Buying food in bulk is more expensive now and the traditional suppliers of free food for pantries can’t keep up with the demand.
WayForward has worked hard to stretch resources, space, and teams as far as possible. But to keep up with the demand, the pantry has had to increase spending on food by 240% over the last two years.
The letter from the local food pantries also urged local, county, state, and federal officials, as well as other community leaders, to help find long-term solutions to food insecurity. We were joined at our Capitol press conference by local officials and community leaders, including Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, Middleton Mayor Emily Kuhn, Janel Heinrich, Executive Director of Public Health Madison & Dane County, state legislators, county supervisors, and other invited guests. The event drew broad coverage from local media.
“We can’t do it alone,” the letter said. “It will take all of us to meet this challenge and make sure our neighbors don’t experience hunger. We are committed to doing all we can. We are asking you to join us.”
It’s not easy to say it, but the need shows no sign of slowing down. Every month here is busier than the one before. We’re going to have to continue to buy more food to meet that need. Having your ongoing support and knowing you’re with us means the world to our staff, volunteers and the people in our community who rely on us for access to food.