Create stability for people in our community. Your support prevents evictions and provides food access.
After years in an abusive relationship. Madeline* made the decision to leave her partner and get a fresh start for herself and her children. However, as a stay-at-home mom, she had no income, and her partner controlled the household finances. On her own, she couldn’t afford the apartment her family was living in.
Fortunately, Madeline reached out to WayForward Resources and connected with a case manager. She discussed her need to find work, childcare, and an affordable place to live for her family. She also wanted to stay in her current neighborhood to allow her kids to remain focused and engaged in school and connected to their friends.
Together, she and her case manager worked on a planned move with these goals in mind. WayForward provided financial assistance that Madeline applied toward the remaining months’ rent at the too-expensive apartment and offered our food pantry as a resource option, which could allow her to save funds to pay the security deposit at a new place. Madeline and her family’s new apartment is much more affordable and still within her children’s school district.
Domestic violence is a leading cause of housing instability and homelessness for women. Survivors are often forced to leave their homes to escape abuse, only to then face barriers in obtaining and maintaining safe housing, including limited access to financial resources and discrimination by housing providers. Women who experience violence are also disproportionately more likely to experience food insecurity than the general population. Food security plays a vital role in a person’s well-being, affecting school, employment, and health outcomes.
With record demand for our food and housing services, your support is needed now more than ever.
Our food pantry is experiencing three times as many visits as we had only two years ago, and distributing the equivalent of almost 122,000 meals a month. Last year over 700 households received financial assistance to remain in stable housing, a 90% increase since 2019.
Your support helps families like Madeline’s feel safe and stabilized in their new beginnings.
Join us in building a strong community where everyone has enough food to eat and a warm place to sleep. Donate today to make a difference. Thank you!
Donate Now*A representative name and photo have been used to protect client confidentiality.
Making a Difference Together
April is Global Volunteer Month, a time dedicated to recognizing the impact of volunteers worldwide. At WayForward Resources, we’re proud to join this global celebration by honoring the extraordinary individuals who make our mission possible.
As our Volunteer Program Manager, Pam Higham, expresses:
“At WayForward Resources, we warmly welcome volunteers as invited guests, valued colleagues, and essential members of the WayForward community. Volunteers generously share their time and talents to create food security and housing stability, contributing across every corner of our organization. I am privileged to witness something beautiful as this unfolds: the spirit of volunteerism uplifts everyone – paid staff, unpaid staff, and those we serve!”
The Impact of Volunteerism in Numbers
- 950 volunteers contributed their time and talents last year
- Volunteers logged nearly 27,000 hours supporting our programs
- Our dedicated volunteers helped serve over 13,000 people a year
- Volunteers support every aspect of our organization, from food pantry operations to administrative support
Meet A Few Of Our Volunteers
Throughout Global Volunteer Month, we’re highlighting the stories of some of our amazing volunteers. Each brings their unique perspective and passion to WayForward Resources, and together, they make our mission possible.
Debbie Loomis
Debbie began volunteering in 2021 during the height of COVID, working in our drive-up food pantry. Since then, she’s spread joy as a holiday Elf at our Holiday Art Market and now welcomes donors at our donation center.
Her inspiration comes from her 95-year-old mother-in-law who volunteered until just weeks before her passing. “Knowing what a need there is in the community and connecting with various donors (many have wonderful stories) keeps me motivated to continue volunteering,” Debbie explains.
The moments that stay with her are deeply human connections. She treasures interactions with donors who are donating items from loved ones who have passed away, or former clients giving back. “I’m always so touched that at such times of great sadness they are able to think of us at WayForward and share their story with me.”
One of her favorite memories? “A donor’s little girl, probably around 7 years old, donated a couple pairs of her sparkly shoes. She was speaking Spanish and I was able to thank her and tell her what pretty eyes she had in her language, earning a big hug from her!”
When asked what she would say to someone considering volunteering with WayForward, Debbie’s advice is simple: “Just do it!! It’s so rewarding and the people you work with are all amazing, passionate, and fun!”
Linda Pils
Linda’s journey with WayForward began through community food drives. “I started volunteering because I was part of a community that made food collections a priority and then donated the food to WayForward,” she explains. As her understanding of food insecurity grew, so did her commitment to our mission.
Every Thursday afternoon, you’ll find Linda at the milk, eggs, and meat coolers, serving our diverse community. She shares, “Some are hesitant and just learning where food is stored, some are old friends and we chat about how their kids are doing or how was work that day.”
For Linda, volunteering brings a special kind of fulfillment: “When my shift is completed, I don’t leave with a full grocery basket, but I do leave with a full heart.”
It’s the simple expressions of gratitude that make the experience so meaningful. As Linda puts it, “Volunteering is rewarding, it is the many ‘Thank you, for being here’ comments that fill me up, reinforcing the graciousness of our guests.”
Mike Glassford
Mike joined our volunteer team just one year ago in March 2024. His motivation? “To give back to the community and serve others in my retirement.” This simple yet powerful purpose has made a meaningful difference to countless pantry guests.
Like many of our volunteers, Mike has been touched by the resilience of those we serve. He shares, “One of our guests told me she and her children just moved into a house after being homeless for a year and WayForward had helped her through that rough time and is still helping them now. She was filled with tears when she told me this story and it touched my heart.”
What keeps Mike coming back week after week? “All the great people I work with. Such a wonderful atmosphere and love for helping others. I have also made some new friends there and that is great to me.”
To all our volunteers: Thank you for being essential members of our community. Your generosity creates ripples of positive change that extend far beyond the hours you contribute. You are the heart of WayForward Resources, and we are deeply grateful for your commitment to creating food and housing security in our community.
Join Our Volunteer Team
Inspired by these stories? We invite you to consider joining volunteers like Mike, Debbie, Linda, and the nearly 950 others who make our work possible. Whether you can give an hour a week or a day a month, your time makes a difference.
Some Current Volunteer Opportunities:
- Donor Greeter: Represent WayForward to food and clothing donors with a kind & friendly demeanor as you welcome donors and accept, weigh, and record donations.
- Food Rescue Volunteer Driver: Drive WayForward vehicles or your own to pick up food from local retail partners and unload at WayForward.
- Clean Team – Food Pantry & Clothing Center: Help make the Food Pantry shine for those we serve and maintain best practices for health and safety.
- Food Pantry Inventory Support: Join our morning team to safely label and store incoming food and ensure pantry inventory is maintained and organized.
- Guest Helper – Meat/Eggs/Dairy: Kindly hand out meat selections and limited dairy items or eggs to food pantry guests.
- Guest Greeter: Warmly welcome food pantry guests, explain the pantry flow, and offer assistance as needed.
For more information about volunteering with WayForward Resources visit our Become A Volunteer page or contact our Volunteer Program Manager, Pam Higham, by email or phone (608) 826-3409.
UPDATE: After May 1, 2025, if you haven’t re-registered already, you’ll be able to do so when you arrive before shopping.
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We are updating our food pantry check-in system. This means all food pantry guests must re-register before May 1, 2025, even if you already have a WayForward card. Please bring your WayForward card to re-registration.
You do not need an ID or any documents to register.
To make it easy, we have special re-registration days in April. If you come on one of these days, you may get a $10 Walmart gift card (while supplies last).
Re-Registration Dates:
April 9: 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
April 10: 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
April 15: 12:00 am – 2:00 pm
April 18: 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
April 22: 12:00 am – 2:00 pm
April 24: 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Starting May 1, if you haven’t re-registered, you must do so before shopping. If you have any questions, please call our main office at 608-836-7338 and ask for Meghan Sohns, our Senior Director of Programming.
We look forward to seeing you soon!
Sandra* has a disability that causes her a lot of pain. She relies on her electric wheelchair to get around and maintain independence. When Sandra’s enhanced FoodShare benefits ended, she couldn’t afford to buy both healthy food and pay her electric bill. Sandra faced a difficult choice: purchase food or keep her power on—the power she needed not just for basic living but also for her mobility.
Sandra contacted WayForward Resources for help preventing her power being disconnected. WayForward was able to send some funds toward her electric bill and provided her with food deliveries from our pantry twice a month. “It’s been a huge help,” Sandra tells us.
Her story reflects the stark challenges faced by Americans with disabilities in meeting their basic needs. According to the USDA’s Economic Research Service (2023), food insecurity affects 33% of U.S. households with an adult who is out of the labor force due to disability, compared to just 10% of households without adults with a disability. This means households with an adult with a disability are over three times more likely to struggle with consistent access to adequate food.
The connection between disability and food insecurity is further documented by Feeding America’s 2022 research. Among the 79 million older adults over 60 in the United States, those with disabilities experience food insecurity at more than twice the rate of older adults without disabilities. These statistics highlight how disabilities can create compounding challenges, often forcing people to choose between essential needs like food, medicine, and utilities.
Your donations to WayForward help neighbors like Sandra maintain their independence and access to nutritious food. When you give, you provide critical support that provides housing stability and food security, and helps our community members meet their basic needs.
*A representative photo and name have been used to maintain client confidentiality
A year-end message from WayForward Executive Director Ellen Carlson
It’s been another year of unprecedented growth at WayForward. For an organization that focuses on providing the basic building blocks of stability–food and housing, growth is both positive and negative.
On one hand, we have made an impact on more people’s lives than ever before. Thanks to the support of the community, we have been able to serve over 13,000 people last year–more than twice as many as the year before. That means twice as many people have been able to avoid eviction and stay in their homes and have received the nutritious food they need.
On the other hand, our organizational growth has been driven by the tremendous rise in demand for our services. That’s why unprecedented growth is also cause for concern. We are seeing three times as many visits to our food pantry as we did just two years ago, and our case managers are booking emergency housing appointments out weeks in advance.
Numbers like these mean many visitors are coming to our food pantry for the first time. In fact, 50% of people who came to the food pantry last year were first-time visitors. Children and families with children are overrepresented. Around 75% percent of people who received food were in households with children. And nearly 100% of families served by our Connections program, a housing program that works with those in doubled-up housing situations, have children.
Key factors in this increased demand for our services include the rise in food prices, the population growth in Dane County and in Middleton and west Madison specifically, and perhaps most significantly, the increase in housing prices in our area. While we have a very low unemployment rate in Dane County, many of these jobs don’t pay enough to cover the rising cost of living here. Community members who were just barely making ends meet before are now unable to absorb a $150/month rent increase. With no increase in pay and nowhere cheaper to rent, they are turning to WayForward to bridge the gap.
These are big problems–problems that are greater than anything WayForward can address alone. And with the affordable housing gap widening and housing prices continuing to rise, we expect the number of people unable to cover the basic expenses of food and housing to continue to grow. We are committed to continuing to adapt, innovate and expand and to do all we can to make sure people have the food and stable housing they need to lay a solid foundation.
We also know that problems that are larger than us require solutions that are larger than us. We have already seen the community responding with growing support. Thank you. As we have shared with you what we are seeing, we are continuously met with offers to join the effort to build a strong community where everyone has the basic building blocks of stability. Because of your support, we have raised more dollars and brought in more community donated food this year than any previous year in our history. This is what has made it possible for us to serve more people than ever before.
In the months and years ahead, we will continue to need your support. As we expect to see demand continuing to increase, the only way we can meet it is with increased support. There are a number of ways you can still make a tax-deductible financial donation this year. Donations of your time or donations of food can also make an immediate difference. You can purchase items directly from our wish list or use our top 10 list to purchase items locally.
Donations like these help us address the immediate needs of the people coming in our doors every day. But we know that we must do more and dig deeper to address the larger issues that are leading to this increased need for food and housing support in our community. We invite you to learn more about these issues and add your voice to the conversations to develop larger, community-wide solutions. We will be hosting some opportunities in this coming year and sharing some opportunities hosted by others.
Our mission statement says we bring the community together to create food and housing security. We know the only way to create stability is through a community-wide effort. Thank you for joining with us this past year. We look forward to continuing to work together in 2025.
Sincerely,
Ellen Carlson, Executive Director
DonateThroughout the holiday season, we’ll share some favorite recipes from pantry guests and volunteers. You can help our pantry guests make their holiday favorites by purchasing items from our Amazon Wish List or making a financial donation to help our food pantry purchase ingredients for holiday meals. To see the wonderful recipes we’ve gathered, click on the links below.
Amazon Wish List Donate to Holiday MealsNatilla Colombiana Postre Navideño
Throughout the holiday season, we’ll share some favorite recipes from pantry guests and volunteers. You can help our pantry guests make their holiday favorites by purchasing items from our Amazon Wish List or making a financial donation to help our food pantry purchase ingredients for holiday meals.
Amazon Wish List Donate for Holiday MealsMonica explains that Thanksgiving is her family’s favorite holiday! “Stuffing has always been the center piece of our Thanksgiving feast; dating back four generations. My great-grandmother, grandmothers and my mom were all farm women. Nothing went to waste. Their stuffing included the liver, gizzard and heart of the bird. My daughter and I chose this vegetarian version to honor our matriarchs and be bird friendly.”
- 1 small loaf of day-old sourdough bread (about 1 pound)
- 1/4 cup butter
- 2 eggs beaten
- 2 leeks, halved and thinly sliced (about 2 cups)
- 4 celery ribs chopped
- 3 garlic cloves chopped
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 cup fresh sage chopped
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley chopped
- 1 teaspoon rosemary
- 1 teaspoon thyme
- 1 1/2-2 cups vegetable broth
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Preheat oven to 350. Grease 9×13 baking dish. Tear or cut break into 1 inch cubes. Place in very large bowl. Melt butter in large skillet over medium heat. Add leeks, celery, salt, garlic and pepper. Sauté for 5 minutes. Pour leek mixture over bread. Sprinkle with herbs. Toss with hands. Pour over 1 1/2 cups broth. Mix then add eggs. Mix. Transfer to pan and and cover with foil. Refrigerate until ready to bake. Sprinkle with olive oil. Bake for 30 minutes. (Adapted from Loveandlemons.com)
Throughout the holiday season, we’ll share some favorite recipes from pantry guests and volunteers. You can help our pantry guests make their holiday favorites by purchasing items from our Amazon Wish List or making a financial donation to help our food pantry purchase ingredients for holiday meals.
Amazon Wish List Donate for Holiday MealsThis beloved recipe has been made for over 20 years! The tradition started because members of the family, including Mike who shared this recipe, love both cherries and cranberries.
Ingredients:
- Juice and zest of 1 orange
- 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 (12-ounce) bag cranberries
- 1/2 cup dried cherries
- 1/2 (3-inch) cinnamon stick
- 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
Measure the orange juice and add water, if necessary, to make 1 cup. Pour into a saucepan and add the remaining ingredients, stirring to dissolve the brown sugar. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat; reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, until the cranberries pop, about 10 minutes. Let cool. Cover and refrigerate up to 10 days. Makes 12 servings.
Raices Latinx, the UW Credit Union Hispanic and Latino Employee Resource Group, answered our call for community help in addressing the current food shortage in our pantry. The group organized a food drive that gathered over 400 pounds of food to help meet the increased need. “We couldn’t have had the outcome we did without everyone’s participation,” says Jessica De Vicente, Assistant Branch Manager and Co-Lead for the group. “That ‘small’ donation really adds up when many people contribute collectively. Overall, we are proud of how excited everyone was throughout this drive in the joy of being able to help others. Community matters and it’s heartwarming when we all come together for a good cause.” UW Credit Union also supports WayForward through generous unrestricted grants for food and housing access.
Join UW Credit Union in supporting WayForward this Giving Tuesday. Follow us on Facebook to join the fun!
Food and housing are the basic building blocks of stability. When we work together, we can build a strong community where everyone has food to eat and a warm place to sleep.
*Jenna had always ensured that she and her son had the basics covered – a safe place to sleep, enough food and funds to cover medical appointments, clothes and other essentials. Then last year, her apartment rent rose beyond what she could afford. The stability she had worked so hard to maintain disappeared and the little family suddenly found themselves homeless. “I was afraid, devastated, and demoralized,” Jenna said. She temporarily moved back in with her parents, but the situation was not sustainable. Unsure how to move forward, she felt like she didn’t have any options.
That’s 
when Jenna learned about WayForward. She began visiting the food pantry, relieving the stress of knowing where their next meal would from. She found free clothes for her son at the Clothing Center. Meanwhile, Jenna enrolled in one of WayForward’s housing programs which provided rental assistance as well as case management to keep her and her son in stable housing and avoid a return to homelessness. “With my case manager’s help, I was able to secure a two-bedroom apartment this year in a safe and beautiful part of town!” Jenna is also preparing for the future, “I have taken classes to help me budget wisely and learn to manage my money so when I have to pay rent alone next year, I will be able to do so with confidence,” she said. Jenna is no longer afraid for the future. Instead, she sees a path forward filled with possibilities. *name and identifying details changed
The basic building blocks matter. Everyone needs healthy food and stable housing to thrive. Children do better in school and have better mental and physical health outcomes when they have reliable access to food. Families who stay in their homes and avoid eviction have stronger employment opportunities, lower level of toxic stress and fewer hospital visits.