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Food Pantry and Clothing Center will be closed on Tuesday, February 10.

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We want to begin by expressing our deep gratitude for your continued support of our organization. Your generosity enables us to serve our community in meaningful ways, and we are continually inspired by your commitment to helping your neighbors create stability.

Today, we want to share an update about our clothing center and its impact, while also asking for your partnership in ensuring we can continue to serve our community as effectively as possible. 

How You Can Help

Please Review Our Donation Guidelines

Over 600 households use the WayForward Resources Clothing Center each month. We are committed to continuing our free clothing center for as long as we can maintain the capacity to do so. To help us succeed, we’re asking the community to carefully review our donation guidelines before bringing items to us.

What We Gladly Accept:

*clean and in good condition (no rips or stains)

What We Cannot Accept:

We understand that many of these items are valuable and could benefit someone who needs them. If you have items from our “cannot accept” list, we encourage you to contact other local organizations that may have the space and mission to accommodate them.

Why This Matters

Understanding WayForward’s Space and Capacity

Here’s what many people may not realize: our facility operates with very limited space, and every square foot matters. Our primary mission centers on providing food to those experiencing food insecurity, and our capacity to fulfill that mission depends on how efficiently we can use our available space.

When our clothing center begins to overflow with items we cannot distribute, it directly impacts our ability to store and distribute food. This creates a challenging situation where generous donations can inadvertently reduce our capacity to serve our core mission.

Additionally, when we receive items outside our acceptance guidelines, our small staff must coordinate transportation to partner agencies that can accept these items. While we’re grateful to work with partner organizations, this process requires time, labor, and resources that could otherwise be directed toward serving community members experiencing food insecurity.

Moving Forward Together

Your partnership in following these guidelines makes an enormous difference. When you bring items from our “accepted list,” you’re not only helping someone receive quality clothing and linens, you’re also helping us maintain the space we need to continue our food distribution mission.

We recognize that it requires extra effort on your part to sort donations and ensure they align with our needs. That thoughtfulness and care is a gift in itself, and we are truly grateful.

Thank you for your understanding, continued generosity, and commitment to our community. Together, we can ensure that our clothing center and food programs continue to have the greatest possible impact in creating food security and housing stability for our neighbors.

Click here to see donation drop-off times and how to donate new household items for our Connections program from our Amazon wishlist.

 

Join us in welcoming our newest staff members at WayForward!

Maggie Milcarek joined the WayForward Resources team in October 2025 as Food and Resource Access Director. She brings more than 20 years of leadership experience in nonprofit organizations focused on affordable housing, homelessness, social services, and advocacy. Maggie holds a Master of Social Work in Policy Practice from the University of Washington and most recently served as FoodWIse Nutrition Coordinator with the UW–Madison Division of Extension. In her free time, Maggie enjoys supporting her two children in their activities, as well as gardening, crafting, music, and cross-country skiing.

Ron Radunzel, Community Food Logistics Manager, joined the WayForward Resources team in early September 2025. Ron has a robust background in business and systems, and worked as the Director of DVR Services and Director of Supported Employment at Mobility Training and Independent Living, Inc. Ron and his wife Rachel are passionate pet parents who volunteer their time and foster animals for Sheltering Animals of Abuse Victims – Madison and the Dane County Humane Society.

Kate Rowell, Communications Coordinator, joined the Development team at WayForward Resources in October 2025. Kate earned her masters in Museum Studies from the Cooperstown Graduate Program and has worked for cultural organizations across the East Coast and Midwest. Most recently, she worked as a Digital Marketing Specialist at the Madison Children’s Museum. In addition to her work with WayForward, Kate facilitates empathy-building workshops with nonprofit World Without Hate. In her free time, she enjoys collecting vintage items and planning adventures for her Dungeons & Dragons group.

Maddie Kalscheuer, Food and Resource Access Manager, joined the WayForward Resources team in August 2025. Maddie recently graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire, earning a bachelor’s degree in Public Health and a bachelor’s degree in Spanish. During her time at the university, she assisted in a research project related to healthy eating and drinking habits among children, completed an 8-month internship with the Eau Claire City-County Health Department, and studied abroad in Spain. In her free time, Maddie enjoys sewing, playing board games, and cheering on the Milwaukee Brewers.

An End-of-Year Message from Executive Director Ellen Carlson

I love roller coasters, even at my age! I love the anticipation of the climb, the rush of the drop, the way your stomach flips on a sharp turn. But I’m able to enjoy them because I know the engineers have designed every heart-racing twist for maximum safety. 2025 felt like being strapped into a roller coaster ride that we didn’t choose to get on, nor that felt safe. Federal policy and funding changes sent us climbing, dropping, and whipping around corners we couldn’t have imagined. We had to lean into every turn and figure out in real-time how to keep everyone as safe as possible–and remain seated in the cart.

What made it possible to stay on the track through all the twists and turns? We held on to each other. Our community strapped in alongside us on the bumpy ride–ascending to maximum highs by partnering to create stability in our community. Throughout the ups and downs and uncertainty, WayForward Resources has stayed grounded in our mission and values, while being nimble and responsive to what was happening around us. And together we made a difference.

One of the most significant challenges of the year occurred a couple of months ago, when SNAP benefits lapsed due to the federal government shutdown. Visits to our food pantry increased rapidly during that time as thousands of local SNAP recipients, who depend on those benefits to buy groceries at the store, worried about how they would feed themselves and their families. I was overwhelmed with sadness by what was happening to people in our community–and at the same time, I was also overwhelmed with gratitude and joy by how the community responded immediately–mobilizing and jumping in with increased food and financial donations. Working late, I would see cars drive in to drop off boxes and bags and carfuls of food without pause. By comparison, we had nearly three times as much food donated during the six weeks after our information went out as we did last year during this same time period. People experiencing this scare had access to ample food because you donated your resources of food, money, and time. We came together in this critical moment because we all envision a community where no one has to worry about if they will go hungry.

And while SNAP benefits have since been restored, much uncertainty and concern remains. Expected federal cuts to SNAP in 2026 will put 90,000 Wisconsinites at risk of losing their benefits. This will increase the number of people relying on food pantries. WayForward’s food pantry and the pantry system in our community are already stretched trying to keep pace with the record-level demand. Thankfully, to date, we have not had to turn anyone away from the food pantry, but it remains challenging to keep our shelves stocked with food. In the year ahead, we will be working even more closely with five other large food pantries in Dane County to explore new ways to order food together in bulk and pool our resources to bring in more food. And we will be relying even more on community food donations and food drives to ensure we can continue to feed our neighbors.

Our housing programs are also experiencing record demand. This past October, we received the most emergency fund requests we have ever had in a single month. One factor is that housing prices in Dane County are climbing much faster than wages. While new housing is continuously being built, it has proved challenging to keep up with Dane County’s growing population of all incomes. (Did you know that some projections have the Dane County area population at more than 1 million people by 2050?) Solving our housing problems truly requires a community-wide effort. This year, we hosted a number of informative presentations in order to share what we are seeing in our programs and hearing from the people we serve with decision-makers and community members. We hope this increased knowledge and understanding will lead to new approaches and effective solutions.

The roller coaster of federal policy changes impacted our housing programs as well. We were awarded a significant federal grant in 2024 to support our Connections program, which helps families in doubled-up situations (living with others because they don’t have anywhere else to stay) move into stable housing. While we had expected the funding to arrive over the summer to pick up where previous funding was sunsetting, it has still not arrived. There continues to be complications and confusion with much of the federal funding for community housing programs. This has caused disruption not only to our program, but to housing programs throughout the community. While we are still hoping for our grant to arrive, we are also exploring alternative ways to support families in this program in 2026.

When people ask me, “How are things?,” it can be difficult to answer! It’s hard right now for so many people in our community. We talk with people every day who are facing huge barriers and who are feeling scared as they have seen a wide range of stability-supporting community resources disrupted. But also, we have been inspired and energized by the strength of our community’s support that has helped us navigate these bumps and curves so that we can continue to provide food and housing resources for our neighbors.

We are still strapped into this bumpy ride. But we’re keeping our eyes wide open, preparing for the year ahead that we anticipate will be full of more unexpected twists and curves. We ask for your continued partnership in our work together to ensure everyone in our community has the nutritious food and stable housing needed to thrive. There are a number of ways you can still join us in making a difference this year. Make a tax-deductible financial donation online, by check, from your IRA, appreciated stock, or donor-advised fund. Donations of your time through volunteering or donations of food also make an immediate, impactful difference. You can purchase items directly from our online wish list for delivery, or use our top 10 list to buy items locally to drop off.

Thank you for choosing to create stability in our community–here, now, and for the future.

Sincerely,

Ellen Carlson, Executive Director

Donate

Thank you to everyone who contributed food and funds to support WayForward’s food pantry–ensuring we were able to continue to have food available for our neighbors throughout the difficult couple of weeks during the SNAP benefit delay. Together, we collected an amazing 87,851 pounds of food (the equivalent of 67,111 meals) from donation drop-offs, organized food drives, and our online wish list between October 21 and December 8. This amount of food is nearly three times the amount donated during the same period last year.

On behalf of all of us at WayForward Resources, we want to express our heartfelt gratitude for the partnership and leadership of the City of Middleton, Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District, Middleton Chamber of Commerce, and Downtown Middleton Business Association in the Community-Wide Food Drive.  A very special thank you to Middleton District 6 Alder Lisa Janairo, who was instrumental in envisioning, activating, and coordinating the Community-Wide Food Drive. This collective effort truly shows the impact we can have when we work together to create food security—and how together, we can make it through tough times.

When the federal government shutdown delayed SNAP benefits, putting people’s ability to feed themselves and their families at risk, our community responded—making sure that no one would have to experience hunger. During this time of uncertainty, WayForward’s pantry saw a significant increase in demand. On one of the Thursdays during that time, we gave out nearly 13,000 pounds of food—the highest amount in a single day this year. The uncertainty created by the SNAP benefit delay also led to 171 new households signing up to use the food pantry for the first time during October 21-November 8. Prior to this, we had already been seeing the highest demand in our organization’s over 45-year history.

As we look to the future, there is still a lot of uncertainty. But thanks to the support of our community, we were able to have food available through this recent crisis, and we will continue to provide nutritious food, now and in the future. We believe that together, we can create stability in our community, even in the midst of uncertainty around us. Thank you for joining us in our work together—and for continuing to inspire us with your generosity and committed partnership.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 4, 2025

Contacts:
Anne Shlimovitz, WayForward Resources, anne@wayfordwardresoures.org, (608) 826-3408
Lisa Marshall, Badger Prairie Needs Network, communications@bpnn.org, (608) 347-2112
Florence Edwards-Miller, Goodman Community Center, (608) 204-3127
Becca Bolton, The River Food Pantry, becca@riverfoodpantry.org, (608) 665-0819
Katherine Addison, St. Vincent de Paul — Madison, kaddison@svdpmadison.org, (608) 442-7200 x37
Susan Schmidt, Sunshine Place, susan@sunshineplace.org, (608) 478-5556

Delayed SNAP Benefits Cause Significant Increases in Demand at Area Food Pantries

MADISON — Six of Dane County’s largest food pantries are already seeing the impacts of SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) delays. SNAP, known as FoodShare in Wisconsin, provided benefits to nearly 65,000 people in Dane County in 2024. As America’s most extensive anti-hunger program, it gives out monthly government benefits to low-income households to help them purchase food. Even before SNAP benefits lapsed over the past weekend due to the federal government shutdown, many area food pantries began seeing increases as people turned to them to fill anticipated gaps. This comes on top of significant increases in demand that Dane County food pantries have already experienced over the last several years.

“The disruption to the SNAP program is already creating additional pressure as we enter our busiest time of year,” reports Rhonda Adams, Executive Director of The River Food Pantry. “The River provided nearly 500 grocery orders and over 900 take-home meals in a single day last week, even before benefits were delayed. That is our busiest day ever outside of a holiday week. We are bracing for a surge in need, both among current clients and families who have not been visiting a pantry. I spoke to people waiting for their groceries last week, and most worried about how they will replace the meals that FoodShare covered, even with the support available from local pantries.”

Other food pantries are also seeing significant increases in visitors. “Last Tuesday, we saw our highest number of customers ever in our food pantry,” said Goodman Community Center’s Director of Food Resources, Francesca Frisque. “This included a large number of new shoppers who had never visited our pantry before. The rest of the week continued to be high, and we anticipate more this week.”

Food pantries are bracing for hard weeks ahead. Yesterday in response to a federal judge’s order to release a contingency fund, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that this contingency fund would only cover $4.6 billion of November’s SNAP benefits, roughly half of what is typically distributed. No timeline was provided to when people would receive these benefits.

Despite these challenges, Dane County food pantries want to emphasize to community members impacted by the delay and partial payment of FoodShare benefits that they are prepared to do everything possible to ensure continued access to basic food. They are seeing firsthand the strain that the delay in benefits, along with the disruption and confusion from constantly changing information, is putting on families.

“People are worried. We’re hearing concern from both those who need help and those eager to offer it,” said Ann Maastricht, Executive Director of Sunshine Place. “Sunshine Place and our partner pantries across Dane County have food and support available, and together with community support, we are making sure everyone who needs help can get it.”

For now, food pantries are filling a critical gap. Although they can do this for a short time, food pantries can’t be the permanent solution. “Food pantries and SNAP are intended to work together to combat food insecurity,” said Chris Kane, Senior Director of Client Services at St. Vincent de Paul — Madison. “Food pantries cannot replace SNAP. According to Feeding America, for every one meal provided by food pantries, the SNAP program provides nine meals. That is too large a gap for the charitable sector to replace.”

Community members can give now to their local food pantry to make sure pantries continue to have food to meet the surge in demand. Even after the SNAP crisis ends, community support will still be important as we head into the holiday season. “Crisis or not, hunger doesn’t take a break,” said Marcia Kasieta, Business and Development Director at Badger Prairie Needs Network. “Even when SNAP funding begins to return, record-setting need will continue. And with more federal cuts on the horizon, even more vulnerable families will be affected. Dane County has one of the most organized and collaborative food pantry networks in the country — but we rely on the strength and generosity of our wider community to help lift our neighbors through tough times.”

Cash donations enable pantries to target their buying to the most-needed items and to purchase in bulk at lower prices than retail. Most pantries also accept donations of nonperishable food. Check your local food pantry’s website for more details about giving or to see information about volunteer needs they may have.

“WayForward Resources and other local pantries have already seen an incredible response from the community,” said Ellen Carlson, Executive Director of WayForward Resources. “Thank you. We appreciate the monetary and food donations, the offers to volunteer and the concern and support that have all come our way. It is essential. Please continue to partner with us during the delay and reduction in SNAP benefits–and into the future so that we can build a strong community together.”

About the Food Pantries:

About Badger Prairie Needs Network
Founded in 1986, Badger Prairie Needs Network (BPNN) is a volunteer-powered 501(c)(3) nonprofit working to end hunger and reduce poverty in Dane County. In addition to operating one of the region’s most collaborative food pantry and food recovery programs, BPNN offers a range of wrap-around community services including pro bono legal assistance, onsite social workers through Joining Forces for Families, a commercial kitchen, community meals, and job-training programs in partnership with the Latino Academy of Workforce Development. Demand for food assistance continues to reach historic levels. In 2025, BPNN is on pace to support more than 95,000 neighbors — nearly triple pre-pandemic levels. Learn more at bpnn.org.

About the Fritz Food Pantry at Goodman Community Center
Located on Madison’s east side, the Goodman Community Center strengthens lives and secures futures, through programs focusing on food security, older adults, children ages 3–19, and building community. The Fritz Food Pantry at the Goodman Community Center provides groceries for more than 350 households every week. We believe everyone should have access to a variety of healthy, fresh foods, regardless of their income level, and we’re proud to provide this valuable service to anyone in our community who needs it. The pantry is open three days a week and all are welcome. No pre-registration is required. Learn more at goodmancenter.org.

About The River Food Pantry
The River is South Central Wisconsin’s busiest food pantry. Services include free groceries for pickup or delivery, to-go meals, online grocery orders, mobile meals, and after-hours food lockers. The River also recovers food and resources—that would otherwise go to waste—from local retailers. Since 2006, The River has grown to serve over 3,500 people every week in pursuit of its vision: a fully nourished community. Learn more at www.riverfoodpantry.org.

About St. Vincent de Paul — Madison
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul — Madison is a membership organization dedicated to helping our neighbors in need. They offer services such as food, prescription medicine, clothing, furniture, household goods, storage lockers and guidance to neighbors in need. Seven St. Vinny’s Thrift Stores across Dane County help fund these services and provide direct charity through a furniture, household goods and clothing voucher program. St. Vincent de Paul — Madison is currently accepting new volunteers during their “Volunteers Are Magic” drive with Magic98. Please visit https://svdpmadison.org/event/magic98-volunteer-drive/ to learn more.

About Sunshine Place
Located in Sun Prairie, Sunshine Place is a community resource serving Dane County and surrounding areas. The nonprofit provides a one-stop shop for support, offering its own programs focused on food, housing, and basic needs, alongside co-located partner agencies that provide additional wraparound services. The largest of Sunshine Place’s programs is the Sun Prairie Food Pantry, a full-choice pantry open six days per week and serving households across Dane County and beyond. The pantry also provides community-based food distribution to children in Sun Prairie and nearby communities through neighborhood and school partnerships. Learn more at https://sunshineplace.org.

About WayForward Resources
WayForward Resources focuses on creating food security and housing stability. Located in Middleton, their food pantry and clothing center are open five days a week to anyone in Dane County. WayForward’s housing stability programs provide case management, referrals, and financial assistance to community members living in the Middleton-Cross Plains School District and part of the west side of Madison. Learn more at wayforwardresources.org.

We will be providing updates to this page as they become available.

WayForward in the News
Scroll further down in this page for recent press

Updated 11/14/25
Thank You, Community, for Your Response!

Thanks to the amazing response of our community, we were able to continue to have food available for our neighbors throughout the difficult last couple of weeks. Between October 21 and November 8, our community collected and donated 39,418 pounds of food to the WayForward Resources food pantry. During the same time period, our pantry distributed nearly one and a half times as much food as we did during the same period last year. Just last Thursday, we gave out nearly 13,000 pounds of food – the highest amount in a single day this year. The uncertainty created by the SNAP benefit delay also led to 171 new households signing up to use the food pantry for the first time.

As we look to the future, there is still a lot of uncertainty. Many of the people who visit our food pantry remain nervous. Having recently lost access to food so suddenly, they worry about the reliability of the benefits in the future. Under the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” 90,000 Wisconsinites are at risk of losing SNAP benefits in 2026. This would lead to increases in demand at food pantries. There is also uncertainty around TEFAP (The Emergency Food Assistance Program) food, which accounts for approximately 10% of our food at WayForward, being delayed in the months ahead due to a pause in the process created by the government shutdown.

Even before the SNAP benefit delay, WayForward was experiencing record-high demand for food at our pantry, with four times as many visits as we had just four years ago. Some of the causes for these increases are population growth in our area, higher food prices, and rising housing costs (rent has increased 47% in the past five years). Because people have to put more of their limited dollars toward rent, they have little left over for other basic necessities, and so are depending on food pantries to fill the gap. Our housing programs are also feeling increased pressure. In October, WayForward experienced our highest demand for emergency housing assistance ever. All of this means that, while we are thrilled that SNAP benefits have been restored, we remain concerned about the future.

What the last few weeks have shown us, though, is that as a community, we can make it through hard times together. We were able to continue providing food through the SNAP delay thanks to the support of our community, and we believe that together, we can create stability in our community, even in the midst of uncertainty around us.

Updated 11/7/25

The past two weeks have been like no other weeks in WayForward’s history. It has been a time of uncertainty and constantly changing news, of fear, and great need in our community — and of incredible support from our community for neighbors facing food insecurity. Thank you for your response over the past couple of weeks.

We are relieved that Gov. Evers announced late last night that his administration has immediately moved to pay full November payments for all Wisconsin FoodShare members after a federal court ordered the Trump administration to stop withholding SNAP payments to states and directed the administration to use billions of dollars in readily available federal funding to provide food assistance payments to millions of Americans. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services posted this morning that full November FoodShare benefits are now available on QUEST cards.

We hope that with this step, we have avoided a potential humanitarian crisis–at least for this moment. There is still fear and uncertainty for people using our pantry because of the continued federal shutdown and no backup SNAP plan for December. Your support will remain important as we continue to wait for the federal government to open and fully restore SNAP benefits. It will also be important in the months ahead. Over the past several years, WayForward Resources and food pantries across Dane County have seen ever-rising numbers of visits, with the highest demand in our over 45-year history. With housing and grocery prices rising, wages not keeping up, and significant SNAP cuts on the horizon due to the “Big Beautiful Bill,” we expect high demand to continue. We appreciate the amazing response of the community over the last several weeks. Your partnership has been critical in sustaining our work of creating food security during a very challenging moment. We know that we can face what lies ahead together and that together we can ensure our neighbors don’t experience hunger in the months to come.

Updated 11/5/25

Thank you community for your response so far! As the SNAP delays continue, your support is vital now and in the weeks to come in sustaining people in our community who need food now. Yesterday alone, we gave out over 10,000 pounds of food. We are consistently seeing some of our highest days of demand. We are also seeing many new people registering to use the food pantry for the first time.

We are temporarily pausing donations to our Clothing Center until December 1. While we appreciate these donations, our staff and volunteers need to fully focus on food distribution. We have also reached our capacity to store clothing that can’t go out on the Clothing Center floor because we need to ensure we have enough room in the warehouse for food donations. Our Clothing Center will continue to be open for people in the community.

We have been told recently that the $4.6 billion in contingency funding could take weeks to be released and go out to people in our community. Here at WayForward, we are bracing for the possibility of a more long-term disruption. Your support is essential in helping us continue to be a stopgap while we wait for SNAP benefits to be restored.

Press Release | November 4, 2025
Delayed SNAP Benefits Cause Significant Increases in Demand at Area Food Pantries

Updated 11/3/25
SNAP benefits lapsed on November 1.

A federal judge ordered on Friday that the Trump administration must release the $5 billion contingency fund to pay SNAP benefits while the federal government is shut down. The lawsuit was brought by a coalition of states including Wisconsin. At this point, the timeline of when these funds will be available is unclear. The contingency funds won’t cover an entire month of SNAP benefits although their release will make a significant difference in easing pressure on food pantries.

Wisconsin Gov. Evers has declared a state of emergency as the shutdown continues.

Follow Wisconsin Department of Heath’s website for specific information about Wisconsin FoodShare (the name of Wisconsin’s SNAP program) program.

Updated 10/27/25

What’s Happening With SNAP Benefits

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services has shared that due to the federal government shutdown, November FoodShare benefits will be delayed. FoodShare is Wisconsin’s name for the federally funded SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) program, America’s largest anti-hunger program which includes monthly government benefits to low-income households to help them purchase food. It is 100% federally funded. In Dane County, 64,473 people received SNAP benefits in 2024. Letters were mailed to current SNAP recipients on October 22 letting them know of this issue. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services is encouraging SNAP recipients to learn about other sources of food in their area–sources like WayForward’s food pantry.

While WayForward will do everything we can to provide people access to food and bridge the gap (see more on this below), we want to be clear: pantries like WayForward Resources are not and cannot be the solution to this problem. For every one meal provided through a Feeding America food bank or food pantry, SNAP provides nine. And food pantries are already stretched thin. WayForward, one of the largest food pantries in Dane County, served 15,000 people last year, the most ever in our history. We have four times as many visits as we did just four years ago and are purchasing six times as much food. This amount of growth in demand is already challenging. While we can serve as an emergency stopgap, food pantries alone can’t solve this problem.

The only real solution to the current situation must come through the federal government. Feeding America, a nationwide network of food banks, stated on October 24: “The resources available through the USDA, like funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), are invaluable to our neighbors across the country, and we implore Secretary Rollins and federal leaders to use all available avenues to protect families impacted by the ongoing shutdown, without delay.” This is referencing $5 billion in contingency funding that many policy experts believe could be released immediately to cover SNAP benefits. Feeding America also stated, “Food is foundational for all of us, and for each of us, and politics should not separate people from the food that they need to thrive.”

WayForward experienced an over 75% increase in demand last Friday alone. Although benefits have not yet been delayed, SNAP recipients are nervous and are starting to stock up on food in preparation. Guests have told WayForward volunteers that they are preparing to eat less, skip meals and get more food from WayForward to make it through.

What WayForward is doing:
WayForward Resources will do everything we can to provide food to people facing food insecurity and hunger in our community. Creating stability has always been our mission and during this time of incredible instability we continue to be committed to fulfilling our mission. We are following the situation closely and exploring all avenues to respond including securing additional resources. We will remain open five days a week with food on our shelves. We will also continue our every-other-week delivery program for all enrolled households.

We are increasing the amount of food we are purchasing and are identifying creative ways to store this additional food. We are increasing staff presence in the food pantry to provide additional support to volunteers. We are also exploring additional ways to make basic food available to people who need it.

What you can do:
With your support, we can bridge a gap and provide basic food. Make a donation today to help us provide basic food for people in our community. You can see our list of food the pantry accepts here with our top 10 list here or purchase food items online here. Because of the urgency and condensed timeline of this situation, financial donations are most appreciated right now because they allow us to focus spending on most needed items.

More critically, we all need to advocate for restored federal funding for SNAP. Only federal government support can provide the long-term solution to this problem.

We are in this together.

WAYFORWARD IN THE NEWS

City Cast Madison | November 13, 2025
How Madison Food Pantries are Weathering a Storm of Uncertainty

Channel 3000 (News 3 Now) | November 7, 2025
SNAP benefits released to Wisconsin before Supreme Court block

Press Release | November 4, 2025
Delayed SNAP Benefits Cause Significant Increases in Demand at Area Food Pantries

Isthmus | November 4, 2025
With FoodShare benefits delayed, Madison food pantries seeking donations of money, food, time

WMTV 15 News | October 30, 2025
WayForward Resources gives insight into growing concerns about FoodShare benefits

Wisconsin State Journal | October 30, 2025
Southern Wisconsin food pantries brace for more visits if SNAP benefits are paused

Wisconsin State Journal | October 28, 2025
Wisconsin food pantries cannot replace federal SNAP benefits

Channel 3000 (News 3 Now) | October 24, 2025
Local food pantries brace for food stamp delay

WMTV 15 News (Now at 10) | October 24, 2025
Madison nonprofits concerned as SNAP benefits may be delayed with government shutdown

City Cast Madison | October 24, 2025
Snap Benefits in Peril

WayForward Resources had the honor of joining the Middleton Common Council at their meeting on September 16 to officially proclaim September 2025 as Hunger Action Month in Middleton.

The Proclamation highlighted that 9% of Dane County residents are food insecure and recognized that food insecurity is a systemic issue that leads to greater risks of nutrition-related illnesses. It also acknowledged how WayForward Resources’ Food Pantry helps residents facing food insecurity by providing nutritious food and making living in Middleton more affordable.

Thank you to the Council and the City of Middleton for your support, partnership, and recognition of our work together to address food insecurity, ensuring everyone in our community has access to enough nutritious food to thrive.

 

Read Proclamation

Join us in welcoming Melissa Martinez to the WayForward Resources team! Melissa started in late-June as our Accounting Assistant, a newly created role in the Finance and Operations Department. Her professional background includes 10 years of experience in the accounting field. While working in the nonprofit realm is new, she has volunteered at other nonprofit organizations throughout her college career. Melissa has a BA from UW-Milwaukee. In her free time, she loves to travel with her family, take camping trips, or hang out at the beach with her mini.  While she tries to make the most out of the summer season, she also doesn’t mind a cool Sunday night during football season.

Last June, we shared a message with you: for the first time in our over forty-year history, we weren’t sure we could meet the need for food in our community. WayForward had led the effort to bring together 36 food pantries from across Dane County to write a letter to the community, which began with, “Dane County, we need your help.” We wrote that food pantries across the county were experiencing drastic increases in demand for food. In just two years, visits to WayForward’s food pantry tripled—and we were struggling to keep up. The letter ran in the Wisconsin State Journal and was read on the steps of the Capitol at a press conference. You responded with immediate generosity. With this increased support, we were able to purchase more food so that guests coming to get food saw choices instead of empty shelves.

What has happened in the year since our letter to the community? Last year, we told you we didn’t expect this increased need for food to go away quickly–and it hasn’t. Two years ago, we gave out over 1.6 million pounds of food—a large jump from the year before. The rise was driven by a growing population, food inflation, and, most importantly, higher rent prices that require people to devote more of their limited income toward rent in order to avoid eviction. Last year, the number of pounds we gave out inched up a little more—setting another record for WayForward. However, this number doesn’t fully represent the increased pressure we felt this year.

Last year, more people came to WayForward than ever before—and they came more frequently. We had, on average, 120 more unique households coming to the food pantry each month. To meet this large increase in visits with only a small increase in food, we have limits in place to stretch our food further. Thanks to your continued support, we’ve never had to turn anyone away—and we’re proud of that. But unfortunately, people are taking on average less food than they did before because less food is available.

There have also been significant changes in how we get food. As demand has increased throughout the county and beyond, our traditional sources of free and reduced-priced food have also struggled to keep up, meaning there are fewer options and smaller amounts of this free and reduced-price food available. To make sure we have a variety of food on our shelves, we must purchase more food—and the food we purchase is more expensive. Last year, we purchased 63% more pounds than just the year before. Combining this with the higher prices means our food purchasing budget has increased drastically—going up more than sixfold in just five years.  

What lies ahead next year? We feel encouraged by the increased conversations about housing across Dane County, but we know price relief is not coming in the immediate future. What may be coming in the immediate future, though, is drastic cuts to other food assistance programs. At the time of this writing, the House of Representatives advanced a reconciliation bill that would cut SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) by about 30 percent, nearly $300 billion, over the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Nearly 8% of people in Dane County use SNAP to meet their nutritional needs. Without some drastic changes to how systems operate, food pantries would not be able to bridge this gap.  

What do all these numbers mean, and what can we do about it? These numbers mean making sure our neighbors have access to nutritious food has never been more challenging. And it means your support is more important than ever. We continue to think creatively about how we can get food to people—and we continue to rely on our community to help us. While we had a record-breaking year in demand for our services last year, it was also a record-breaking year in community support. When we see the Middleton Meals Matter high school students standing outside in the freezing cold at the grocery store collecting food donations for us or when we have donors tell us they see the challenges and are increasing their gift to help us meet them, we feel hope that together we can continue to create stability despite the obstacles. Thank you for making our work possible.

Photo Above: Middleton Meals Matter and Middleton Kiwanis volunteers with the food they collected from a community drive this winter for WayForward Resources pantry.

Valerie Cavanagh, our new Development Director, joined the WayForward Resources team in mid-May. Valerie was introduced to the field of fundraising while serving as an AmeriCorp VISTA member at The ARC of Lane County in Eugene, Oregon. After witnessing how important funding sources are to nonprofits, she has dedicated her fundraising career to connecting donor interests to impactful funding opportunities. Valerie is a seasoned fundraiser with 14 years of experience, including the American Red Cross and The University of Texas at Arlington. Her expertise spans from annual giving, prospect development, donor stewardship to major gifts. Valerie holds a BA in cultural anthropology from Hamline University, St. Paul, Minnesota. Being new to Madison, you may see Valerie exploring the beautiful local landscape with her husband, cheering on her kids in their activities, or attending music offerings while creating choreography to the music in her head. She is also the mother hen of two red moyen poodles and the cutest pair of cats.