Clothing Center
Food Pantry
News
June 8, 2022
Help Us Expand our Services with Cans of Hope
The past two years have brought a great deal of disruption and change to everyone in our community including the people who MOM serves and to our organization. In March of 2020, we pivoted quickly, making significant changes to our operations in a very short amount of time to keep our community safe during the Covid pandemic, while continuing to provide services to those who needed them.
In the more than two years since we first adjusted our service model, we have continued to think creatively and strategically. We have implemented new processes, listened even more carefully to our community, and explored options we may never have thought about otherwise. We now know Covid is not going away and we may need to continue to be flexible for the foreseeable future. However, over the past few months, we have carefully and thoughtfully considered what we have learned and how we can best put those lessons into practice. This time we don’t have to pivot overnight. We are able to move forward with a timeline that allows us to make strategic decisions to create a model that delivers the greatest impact.
Expanding our Services
We are excited to share some information about how our services will be expanding next month, drawing on the best parts of our pre-Covid model and integrating it with the best parts of our new model to come up with a system that will serve our community better than ever before.
During Covid, we closed the Food Pantry to in-person shopping, focusing instead on a drive-thru service model and volunteer drivers to deliver food to those who could not get to us. Both of these relied on a menu system, allowing neighbors to select from a list of food that included fresh fruits and vegetables, proteins, bread, milk, personal essentials and other items. This worked efficiently and we never had to turn anyone away. We found that for some of our neighbors this model actually worked better than our previous in-person model. Other neighbors have been eagerly waiting to come back to the Food Pantry in person so that they can make selections themselves from a wider variety of items. We are thrilled to share that in-person shopping will be returning starting in July. We will phase it in, beginning on July 13th with the Food Pantry open to in-person shopping on Wednesdays from 10 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. – 6 p.m. We will also continue deliveries and drive-thru service. In the weeks that follow, we will be adding more days of in-person shopping. The Clothing Center service will also be expanding to offer drop-in times. Please check our online calendar to verify current times. We appreciate the help of Public Health Madison & Dane County for consulting with us on our Covid procedures to help keep our community safe.
Both the Food Pantry and Clothing Center will be open to anyone living in Dane County. Certification is not required for the Food Pantry or Clothing Center. However, we do encourage neighbors to meet with a MOM case manager to become certified and eligible for other programs we offer.
The need for housing assistance has increased significantly during the past two years and our programs have also expanded to meet that need. This has included adding our new Connections program which addresses people living in doubled up housing. We have been meeting in person to provide housing assistance for many months now while continuing to offer virtual appointments to those who prefer them.
You Can Help with Cans of Hope
We appreciate the generous support we have received from the community throughout the pandemic. As we expand our services to better serve our community, we are asking for your support again. For the past two years, we relied on a limited food donation model, asking people to provide items from our Top 10 most needed list. With people returning to in-person shopping at the Food Pantry, we need to restock our shelves with a wide variety of food. You can help by participating in Cans of Hope. Here’s how:
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Donate food. Although we will continue to have a top 10 list highlighting our most pressing needs, we will now be accepting many more items besides those on the top 10 list. We are accepting non-perishable food, personal care items and fresh produce.
Beginning July 1, we will be expanding our donation hours. Check our website and social media for the new days and times. In addition, we are holding a Cans of Hope Drop-off Day on Monday, June 27 from 12:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Stop by to drop off your food donation, take a photo with the MOM truck, meet staff and learn more about our work. For the rest of June during our cans of Hope campaign, food donations will be accepted during our regular drop off times in the distribution center or in the front office any time we are open.
If you are doing a food drive, please contact us in advance so that we can plan and work with you to make the drive successful.
2. Purchase a Can of Hope. Monetary donations will also help us purchase the food we need to restock the shelves. Our relationships with community partners mean we can purchase some items at reduced prices. Give now and increase your impact. Thanks to generous MOM supporters, Terry and Bob Smith, donations up to $10,000 will be matched. Make a donation of $50 or more to receive a Can of Hope postcard in the mail and have one posted on a wall inside the Food Pantry with your name on it. We are excited to fill this wall with colorful postcards that will represent the support and care of our community.