APPLETON — Over the last two years, the Ozaukee County Food Alliance, 100 E. Green Bay Ave. in Saukville, has seen a significant increase in the amount of guests it serves annually. Executive Director Mark Gierach said the pantry served 2,125 unduplicated guests in 2022, the following year it served 2,526 and it’s already exceeded that number this year, serving 2,593.
Last year, the pantry more than doubled its square footage by purchasing its own building. The move took it from 6,000 square feet to 15,000 square feet.
“There’s times we have less food here than what we had at the other space, simply because we’re serving more people,” Gierach said.
This food pantry is not alone in seeing a higher demand from the local community — pantries across Wisconsin have reported an overall surge in the number of clients they serve.
To keep up with the demand, some have taken measures like hiring more staff and increasing hours of operation. Here’s how some food pantries in eastern Wisconsin are adjusting to serving more guests year after year.
Pantries are implementing key-card access and extending hours of operation to keep up with demand
When The Cabinet, a food pantry on University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh’s campus, first opened in 2020, the goal was to provide students in need with free food and hygiene products, and it was successful in doing so.
Inventory is recorded based off of a weight system, with students weigh the amount of product they have instead of cataloging each individual item.
The student affairs program coordinator at University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Amber Hammond, said on average, students check out about eight and a half pounds each visit.
“We had roughly 100 visits per month in 2023 and we’re on that same trend this year,” Hammond said. “As time goes on in the school year, though, we do see the number increase.”
In 2023, the pantry saw 100 visits in September, 172 visits in October and 230 in November.
Amber Hammond, said when the pantry first started, it was run by a student volunteer and only open during limited hours.
“We found with the greater need and students working different jobs and going to classes, that there needed to be a way that they could access the pantry when they had the ability to do so,” Hammond said.
As of this September, The Cabinet is accessible by student key card, making it so that the pantry is available as long as the Reeves Memorial Union building is open.
“There’s a keypad on the outside of the door, they can just scan it and go in,” Hammond said. “As long as they have a Titan Card, they can access it.”
The key card access system allowed the pantry to assist more students without having to find staff to man the store during the later hours.
Similarly, Gierach said Ozaukee Food Alliance has had to increase its hours of operation and staff.
“We have basically two full time staff here, and five part time,” Gierach said. “The rest is all run with volunteers, and we have somewhere in the area of 80 to 90 of them. Without them there’s no way we can provide the services we do.”
Resources are not limited to guests despite the increase in visitors
Despite the higher demand, pantries have kept the same or lessened regulations for guests, realizing that the higher demand should not limit what families in need can access.
At Ozaukee Food Alliance, Gierach said the only thing that determines how much food guests can get is family size.
“The larger your family, the more food you receive,” Gierach said. “They have to show proof of living in Ozaukee Country, other than that there are no great restrictions.”
Amber Hutchison, the executive director at Painting Pathways, 1226 Washington St. in Manitowoc, said the pantry enforces a no-questions-asked policy for all of its visitors.
“We just ask that they only take items they know they will use,” Hutchison said.
Hutchison has been the executive director at Painting Pathways since March and has already seen a significant growth in visitors in that short amount of time. In March, the pantry distributed around 85 pounds of food to visitors, last month it served over 240 pounds.
“We have had a pretty significant increase to the point of having to get really creative and find ways to get more food in our pantry,” Hutchison said.
Painting Pathways provides guests with produce from its own garden, located outside the pantry, and works with a nutritionist to help educate visitors on the proper way to incorporate the fresh fruits and vegetables.
The Cabinet also trusts its visitors will only take what they need, Hudson said students visiting this year won’t see restrictions.
“In the past there would be a certain number of items you could get, for instance, a maximum of two soups,” Hudson said. “This year we’re not implementing that, we’re just letting them grab what they need since we’re not staffing it.”
Even with the lack of supervision, Hudson said students have maintained the average weight of product they’ve been checking out.
Want to help? How to donate to Stock the Shelves
During October, USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin newspapers and Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin are working together to raise enough money from readers and donors to provide 750,000 meals to Wisconsin families through the annual Stock the Shelves campaign. Each dollar donated equals about four meals, or $10 in food.
The campaign will support communities served by the following newspapers: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Green Bay Press-Gazette, Appleton Post Crescent, Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter, Oshkosh Northwestern, Fond du Lac Reporter, Sheboygan Press, Wausau Daily Herald, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, Marshfield News-Herald, Stevens Point Journal, Door County Advocate and Oconto County Reporter.
Donations will help support people in the same community where the donor lives.
To donate online, visit feedingamericawi.org/stocktheshelvesdonate.
To donate by mail, checks made payable to Feeding American Eastern Wisconsin, ATTN: Stock the Shelves, should be sent to 2911 W. Evergreen Drive, Appleton WI 54913.
Enclose with your contribution the donor’s address with city, state and ZIP code for internal processing, a notation of whether the donation should remain anonymous, whether the donation is in the memory of someone special. Also list the donor’s name, as it should appear in a thank-you advertisement to be published in the Thanksgiving editions of USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin’s daily newspapers.
For a list of pantries supported by Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin, visit feedingamericawi.org/find-help.
Reach Jelissa Burns at 920-453-5107 or jburns1@gannett.com. Follow her on X (Twitter) at @burns_jelissa or on Instagram at burns_jelissa.
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Northeastern Wisconsin food pantries pivot to serve amid high demand
