LETTER TO COMMUNITY: The State of Dane County Food Pantries

A coalition of more than 30 Dane County food pantries, including Goodman Community Center's Fritz Food Pantry, have released a letter to the community asking for support to meet the incredible rise in the number of families seeking food assistance. Please read and share this message with your networks!

Dane County, we need your help.

As Dane County food pantries, we serve thousands of people in our community each day. Our shared mission is to make sure our neighbors don’t face hunger.

But we are facing a serious challenge.

Visits to many of our food pantries have more than doubled in the past two years. We know some of the reasons why. Food prices are higher and rent is rising more here than anywhere else in the country. Federal assistance that helped people make ends meet during the pandemic is gone. We are also the fastest-growing county in Wisconsin. Nearly 13% of kids in Dane County were food insecure in 2022, up from 7.5% in 2021 — and that was before our food pantries started seeing drastic increases in demand.

We’re also spending more on food than ever before.

The options we have to keep our 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 our traditional suppliers of free food can’t keep up with the demand. Permanent changes to the food system over the last few years mean there is less surplus available for our food pantries.

These trends make it challenging to keep food on our shelves.

Food pantries have worked hard to stretch our resources, space, and teams as far as possible. The pressure will rise in the coming weeks as kids have less access to free food with schools out for the summer.

You can help.

Making a financial donation to your local food pantry enables them to purchase needed food. We welcome food drives and volunteers, too. We know there is no quick or easy fix to food insecurity and the structural and economic factors that drive it. So we urge our local, county, state, and federal officials, as well as other community leaders, to help find long-term solutions to food insecurity. We can’t do it alone.

This is a critical moment for us to come together for our neighbors.

When our community supports local food pantries, we are stronger. With access to food, kids can learn, families can work, and seniors can stay healthy. 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.

In partnership with you,

• Allied Food Pantry Babies & Beyond of WI, Inc.
• Badger Prairie Needs Network
• Bayview Community Center Pantry
• Catholic Multicultural Center
• Community Action Coalition for South Central Wisconsin
• Deerfield Community Center
• East Madison Community Center
• Extended Hands Pantry
• Fountain of Life Covenant Church
• Good Shepherd Food Pantry
• Goodman Community Center's Fritz Food Pantry
• Grace Food Pantry
• Great Lakes Dryhootch Madison
• Heights Unlimited Community Resource Center (Mazomanie)
• Islamic Community of Madison
• Kennedy Heights Food Pantry
• Lakeview Food Pantry
• Lussier Community Education Center - Food Pantry
• Mission Nutrition DeForest
• Neighborhood House Community Center Food Pantry
• Neighbors Helping Neighbors, Mt. Horeb
• Oregon Area Food Pantry
• OutReach LGBTQ+ Community Center
• Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin
• Society of St. Vincent de Paul - Madison Food Pantry
• St. Mark’s Lutheran Church Food Pantry
• Stoughton Food Pantry
• Stoughton United Methodist Church Food Pantry
• Sun Prairie Food Pantry at Sunshine Place
• The Keep Food Pantry
• The River Food Pantry
• Vivent Health Food Pantry
• Waunakee Food Pantry
• WayForward Resources
• Willy Street Pantry at the Social Justice Center

The Coalition of Food Pantries has received some great press coverage that we hope will keep the conversation going and spur our neighbors who can help to take action:

• Wisconsin State Journal: Madison-area food pantries struggle to meet rising demand
• WiscNews: Food food pantries struggle to meet rising demand in Madison
• Wisconsin Public Radio: Many Dane County food pantries are spending more on food than ever before
• News 3 Now: Dane County food pantries ask for assistance
  
• WMTV 15: Dane County food pantries pushing for more financial help
  
• WKOW 27: Local food pantries call on Dane County community for support as demand increases
• WORT Radio: Dane County Food Pantries Issue Call To Action, Amidst Shortages And High Demand
• Spectrum News: ‘We are facing a serious challenge’: Over 3 dozen pantries come together in call for help
  
• WisPolitics: Local food pantries issue call to action, “Dane County, we need your help.”
• Wisconsin Eye: News Conference: Dane County Food Pantry Leaders on Food Insecurity (Watch the press conference here with a free account)