'Critically important': Stock the Shelves to fill need in central Wisconsin as people need help more than ever

Caitlin Shuda
Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune
Wendy and Brian Zarecki check tickets on the rail on Friday, Aug. 12, 2022, at Brian & Wendy's Hiawatha in Junction City, Wis. Together, they own and operate the restaurant, which offers a farm-to-table menu.

Residents in central Wisconsin — and the food banks and other organizations aiming to help fight hunger in their communities — are struggling with rising costs at grocery stores and gas stations, the highest inflation rate in 40 years and the ripple effects from a global pandemic.

Earlier this summer, Julie Spencer of Stevens Point told USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin that she stopped eating three meals a day in order to try to keep her children and grandchildren fed. Restaurant owners featured in the same article who were struggling with higher product costs due to inflation later collected food and gas cards to send to the family.

This summer, several people contacted Marshfield Area United Way to ask for help to pay for gas to drive to their jobs, especially if they had a further commute. The United Way’s Soups or Socks pantry also saw a 25% increase in people coming in to pick up food in June from just a month prior.

Every year, USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin runs a Stock the Shelves campaign in partnership with Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin to help raise money and connect local donations to local food pantries and organizations, including more than a dozen just in central Wisconsin:

Organizations need help if they expect to give help

Carts with pre-selected groceries for pickup are seen on Thursday, August 4, 2022, at Operation Bootstrap in Stevens Point, Wis.

Rising costs from inflation and supply chain issues from the pandemic are also hard on the organizations that offer help.

First Presbyterian Food Pantry is open from 1 to 2 p.m. on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month. According to its website, the number of guests using the food pantry has doubled in recent months because more people need more help as food costs continue to rise. Additionally, the pantry’s budget is stretched to its limit because of rising food prices and an increase of need in the area.

And they aren't alone. 

Patti Habeck, president and CEO of Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin, said that while the last few years have been a struggle, between upheavals related to trade policies, entering into a third year of a global pandemic, supply shortages and inflation, communities need help now more than ever.

“(Our work) is critically important, even so more this year than any other year,” she said.

Habeck said the food security system is amid a perfect storm. In previous years, Feeding America could anticipate needs and demands and be able to accommodate them. But, recent disruptions have been hard to predict. Individuals and families who may have gotten by before are now pushed into food insecurity by rising costs of food, medicines, electricity, gas and more.

Feeding America has felt the effects of inflation, as well. With rising gas prices, it’s more difficult to hire drivers, leaving them to compete  with other companies that can offer signing bonuses and higher pay to attract the same workers.

As a result, the organization found more creative ways to utilize partnerships to get food where it’s needed. 

Rising food costs present an issue, too. During the pandemic, the organization has been purchasing more food than ever to help communities, Habeck said. Feeding America has also implemented a nutrition policy, purchasing food from a specific list to focus on healthy items, but those items have all increased in price, as well.

Some local efforts are working well

With needs rising and these issues affecting all sectors of the food supply chain, organizations like Feeding America and its local partners all over the central and eastern parts of the state are looking at ways they can do better.

Habeck said in the past, Feeding America did what it thought was good enough work along the way to help fight hunger. Now, the organization is questioning how it can do better, looking to fully understand the needs in each local community.

Through a partnership with the Marquette University’s data team, the organization is looking at information aggregated from many sources that can pull from very specific locations: neighborhoods and cities, not just census date by county. The organization can better work with local organizations and help connect resources with the areas that need it the most.

In 2020, three local organizations in Wisconsin Rapids that partner with Feeding America — The Neighborhood Table, South Wood County Emerging Pantry Shelf, and Rapids Family Backpacks — decided to pool resources and volunteers to better serve the community, merging to create Feeding Our Communities with United Services, also known as "FOCUS."

Feeding our Communities with United Services will operate at 2321 W. Grand Ave. in Wisconsin Rapids.

Habeck said while it can be tricky to solve problems like limited resources in an effective way, Wisconsin Rapids has done a good job with its solution. She said Feeding America always celebrates when efforts like FOCUS do well, and the organization learns from these efforts to help other communities where similar approaches would make sense.

The local pantries are the experts in their communities, Habeck said, and Feeding America wants to help connect and coordinate that knowledge and expertise to help other communities thrive.

Want to help? Stock the Shelves donation window is open during October

Scott Frazier stocks shelves on Thursday, August 4, 2022, at Operation Bootstrap in Stevens Point, Wis.

Habeck said one organization cannot solve hunger issues on its own. It takes partnerships like with Food Share and with local pantries, but these efforts rely on donations, as well.

Last year, thanks to the generosity of readers, more than $163,000 was raised through the Stock the Shelves campaign, providing more than 652,000 meals to those in need in communities served by USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin.

Stock the Shelves aims to help those in need in the communities served by the following Wisconsin newspapers: Appleton Post-Crescent, Green Bay Press-Gazette, Oshkosh Northwestern, Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter, Sheboygan Press, Fond du Lac Reporter, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wausau Daily Herald, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, Marshfield News Herald, Stevens Point Journal, Door County Advocate, Oconto County Reporter and Kewaunee County Star-News. Donations will help support the community in which the donor resides.

Checks should be made payable to Feeding American Eastern Wisconsin, ATTN: Stock the Shelves, and mailed to 2911 W. Evergreen Drive, Appleton WI 54913. Enclose alongside 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, and the donor’s name as it should appear in the thank-you advertisement to be published in the Thanksgiving edition of USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin’s daily newspapers.

To donate online, visit feedingamericawi.org/stocktheshelvesdonate.

Contact Caitlin at cshuda@gannett.com or follow her on Twitter @CaitlinShuda.