The Stoughton Food Pantry and Stoughton United Methodist Church Food Pantry were among a coalition of 36 food pantries in Dane County that released a letter to the community Tuesday, sounding the alarm about the growing number of people facing food insecurity and the need for both immediate assistance and long-term solutions to the challenge of distributing enough food to meet growing demand.
“As Dane County’s food pantry, we provide food to thousands of people in our community every day, and our shared mission is to ensure that no one in our neighborhood goes hungry,” the letter the coalition sent out on Tuesday, June 25, said. “Yet we face serious challenges.”
The food pantry held a press conference at the state Capitol on Tuesday morning, scheduled to be attended by local officials and community leaders, including Oregon House Representative for the 43rd District, Jenna Jacobson.
The call to action comes as visits to many food pantries in Wisconsin’s fastest-growing counties have more than doubled over the past two years. As a result of this increased demand, food pantries are spending more on food than ever before because their options for restocking shelves “continue to change and are more limited than in years past,” the letter said. Food pantries stress that buying food in bulk now costs more and that traditional providers of free food to food pantries can’t keep up with demand.
“The dual impact of rising food prices and an increase in the number of people in need is a huge challenge for all local food pantries,” said Julie Bennett, CEO and executive director of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Madison. “Helping those in need is our mission. We hope that this month, next month and into the future, more people in Dane County will join us and help in any way they can. This is a long-term problem that we can only tackle together.”
Pantry leaders said pressure will increase in the coming weeks as children will no longer be able to buy free food over the summer holidays.
The food pantry’s letter outlined factors driving demand, including rising food prices, skyrocketing rents and the loss of federal aid that helped people make ends meet during the pandemic. The latest data on food insecurity in Dane County shows an increasing number of people don’t have enough food and don’t know where their next meal will come from.
According to Feeding America’s recently released “Mind the Meal Gap” report, about 13% of children in Dane County are food insecure in 2022, up from 7.5% in 2021. And that increase was even before local food pantries began seeing a surge in demand.
According to the letter, there are no quick or easy solutions to food insecurity and the structural and economic factors that cause it, but the food pantries say “this is an important moment for us to come together for our neighbors. There are many actions that people in our community can take immediately to help their local food pantries meet their needs, including:
– Organize a food drive at a local food pantry
– Think about your budget and determine how much you can donate to a local food pantry to help neighbors in need. If possible, donate monthly to provide ongoing support.
– Contact your local food pantry and ask them what foods they need most, then buy and donate those foods when you go to the grocery store.
– Volunteer your time. There are many opportunities to get more involved in helping food pantries support their communities.
The pantry also called on local, county, state and federal officials, as well as other community leaders, to help find long-term solutions to food insecurity.
