Who’s hungry? One in seven people in eastern Wisconsin are. It’s hard to imagine that so many people who live in the Fox Valley region don’t know where their next meal is coming from.

The Post-Crescent’s 2018 “Stock the Shelves Do It! Community Challenge” is aiming to raise $90,000 this year, to feed the hungry in the Fox Cities region. The Community Foundation assists the campaign by taking online donations, and Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin will distribute 100 percent of the proceeds collected to local food pantries.

Patti Habeck, Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin

“This is very much a collaborative effort to assist hunger relief organizations in our area,” said Patti Habeck, president of Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin. “Stock the Shelves goes beyond collecting food and financial donations; it’s a community coming together to draw a line in the sand to say that hunger is not acceptable.”

The gift to feed many

Children and seniors are our most vulnerable citizens. A child who lacks proper nutrition cannot develop physically, mentally or emotionally. This has a ripple effect that carries into adulthood, harming an individual’s career success and overall health. Hunger among seniors is expected to increase by 50% by 2025. Limited incomes force many seniors to choose between paying for medications or health care and buying food. That’s an impossible choice at a time of life when both are essential.

Here’s how people in the Fox Valley Region can impact hunger:

• $250 feeds a family of five with dinner for five months
• $100 provides a senior couple with food for two months
• $25 gives a child a lunch for nearly three months 

“Corporations that used to donate food from overruns or post-dated products have gotten more efficient in how they work with inventory, but the good news is that donors remain generous,” Habeck said.

The Stock the Shelves campaign runs Sept. 30 – Nov. 11.

Food pantries included in the Fox Valley Stock the Shelves drive include:

• Ruth’s Pantry
• Cornerstone Church
• Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry (Kaukauna)
• ATC Storehouse
• Christian Food Pantry
• Salvation Army Fox Cities
• Waupaca Area Food Pantry
• Matthew 25:35
• Freedom Center Food Pantry
• Marion Area Food Pantry
• Clintonville Area Food Pantry
• Freedom Food Pantry
• Weymont Food Pantry
• Manawa Area Communities Food Pantry
• Double Portion Food Pantry
• Salvation Army Chilton
• Saint Vincent de Paul New Holstein
• St. John’s Food Pantry
• St Mary/St John Saint Vincent de Paul Food Pantry
• St. Joseph Food Pantry
• Young Community
• Seymour Community Food Pantry
• New Holstein Food Pantry
• Heart of the Valley Food Pantry

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