By Kristal Knudtson, Director of Development & Communications, The Salvation Army Fox Cities

Due to Covid-19, The Salvation Army Fox Cities pantry was overspent by $200k. Since Covid-19 started we have seen an increase of 10% with the amount of food we were giving out in the pantry. Our volunteers have been working hard the last year to get contactless groceries to our clients!

Additionally, due to Covid-19, we are not only trying to catch up from overspending in our budget (as stated above), but we are anticipating the demand for food to continue to be up for the entire year of 2021. These are additional deficient dollars that we will need to find to help support the food pantry program.

The increase number of commodities that The Salvation Army is losing, along with our significant reduction in our food drives from 2020 that we are starting to see in 2021 is volatile for our organization. One example, the Stomp Out Hunger is a huge food drive every May that we do in the community. This has been canceled for May 2021.

With the help of our community and specifically, Community Foundation, we have been able to help part of the deficit of monies to purchase food for our food program. This was made possible through a grant from the Basic Needs Giving Partnership, a funding collaborative which includes funds from the U.S. Venture Open Fund for Basic Needs, the J.J. Keller Foundation and other Community donors.

In addition, the donors through Community Foundation have a match day each year during the Red Kettle Season that the public can double the monies that help fund our all-year round programs.

The Salvation Army Fox Cities team is grateful for Community Foundation and their support!

The Basic Needs Giving Partnership within the Community Foundation is supported by the U.S. Venture Fund for Basic Needs, the J.J. Keller Foundation, Inc., and other community partners. Learn more here.