Patch Tour: A Day At The Food Pantry

As a journalist, my job is to listen to and quote some of the most influential and interesting people in the community. It’s one of the best perks of the job.

On Tuesday, I got the opportunity to volunteer with the Menomonee Falls Area Food Pantry, and I got a quote that I’ll save in my reporter’s notebook of life, if you will.

After helping a woman with two children in tow through the pantry, she said something that I will lock away and carry with me for my lifetime.

“Once we get back on our feet, I’ll be in here volunteering myself. This place has been such a blessing, and I always believed that you always bless those who blessed you so much.”

For more than four years she struggled to get medical assistance from the government for her son. Her family has been pegged with medical expenses that have hit their home budget hard, and they have depended on

Her message struck a chord in myself. As the editor of Menomonee Falls Patch — and the new guy in town — I’ve been blessed with such an open and warm welcome from so many in the community. After more than six months on the job, it’s time to give back to the community that has already given me so much.

But this story is not about me.

It’s about the great work that’s being done every Tuesday and Thursday by volunteers at the food pantry. The tasks are simple, but essential to its operation. Anyone can do it.

Operations at the food pantry

Volunteers take charge of three major tasks when they donate their time to the pantry. Workers are needed to check expiration dates on food and stock shelves, register customers, and help customers shop through the aisles for food.

On Tuesday, 31 people came through and grabbed essentials off the shelves. The small room in the Hiawatha School building, which is the former location of the Menomonee Falls School District offices, quickly became crowded, and space will be a welcome luxury in the new building that is under construction right now. 

Food Pantry officials secured the rights to a former Water Department building just east of the Cherney Field baseball diamond off Pilgrim Road, north of Appleton Avenue, at N85W15382 Menomonee River Pkwy. They are adding 2,400-square-foot metal building as addition as well.

It seemed as soon as volunteers stocked the shelves, customers quickly emptied them. The demand that the pantry fills was evident.

Currently, the pantry is enjoying an abundance of canned goods and food items after a recent food drive. They were running out of room for storage. However, a volunteer told me that there have been times when the shelves are empty, and they’ve been forced to close.

Volunteers, food donations and monetary donations will be in higher demand.

Pantry needs your help

Since January, the food pantry has had more than 1,000 visits from families in need. On average, between 30 and 45 people will stop by the pantry in the afternoon or evening every Tuesday and Thursday.

While the shelves may be stocked now, the pantry is always in need of non-perishable food donations — especially canned carrots and fruit. They are always welcome to new individuals and groups to volunteers.

With a new location will come new bills as well. The pantry needs to raise $200,000 for a new building, and is about $80,000 shy of that goal.

Here are some anonymous stories that pantry director Kathy Wodushek provided of people in the community stepping up to help in their own way:

• A local doctor occasionally comes to the and donates $500 toward the food pantry shopping expenses. He never leaves his name, and just wants to help the community.
• A middle-aged couple came to donate for the first time to the pantry. After they had worked their shift, they took out their checkbook and wrote a $500 check. This couple, like so many others, had come to the pantry for food in the past. Now that their fortunes improved, they wanted to help others who fell on hard times.
• A single mother with two children lost her job and had to rely on the food pantry for about a year. When she found a new job, she started saving 10 percent of each paycheck. Eventually, she saved enough for a full cart of groceries that she donated to the pantry.
• A young girl received her first Communion, and like all her friends, received money from her relatives. She took all of that money to the grocery store, and bought food to donate to the pantry.

I encourage everyone in the community to find a way to write their own story with the food pantry. We’ve all been blessed to live in this community. Let’s all work together to return that blessing.

Those interested in making financial contributions to the Food Pantry can do so by sending checks made out to the “Falls Food Pantry” and sending them to P.O. Box 238, Menomonee Falls, WI 53052.  For more information, call (414) 218-7945.

The Patch tour continues throughout the week. Here are the next stops:

• Wednesday: Menomonee Falls Farmers Market,  8 a.m. to 10 a.m. 
• Thursday: Patch Community Workshop, Menomonee Falls Chamber of Commerce, 6 p.m.
• Friday: Noon concert the , featuring Dusk!