By Hannah Becker
The River Food Pantry
As this new year begins, we’d like to take this time to thank everyone in the community who supported The River Food Pantry in 2016. It was an incredibly busy year at the pantry with over 31,400 household visits. The River works hard to keep the shelves stocked to make sure every individual and family struggling to make ends meet knows they have a place for food. “Our home feels ‘normal’ even though we are going through a lot of changes,” a shopper at The River said. “This place has given me hope that things will be all right.” In 2016 we added two community lunches, which means we now provide a meal at all five public shopping sessions resulting in over 32,400 meals served.
In 2016 The River launched a mobile lunch program, Madison Urban Nutritional Children’s Hotspot (MUNCH). With the help of volunteers, lunches are made at the pantry Saturday mornings and then distributed to children and teens in selected neighborhoods every Saturday, Sunday and most non-school days. Six Northside neighborhoods and over 200 children and teens are receiving lunches from MUNCH. Parents have expressed how much their children enjoy the free lunches. A mother who shops at the pantry said when The River’s van visits her neighborhood, her four children run around knocking on doors and yelling, “Lunch is here!” Once while distributing lunches, a mother drove by and laughed while telling the MUNCH volunteers her son was upset during their Thanksgiving dinner because he wanted a MUNCH lunch instead. Since June, when the MUNCH program was launched, 10,400 lunches have been distributed.
Individuals and families in Dane County know they have a place for food and comfort at The River. As busy as 2016 was, we aren’t expecting the numbers to go down in 2017. There are many ways you can support Dane County’s busiest food pantry. We invite you to take a seat at the table and help contribute to The River experience by volunteering on-site, hosting a food drive or providing donations. You can learn more at www.riverfoodpantry.org.
