From Halloween parties to book clubs, churches, and schools, individuals and families, we are so grateful for the many people reaching out, collecting donations, and joining us in our mission to ensure our community continues to be fed. Thank you!!

Last week, as we started to see the effects of the food insecurity emergency caused by the lapse in federal SNAP/FoodShare funding, I spoke directly with our clients. I was seeking to understand how this was playing out in real people’s lives. If you haven’t yet, please read their stories to better understand how this situation creates severe repercussions for the most vulnerable among us.

In the days since, we have not seen a slowdown in need — the crisis has only deepened. Over three days this week, we served about as many people as we typically do in four, including:

• Groceries for 4,503 individuals or 1,220 households — 104 of whom were new to us.
• 2,423 meals

We are using our inventory faster than we otherwise would. We need to restock and purchase food at a much faster rate. We are sourcing essential nutritional items from additional vendors to serve the increasing amount of people coming to us, many for the first time.

At the same time, we have also seen an unbelievable outpouring of love and support from the Dane County community. It is difficult to express in words the depth of gratitude I feel for how our community has stepped up.

In recent days, our team could barely keep up with the generosity flooding through our doors. Kind people have been dropping off donations of food, money or both in person all week — we have never seen anything like it before!

I’ve heard from people, near and far, wanting to know how they could help. Despite all the frustrating news out there, most people share our core values: respect, compassion, community, caring and generosity. We are witnessing these values in action over and over again.

To each and every one of you who has given — whether a dollar, a can of food, or a moment of kindness, please know how deeply I/we appreciate you. Your support is keeping us going through these uncertain times.

But I must also gently remind everyone, even though we can celebrate that people in Wisconsin will now be receiving their FoodShare funds, the need for food in Dane County is higher than we’ve ever seen. We still have a long way to go before food insecurity levels begin to decline.

Thank you for standing with us and showing what community truly means.