Recipe for Hope | The River Food Pantry

Recipe for Hope

Help The River Food Pantry Grow by Supporting our Recipe for Hope Campaign!

Our Goal

Our Recipe for Hope Campaign has a goal of $12 million to fund these components:

  • Land and Title: $1,000,000
  • Facility Construction: $9,000,000
  • Program Support Fund: $2,000,000

As of October 2024, our campaign received gifts and grants totaling more than $11.7 million!

Will you please help us reach our goal and join us with your gift today? We are grateful for gifts of any size! Any gifts received beyond the campaign goal will be used to support The River’s expanded programs and services in the new facility. 

Easy Ways to Give:

  • To make a secure online donation, please click the “Give Now” button below.
  • Please mail checks with “Recipe for Hope” in the memo to: The River Food Pantry, 2201 Darwin Road, Madison, WI 53704

The Need

The River works hard to ensure our clients have reliable access to healthy, nourishing food. Yet despite our success, the unfortunate reality is that we are unable to serve everyone that requires assistance.

In some cases, our programs are already operating at capacity. In others, the need goes well beyond food, surpassing the scope of our current operations. Additional needs include both materials goods, such as clothing and housewares, and access to life-changing services related to housing, healthcare, employment, legal assistance, and counseling.

As a trusted partner in the community, The River has the potential to do so much more—both in our focus area of fighting food insecurity and in facilitating the wraparound services needed by those confronting complex barriers to physical, mental, and economic wellbeing.

What’s keeping us from meeting our full potential as a critical community resource? Our building.

Challenges include:

  • A Small Space That’s Bursting at the Seams: At just 11,000 square feet, our current building constrains operational efficiency and has capped our organizational growth.
  • Outdated and Inadequate Infrastructure: We have reached the boundaries of our electrical grid. As a result, we can’t install the additional coolers and commercial-grade kitchen we need to grow.
  • A Lack of Community Resource Space: Before we transitioned from indoor to curbside distribution, we had limited space to offer free clothing, housewares, in-person dining, and community partner information tables. During the pandemic, we had to cancel these services to protect people’s safety and make more room for food.

The Solution

We have a site and facility design that will meet our needs by addressing the following considerations:

Ease of Access for Clients
We are sandwiched between two Northside “food deserts” that persistently lack access to healthy food. Staying near our current facility will minimize disruptions for existing clients and allow The River to continue serving thousands of area residents who would struggle to access services in other parts of Dane County. Fortunately, we were able to purchase a site right across the street from us!

Increased Capacity for Services
Our new facility will be 32,500 square feet—nearly three times the size of our current building.

In this new space, we will:

  • Construct a commercial-grade kitchen: To our knowledge, the new kitchen will be among the first all-electric kitchens of its size in Dane County! It will have the space we need to prepare large amounts of food.
  • Deliver safe, efficient service: Our clients love our innovative drive-thru model so much that we’ve made it central to our ongoing services.
  • Improve sustainability: Because a safe, healthy environment is important to us, we are installing a solar-powered microgrid, a geothermal system, and the infrastructure for additional sustainability initiatives for the future.
  • Better meet current needs and accommodate future growth: We will have space to bring back popular services, including clothing and houseware distribution and indoor dining. We will also invite community partners to use our classrooms to provide access to life-changing services related to housing, healthcare, employment, legal assistance, counseling, and more.

About Our New Home

Preliminary renderings of The River’s new home, which will be located across the street from our current facility, are shown below.

Case statement cover

Download Case Statement (Web version as of May 2024)

Hope Level
$1,000,000 and above

County of Dane
Congressionally Directed Spending

Respect Level
$500,000–$999,999
Anonymous

Terri and Dave Beck-Engel
Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation

Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation
Sub-Zero Group Foundation

Compassion Level
$250,000–$499,999

American Family Insurance Dreams Foundation
Anonymous
Lau and Bea Christensen

City of Madison
Paul Reckwerdt and Ellen Rosner

Community Level
$150,000–$249,999

Endres Manufacturing Company Foundation
Eric D. and Steven D. Hovde Foundation
Oscar Rennebohm Foundation

Caring Level
$100,000–$149,999
Anonymous (2)

Ken Ballweg
Bradbury Family
Dan & Patti Rashke (TASC) Family Foundation 
Edwin and Susan Gilbert
Carol and Greg Griffin
Irwin A and Robert D Goodman Foundation, Inc
Michael and Jocelyn Keiser
Michelle and Alan Ogilvie
Ron Phelps and Dacia DiMattia-Phelps
Barbara and Dave Sauer
Jeff Tews and Susan Rather

Generosity Level
$50,000–$99,999
Conroy Family Foundation
David and Nancy Walsh Family Foundation
Judith Fisher and Mark Allen
The Haag Family
Madison Gas & Electric Foundation

Susannah Michaels
Roots & Wings Foundation
Summit Credit Union

Dignity Level
$25,000–$49,999

Anonymous (4)
Mike and Lee Ann Dillis
Robert Garrison

Tim and Kim Hameister
Dan and Maggie Immerfall
J.H. Findorff & Son Inc.
Kuehn Family Foundation

Rich and Mary Lynch
Scott and Anne Michels
Gerry Ring
Kelly and Cathy Sheffield
Robert E. Shumaker and Janet Kilde Shumaker
The Meester Family Foundation

Mary Van Hout
Erin, Jim, Jamie and Chase Warner

Ted and Cindy Witt

Empathy Level
$10,000–$24,999

Anonymous
Rhonda Adams and Jim Lenzer

Ben Ballweg
Dorothy Borchardt
Ron and Mary Jane Campo
Connect Search, LLC
Jim and Jessica Doyle
Barb and Mike Gosenheimer
Brian and Julie Hornung
Ken and Chris Johnson
Jennifer and Bill Kraemer

Ronald and Deborah Krantz
Devin Lundberg

Marlene Mack and Elizabeth Meffert
Madison Mallards
MadiSUN Backyard Solar Grant Program 
Sharon and Mike Mohr
Solar for Good

Mark and Celeste Taber
Wall Family Enterprise

Jennifer and Jeff Zisser

Advocates Level
$5,000–$9,999

Anonymous (2)
Terese Allen and Jim Block
Joyce and Daniel Bromley
Hope Christmann
Cathie Easter and Susan Fischer

Heartland Credit Union
Dan and Tracy Henderson
Ralph Tod Highsmith and Joan Braune

Amy and JC Isaachsen
Shay and Kim Santos
EG and Barbara Schramka
David and Marian Torkelson
The Wahlberg Family
TruStage Foundation
Wittwer Family Foundation Inc

Ring of Supporters Level
$2,500–$4,999
Anonymous (3)
Dennis and Beverly Brass

Susan Crawford
Sue Gilbertson
Hooper Foundation
Johnson & Johnson
Teresa and Dave Midthun

Martha Olson
Andrew Shrago

Jim and Melissa Sirianni
Matt Suby at The Suby Group
The Blitz Family

Jim and Tonya Tubbs
Max Weber and Maureen Griffin

Campaign Leadership

Honorary Co-Chairs
Governor Jim and Jessica Doyle
Coach Kelly and Cathy Sheffield

Co-Chairs
Dave Beck-Engel
Ron Phelps

Advisors
Kelly Donahue
Bill Haight

Campaign Cabinet
Syed Abbas
Annie and Sam Ballweg
Pat Gallagher
Sue Gilbertson
Maggie Immerfall
Michelle and Alan Ogilvie
Shay Santos
Barb and Dave Sauer
Bob Shumaker
Jennifer Zisser

Ways to Give

To make a secure online donation, please click the “Give Now” button below.

Please mail checks with “Recipe for Hope” in the memo to:
The River Food Pantry
2201 Darwin Road
Madison, WI 53704

Campaign Contact

Have a question? Want to tour our current facility? Please contact our Executive Director, Rhonda Adams, at rhonda@riverfoodpantry.org or our Development Director, Monica Wahlberg, at monica.wahlberg@riverfoodpantry.org or (608) 665-0819.

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