Courtesy WayForward Resources
A volunteer sorts produce at WayForward Resources' food pantry.
A volunteer sorts produce at the food pantry run by WayForward Resources, which has seen a steep increase in need for its food and housing assistance this year.
Madison food pantries are seeing a steep increase in visitors this year as rent increases, inflation, and the expiration of federal COVID assistance programs push more Madisonians to the brink of financial instability.
“For us it’s record demand, more than any time in our 40-year history,” says Leslie Huber, engagement director of WayForward Resources, which provides food and housing assistance on Madison’s west side. “The past year we have seen a very significant increase in need for both food and housing assistance.”
Huber says visits to WayForward were up more than 230% this November compared to January 2022. She says the expiration of COVID-era assistance programs has contributed to the increase: The Dane County CORE rental assistance program ran out of federal funds in May, and an expansion of SNAP food assistance benefits expired in February.
Huber says the need for housing assistance has risen steadily since 2019. And Madison’s highest-in-the-nation rent increases are also pushing some to need help with food too, as Huber says some seeking assistance report $100 to $200 increases as their lease renews. “That hundred or two hundred is a game changer,” she says. “When people are putting more and more income into staying in their home, there’s very little left for food.”
Helen Osborn-Senatus of The River Food Pantry says the pantry has served 15,000 unique visitors to date this year, up from 11,000 at this time last year. The pantry provided Thanksgiving meals to 1,500 people last week, up from about 1,000 people last year.
Osborn-Senatus adds that the high price and low availability of childcare is also driving more pantry visits, as parents who can’t leave children home alone are prevented from working full time.
The pantry has hired new staffers, streamlined some of their processes, and asked for more volunteers to manage the increase in visitors they don’t expect to decline anytime soon. “While our staff has increased by a few, our volunteers we’ve had to increase a lot,” says Osborn-Senatus.
A bit of help could be on the way from Dane County. Dane County Board supervisors and County Executive Joe Parisi announced this month they were backing a resolution to add $1.7 million to the Farm to Foodbank program. “Right now there’s so much need for help with food for so many families,” Parisi said in a Nov. 15 news release announcing the resolution.
“That funding really will impact us,” says Osborn-Senatus. “It means that we can stretch our budget further.”
Huber says that WayForward has had to place some soft limits on what visitors can take. “We have never turned anyone away for food. We have a come as you need model,” she says. But lately, for certain high-protein foods at the pantry, visitors are restricted to one option per visit.
Jenny Price, communications manager for WayForward, tells Isthmus in an email that 10% of children in Dane County are food insecure, citing data from the Wisconsin Food Security Project at UW-Madison. “That means that on average nearly three kids in every elementary school class don’t have reliable access to food,” says Price.
November and December are the busiest months for the pantries, but Huber and Osborn-Senatus don’t expect the need to die down after the holidays. Huber says organizing community food drives can help increase the variety of food at pantries, and Osborn-Senatus says volunteers have already logged 34,000 hours at The River Food Pantry to date this year.
Says Osborn-Senatus: “Once we’re past the holiday, remember that people are still facing hunger.”
