Traditional food banking methods provide necessary ways to deliver immediate hunger relief, but through many of the innovative programs listed below, we are reaching an even greater population of neighbors in need, as well as creating hunger advocates throughout Eastern Wisconsin. These programs not only connect individuals struggling with food insecurity to adequate resources, but they also connect donors directly to their communities.
Food Leaders Lab
Organizations make decisions every day about how to best provide for the communities they serve, but they often don’t stop to ask the community how we can best work together. This idea of connecting local individuals with lived-expertise in food insecurity to the resources they need to make a difference in their own backyards was the genesis of the Food Leaders Lab. Established in the Spring of 2022, the Food Leaders Lab is an innovative leadership and advocacy institute that connects diverse local residents with advocacy, policy, and leadership opportunities and training to create transformational solutions to hunger in our communities.
Once selected through an application and interview process, Food Leaders Lab participants complete a seven-month, paid, in-person collaborative program that focuses on addressing grassroots system changes surrounding food insecurity. The program helps grow the necessary skills and knowledge vital to tackling food system challenges and advocating for anti-hunger solutions, not only in the state, but across the country. Participants identify an anti-hunger topic they are passionate about and design an advocacy campaign around that topic with the help of food bank staff and other program participants. Participants of this program leave with a full campaign plan and a strong network of support from their fellow “Ambassadors” and the entire team at Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin.
After graduating from Food Leaders Lab, Ambassadors assume an even more significant role in solving hunger, continuing to lead their campaign projects, and also helping to recruit new participants, lead cohorts, and guide future strategy within the program.
Tribal Elder Food Box
Native Americans face some of the highest food insecurity rates in Wisconsin. In fact, 1-in-4 Native Americans have reported not having access to sustainable and nutritious food, which is twice the rate of white individuals in Wisconsin. Launched in the Fall of 2021 as a pilot program with the Great Lakes Intertribal Food Coalition, a partnership of all 11 Federally-recognized Native American Tribes in Wisconsin, the Tribal Elder Food Box program has helped restore indigenous foodways and access to culturally-relevant foods among many Native American communities.
Food for this crop-to-table program is sourced directly from indigenous producers specializing in growing crops unique to their tribe’s geography. To supplement what may not be in good supply through these producers, Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin also purchases food through other local organic farmer cooperatives, Hmong and Hispanic farmers, and regional growers throughout the state.
Once the food is procured during the growing season, it is sorted and repacked into boxes by Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin staff and volunteers on a bi-weekly basis and delivered to tribal partner sites, ensuring access to a healthy, well-balanced diet. Tribal Elder Food Boxes contain healing foods such as grass-fed beef, bison, wild-caught fish, heirloom white corn, hand-harvested wild rice, hand-picked and dried tea, maple syrup, and seasonal produce that is representative of traditional indigenous foods. These foods align closely with the traditional diet of Great Lakes Indigenous Peoples, which avoids added preservatives or pesticides, and acknowledges the power of food as medicine.
In 2024, Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin, in partnership with the Great Lakes Intertribal Food Coalition, packed and distributed over 31,000 Tribal Elder Food Boxes to all 11 Federally-recognized tribes in Wisconsin, including the City of Milwaukee’s urban Elder population.
FarmLink
The FarmLink program is a ground-breaking initiative which seeks to connect LOCAL historically underserved Wisconsin farms to LOCAL Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin food pantry partners while working through community-based organizations to build sustainable systems.
Through the FarmLink program, freshly grown produce is delivered directly from the farm fields to our pantries throughout Eastern Wisconsin, minimizing shelf life and transportation time, and ensuring a fresh, healthy product for our neighbors in need.
We take pride in our collaboration with farmers and are deeply committed to providing our food pantry partners and meal sites with the healthiest, freshest, and most nutritious foods available. In 2024, the FarmLink program contracted with 14 Hmong-owned farms in the Appleton and Green Bay areas by partnering with a local community-based organization. Fresh fruits and vegetables were distributed to 13 food pantry partners on a weekly basis throughout the growing season. The program purchased over 62 different crop varieties including many culturally specific foods and saw a total of 20,430 pounds of food moved through its efforts.
The Nurturing Collaborative
We all want to provide a safe, healthy environment for our children where they are given the security they need to develop and grow. However, for Black women, the lack of equitable care and feelings of isolation can drastically hinder these goals. Caring for a newborn is already a challenge for parents for so many reasons. Access to healthy, nutritious food shouldn’t compound those challenges.
To assist with this vital need for support, The Nurturing Collaborative was created by Vanessa Johnson, a Registered Nurse Doula and the Founder and Executive Director of Birthworkers United. Through our close partnership, The Nurturing Collaborative is at the forefront of Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin’s pursuit of innovative programming outside of conventional food banking methods, focusing on improving Black maternal health and birthing outcomes in the City of Milwaukee and its surrounding communities.
Every month, our dedicated program staff and volunteers pack and coordinate delivery for personalized Nourishing and Nurturing Boxes to support new parents and their growing babies. These boxes contain fresh and healthy food options, with recipes carefully curated by Registered Dietitian, Dr. Yvonne Greer, as well as educational books, diapers, and various other wellness items intended to pamper mom and baby for the first year of life. Many of the wellness items included in these boxes are sourced from over 15 local and BIPOC business partners – the majority of which are women-owned and operated.
The Monthlies Project
The Monthlies Project is a community initiative. Not only does period poverty negatively impact physical, mental, and emotional health, it can create a barrier to equal opportunity in education. Lack of access to menstrual health products can cause school-aged students with periods to miss or be late to class or feel anxious about period care, which can affect achievement in school and lead to educational inequity. According to a 2019 article from The Washington Post, 84% of young menstruators in school reported to have personally known someone who missed class due to lack of access to menstrual health products. Additionally, 66% of teens reported they didn’t want to be at school during their period due to shame and self-consciousness.
Launched in October of 2022, The Monthlies Project is a community initiative that provides menstrual care products, education, and awareness to school-aged students to spotlight the issues of period poverty and the educational inequity it creates. Partnering with the Women’s Fund for the Fox Valley Region, Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin and its many partners within this program act as a resource to schools and community programs in Northeast Wisconsin to assist with providing adequate access to menstrual health products. The Monthlies Project is serving over 160 partners and has distributed over 600,000 period products as of 2024.
Mobile Food Pantries
Mobile pantries not only connect individuals struggling with food insecurity to adequate resources, but they also connect donors to their communities. At a mobile pantry distribution, individuals and families receive fresh and non-perishable groceries. Food is brought by Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin to a host site at a prescheduled time for immediate distribution to area residents. Host sites can collaborate with other churches, community centers, public housing complexes, and other organizations to plan the distribution of a mobile pantry.
TEFAP
Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin participates in the following federal funded food program, TEFAP (The Emergency Food Assistance Program), which is administered through the State of Wisconsin Department of Health Services. View USDA Nondiscrimination Statement.
CSFP
Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin participates in the following federal funded food program CSFP (Commodity Supplemental Food Program), which is administered through the State of Wisconsin Department of Health Services. View USDA Nondiscrimination Statement.
