Sense of Purpose
Mickie has been volunteering at Fondy Food Pantry, a Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin partner, for about five years.
After retiring, Mickie and her husband spent a lot of time traveling and seeing the world, but she felt like she still had more to do.
“I have this strong need for a sense of purpose,” Mickie says. “And so that kind of haunted me and I said, ‘There’s more to life than seeing things.’”
Now that need for purpose is fulfilled by helping her neighbors put nutritious food on the table. Fondy Food Pantry in Fond du Lac is a choice pantry, meaning people get to shop and choose the foods that they need and want to eat. Mickie loves walking and talking with folks as they shop, hearing about their stories and helping them through hard times.
Recently, she met a Ukrainian refugee who really touched her heart. “She’s feeling unsettled knowing what’s going on at home,” Mickie says of the war in Ukraine. “And she’s had some health problems.”
The people she meets and the gratitude they express keep Mickie coming back.
“It makes me very proud that we treat people with dignity,” she says. “The people that organize it are so organized that I don’t come here and twiddle my fingers. I like being busy. And it flows so well here, and, as a result, that also helps in treating people with dignity.”
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