Team Rubicon Combats Hunger

In response to COVID-19, Team Rubicon launched the Neighbors Helping Neighbors initiative to meet the needs of communities throughout America at safe distances. Team Rubicon, a nonprofit that utilizes the skills and experiences of military veterans to assist in disaster zones, has over 100,000 dedicated volunteers working tirelessly across the country, which the organization affectionately refers to as “Greyshirts.”

When John Stuhlmacher, a nine-year army veteran and Team Rubicon’s territory operations associate for Wisconsin and Minnesota, saw a need for volunteers at Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin, he described sending in a group of “Greyshirts” as a no-brainer.

“Food is medicine,” Stuhlmacher said. “The last thing anyone should have to worry about is where their next meal is coming from. When you couple that with a virus running rampant throughout the community, we need to have the community as healthy as possible, and that means fed with healthy meals.”

After suffering a severe injury in Iraq, Stuhlmacher made the difficult decision to move on from the military. While adjusting to his new life, Stuhlmacher recalled losing the sense of purpose he always felt when serving in uniform. Then he heard about Team Rubicon. As soon as he signed up, the organization immediately deployed him to Texas to help survivors in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.

“From that point on I knew I wanted to be around the type of people that Team Rubicon has,” Stuhlmacher said. “Team Rubicon members have a bias towards action. We may not have our military uniforms on anymore, but it gives us a way to serve and directly impact communities on their worst day.”

At Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin, Team Rubicon members have been assisting with a variety of tasks including food sorting and packing, preparing online orders for our member food pantries, updating inventory based on new donations and placed orders, and ensuring that contactless pickups for our pantries to run smoothly.

“People are losing their jobs over this and need a secondary source of relief,” shared Kelly Simon, a Team Rubicon member and army veteran who has been volunteering at our Milwaukee warehouse. “People need help. It’s what we do.”