Food pantry gets shot at major grant

The Saukville Community Food Pantry had been looking for donations so it can qualify for a national $100,000 grant it hopes to use to expand operations.     

The pantry needed to raise $3,000 by Aug. 14 to qualify for one of the Gannett Foundation’s A Community Thrives grant.

As of Aug. 3, 40 donors raised $4,013,  giving the pantry a shot at $100,000.

Food Pantry Board President Sara Pashak said the grant would provide an enormous head start on a capital campaign to find a new space for the organization.

The nonprofit group, which provides  meals for families in need throughout Ozaukee County, operates out of the basement of Parkside Community Church in Saukville, but as operations expand, the organization is running out of room.

“We’re outgrowing our space,” Pashak said. “We’re trying to grow our programs, and we just don’t have any room to move.”

Pashak said that when the pantry started in 2011, it served about 20 families, but now it serves closer to 100.

Besides expanding the number of people the pantry regularly serves, she said, the group has added programs to further assist struggling families.

The food pantry is preparing for its annual back-to-school program, in which students are provided with backpacks and school supplies.

Throughout the school year, the pantry will also operate its Back Pack Fridays program, through which students from families in need can discretely take home food and household items in their backpacks after school.

The backpack program operates at four schools in the county, but Pashak said the group would welcome a chance to assist families in all Ozaukee County schools.   

Pashak said the pantry could receive more food donations through a Feeding America grocery store partnership program, but the it does not have enough room to keep goods before they are donated.

“We’d like to grow to meet the need, but we don’t have the space to do that,” she said.

While Parkside Community Church has an elevator to the basement food pantry, Pashak said, if it ever breaks down, there would be accessibility issues.

She added that because there is no loading dock at the current facility, goods must be brought downstairs by hand, which can be time consuming.

While plans are still early in the works, the pantry is considering moving to a larger space, potentially to an empty building in the area that the pantry could revitalize, Pashak said.   

The A Community Thrives grant program will be offering $2 million in awards this year to nonprofit groups throughout the country.

Grant recipients will be announced in September.

To donate, visit https://mtyc.co/5ylvmf.