A new pantry for the new year

The Ozaukee Food Alliance is preparing for a special holiday season.

The organization is preparing to move into its new home in the former Tri-Par building on Green Bay Avenue at South Main Street and wrapping up its fundraising operations.

The Alliance’s last pantry at its current location in the basement of Parkside Church in Saukville will be on Thursday, Jan. 11.

Five days later, on Jan. 16, the new pantry will open.

  “We’re close,” Executive Director Mark Gierach said. “We’ve got another four weeks or so of work yet. When we’re done, this will be a brand new building.”

That’s a major accomplishment for the organization. After all, it was just a year ago, the Alliance announced it would buy the former Tri-Par building and convert it to a new pantry, saying it had raised about half of its $1.1 million fundraising goal to make that dream a reality.

Today, the Alliance is less than $100,000 away from its goal and it’s less than a month from opening the doors.

“It’s amazing. You go through these stages — ‘We can’t possibly do this.’ ‘Maybe we can get there’— and now it’s real. It’s been a lot of work, but it’s really gratifying,” Sara Pashak, president of the Alliance’s board of directors, said last week.

“I don’t like asking people for money, but this is an easy ask. People come to us wanting to help,” she added. “I feel like this community just wants to help people.”

Contractors, many of them local, have given them discounts and donations, Pashak noted, allowing the Alliance “to really stretch our donations.”

The new building will provide plenty of space for the Alliance to help those in need. The office space in the new building is larger than the current 6,000-square-foot  “pantry, offices and every nook and cranny,” Gierach said this summer.

“It’s all about expanding capacity,” he said last week. “The more we have, the better we can serve people.”

The new building has about 15,000 square feet and has undergone an incredible transformation over the past year from a dark, industrial space into a light, airy, cheerful place to be.

“Paint and floors do wonders,” Pashak said. “It’s pretty amazing from what it was to now. Just the windows alone have made such a difference.”

Even in July, six months into its transformation, the floor of what is now the pantry floor was largely dirt as the Alliance worked to repair crumbling cement. Today, it’s a polished concrete floor that gleams.

The office spaces are now clean and bright, providing room for not only Gierach and other administrative workers but also a conference room.

There’s so much space, as a matter of fact, the Alliance is seeking another nonprofit group that might be interested in renting a bit of the space.

That, Pashak noted, will not only make use of all the space but also help the Alliance generate additional revenue.

There are two office spaces in the new building, one of which has been transformed into a storage area complete with freezer and refrigeration spaces.

In the other warehouse space, overhead doors with plenty of glass combine with large windows to allow natural light to flood the space.

The doors, which are adjacent to the community dining area, can be opened for large events.

“I can’t wait for a summer meal when we can open the door and spill outside,” Pashak said.

The dining area can seat 75 to 80 people, she said, noting that the Alliance typically serves about 100 people during the community meals — about 40 who dine in person and 60 who receive to-go meals.

There’s a kitchenette on one side ideal for heating foods for the community meals the Alliance hosts, and behind the meal area is the pantry, with space for two pantries maintained by the Alliance, the mini and full pantries.

Racks for the food are set up, and signs outline where various food products will be stocked. A wall with display freezers and refrigerators is set up, although not all the equipment is installed yet.

And behind the pantry area is a storage space where excess school supplies and other items will be placed.

The new pantry also has a spot for the pantries hydroponic garden, which the Ozaukee Master Gardeners care for. They have two of these gardens now, Pashak said, and hope to get one or two more in the next year.

Fresh lettuce is the major product of the garden, Pashak said, adding, “It’s like picking it out of your garden. There’s nothing like it, especially in winter.”

There’s also a new loading dock with a vestibule-like area that Pashak said alone makes a huge difference.

“If we just had this improvement, it would be a game changer,” she said, noting that currently volunteers transfer donated food to grocery carts, then move them to the church basement via an elevator.

The Alliance plans to pay homage to the building’s past — it was originally a book bindery and later the headquarters for Glander Metal and then Tri-Par — through the decor.

But even as the building nears completion, Gierach and Pashak said it has already served to help bring their mission of helping those in need to the forefront in a county that’s one of the wealthiest in Wisconsin.

“Being the wealthiest county means it’s hard to be poor here,” Pashak said.

This year, the Alliance distributed 230 tons of food and served a record 2,465 individual people, she said, attributing it to the rising cost of living and the economy.

“The need ebbs and flows,” she said. “A lot of patrons visit every month. A lot of patrons come every week. Some just visit the mobile pantry in summer. Some come just once. Some only take part in the school program.

“We have clients from every zip code in Ozaukee County. I think people just know we’re here for them. But there’s a lot left to do.

“I think there are probably thousands more people we could be serving. We do a lot of stuff and we’re always looking for ways to meet the need.”