Local campuses join award-winning efforts to keep students fed

The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire has been named a recipient of the 2024 Organization of the Year Award from Feed My People Food Bank for its efforts to fight hunger in west-central Wisconsin, and it's part of the effort to keep students and their families fed in Rice Lake and northwestern Wisconsin.

Feed My People and its board of directors selected both UW-Eau Claire and Chippewa Valley Technical College to receive Organization of the Year awards for their "invaluable contributions" to the mission of the food bank. The institutions "went above and beyond to engage their faculty and staff, and bring greater awareness and resources to our community," according to Feed My People.

In Rice Lake, UW-Eau Claire – Barron County likewise hosts a food pantry for students, as does Northwood Technical College.

"We've been offering food assistance funded by donations to our Foundation since around 2016, and began partnering with Feed My People Food Bank as a community agency in 2017," said Barb Ritzinger, executive director of the UW-Eau Claire – Barron County Foundation.

The Campus Cupboard food pantry makes quite an impact.

The monthly averages for Campus Cupboard between July 2023 and June 2024 were tallied at 104 visits, serving 37 households and 84 individuals, and 277 pounds of food were distributed. And the need for the campus food pantry is rising rapidly.

"We've definitely seen an increase in usage this academic year," Ritzinger said.

So far between July 1 and Nov. 30, monthly averages included 136 visits, serving 44 household and 83 individuals, and 367 pounds of food have been distributed.

"Our highest number of visits and distribution ever recorded was October 2024, with 226 recorded visits impacting 63 households, 115 individuals with 700 pounds of food distributed," she said.

Feed My People is not the Campus Cupboard's only source of food.

"In May 2023, we began receiving food donations from the Rice Lake Dollar General as part of Feeding America's Food Rescue program," Ritzinger said. "With this, pantries are partnered with local retailers to receive food that is at or near 'sell-by' or 'best-by' dates, damaged packages, discontinued products, or items that are still good but otherwise would end up the landfill. We pick up those food donations weekly to distribute in our pantry.

"So far in 2024, we've received nearly 5,500 pounds of food including milk and orange juice, yogurt, snack foods, and frozen entrees. These generous donations help add to the variety of food we have available while reducing the amount of food going to the landfill."

Blaze's Cupboard, a service dedicated to helping ensure every student has access to nutritious meals at no cost, opened at Northwood Technical College's Rice Lake campus in November 2023.

The creation of Blaze's Cupboard stemmed from an anonymous donation of $100,000, allowing for the creation of a food pantry on campus. The donation arrived by mail in March 2023 with the only restriction that it be used for the Rice Lake campus.

Blaze's Cupboard, too, works in partnership with Feed My People.

Feed My People has served as a leader in hunger-relief efforts across west-central Wisconsin for 40 years. The food bank distributes seven million pounds of food every year through a network of partners, including community food pantries, meal sites, shelters and other programs. More than 75,000 individuals in a 14-county service area around Eau Claire rely on food supplied by the food bank.