Food pantries ‘squashed’ as need soars

Ozaukee County may be one of the wealthiest counties in the state, but not everyone shares that wealth. If you need proof, consider this — the Port Washington and Saukville food pantries are so busy they are looking to expand.

“We’re busy and we’re squashed,” Mark Gierach, executive director of the Saukville Food Pantry, said. 

The pantry, which has been operating since 2012, serves 400 to 425 families a month, Gierach said. That’s down from a peak of more than 500 families a month at the height of the pandemic, but no where near the 200 to 225 families it served each month before Covid-19 hit.

Last year, he said, the pantry distributed more than 70 tons of food.

Those families come from throughout Ozaukee County, Gierach said, and at least 40% of them are senior citizens who live on a restricted income that doesn’t stretch far enough.

Roughly half of the Port Food Pantry’s clientele are senior citizens, Director Pat Kozak said, and that’s one reason it wants to expand.

The pantry, which is housed in the lower level of the rectory at St. Peter of Alcantara Catholic Church, is accessible via a steep, narrow staircase that can be difficult for seniors to navigate. 

They want to build a single-story building that would be safer for both clients and the volunteers who staff the pantry, Kozak said, noting only six of the pantry volunteers are younger than 70.

Need is the other reason for the potential expansion, she said.

“It is crowded,” Kozak said.

Unlike the Saukville pantry, the Port facility has not seen a significant increase in clients due to the pandemic, Kozak said.

The pantry serves about 75 people each week, providing more than 2,000 pounds of food at each distribution, she said. Most of its clients are from northern Ozaukee County.

The client numbers have increased, however, since it began providing home deliveries for people who are homebound or can’t get to the church for the distribution, said Phil Groothousen, president of the Food Pantry board of directors.

Currently, the pantry delivers meals to between 20 and 25 clients a week, he said.
Both Gierach and the Port Food Pantry officials said they expect the number of clients will increase in the coming months.

“There are so many factors,” Gierach said. “Everyone’s got 20 different opinions on why. I don’t know which one is right. I just know we’re seeing the need.”   

Each pantry offers a variety of services. In Port, clients can obtain not just food but also such items as clothing, school and household supplies, small appliances and personal care items.

“We try to take care of the whole person,” Groothousen said.

The Saukville Food Pantry offers a community meals program as well as a backpack program that provides food for the weekend for students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals in the Port-Saukville School District’s three elementary schools and Thomas Jefferson Middle School.

Each pantry also offers special things as well during holidays. 

The Saukville Pantry occupies between 6,000 and 7,000 square feet at Parkside Church, but Gierach said it’s a tight fit.

He has to balance the amount of food he orders for various programs the pantry offers depending on the space that’s available. For example, if he’s got a lot of food on hand for the pantry, he limits the amount he orders for the backpack program,.

The pantry is looking for a space in the area that’s between 8,000 and 12,000 square feet, ideally in the Saukville area, Gierach said.

That, he said, would allow the pantry to expand its programming while handling its existing needs.

It could expand the backpack program to other school districts, Gierach said, perhaps implement a mobile pantry and add needed equipment such as a walk-in cooler.

The pantry is working with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Architecture to conduct a needs assessment that would look at everything from what buildings and land are available to the best place for a pantry.

Expansion, which would require a capital campaign to fund, is important, Gierach said.

“If you don’t keep moving forward, you’re standing still,” he said. “I don’t see the needs becoming less — and if they do, it won’t be that much less.”

The two pantries have had talks about potentially sharing a building or merging, but there are obstacles. 

“We’re in the same business but we’re run so differently,” Groothousen said.

Kozak noted that St. John XXIII Parish has a piece of land at its St. Peter campus that it has said the pantry could use for a building.

“We want to stay at St. Peter’s,” she said. “We feel pretty strongly about that because the church has supported us all these years.”

Although she said the expansion plans are “in the very, very infancy stage,” Kozak said the pantry would like to begin construction next year. They would need a capital campaign to raise the funds, she said.

But there are many similarities between the two pantries. Both provide nonperishable and fresh food for their clients, and they depend on donations of food and money to support their operations.

The Saukville Food Pantry has an annual budget of about $100,000, Gierach said, noting the money goes toward everything from rent, insurance, telephone, internet, wages, supplies and food — they buy roughly 60% of the food they distribute.

The pantry has developed partnerships with numerous area businesses, such as Meijer, Feeding America, and numerous other area groceries.

The Port Food Pantry’s budget is minimal, Kozak said, noting the largest expense is food she buys — typically between $600 and $1,200 worth each week.

The pantry is supported by 12 area churches.

But despite their differences, they follow the same mission, Gierach said.

“We all have the same goal —to feed people who need help,” he said.