A Marinette food pantry has been flooded with demand after another area food pantry resources closed for good.
St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry in Marinette is experiencing record-breaking food pantry visits this year.
For the entire 2021 calendar year, the SVdP pantry was visited around 3,600 times. As of September 2022, the pantry has nearly hit 5,000 visits with three months remaining. This puts the pantry on track to exceed 6,100 visits.
Demand has been steadily increasing throughout 2022, but the closure of another food pantry resource in Marinette, the Newcap Food Pantry, has spiked demand.
“We were blindsided by the closure of Newcap in June,” Executive Director, Ashley Berken, said. “We have been keeping up as much as we can, but when we budget for 3,000 visitors and 6,000 show up – we need to get creative and fast.”
As for the estimated 6,100 visits, Berken said this is a more conservative estimate.
“It is September, the start of our busiest months of the year,” Berken said. “We want to be able to continue providing holiday meals to our neighbors in need, but we are going to need the community to step in and help us battle the continued War on Hunger.”
In recent years, SVdP has provided Thanksgiving and Christmas Holiday baskets for pantry visitors that include ingredients for a well-rounded holiday meal. However, increased grocery costs and demand have made this goal seem harder to achieve than ever.
“We will never stop providing holiday food for our visitors,” Berken said. “Each year, we worry that we won’t be able to make our limited financial reserves stretch, but God always provides. It’s up to us to keep praying and asking the public to help every member of our community have a warm meal this holiday season.”
If you’d like to donate to the SVdP Food Pantry, please mail a check or money order to PO Box 1111, Marinette, WI, 54143 or donate online at svdpmarinette.com/donatepantry.
St. Vincent de Paul Society of Marinette is located in the historical district of downtown Marinette and has been serving the area for 100 years. SVdP is a nonprofit operating programs like the area’s largest food pantry, thrift store, systemic change program, mattress program and more.
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