Some Wisconsin food pantries are experiencing a growing demand for their services year over year, despite the state’s rising wages and low unemployment rate.
Friends With Food, a food bank in Waukesha, is seeing their lines get longer, with a growing proportion of children in need.
Founder and executive director Rochelle Gamauf told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” that the nonprofit is serving more families who are visiting a food pantry for the first time in their lives.
“They were very reluctant to come into our doors, just because they were down to the last food in their cupboards, and they were trying to use every other resource possible before they walked into a food pantry,” Gamauf said. “You could just tell that they were feeling defeated.”
According to census data, Waukesha County has some of the wealthiest communities in the state. But Gamauf said that doesn’t prevent the need for food on the other end of the economic spectrum.
www.wpr.org/news/wisconsin-food-pantry-need-families-high-costs
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