Project teams

 

Mobile Pantry

Mobile Pantry Logo The Mobile Pantry continues its successful efforts of delivering food to rural areas. Volunteers needed! Donations always accepted. Due to the economic crunch around our nation, having enough food to eat has become a crisis for many families. The Mobile Pantry of Portage County wants to reach out and help. The Pantry is operated by the Hunger and Poverty Prevention Partnership and seeks to ensure that rural residents of Portage County have access to food assistance if needed. Everyone needs a little help sometimes... we're here for you.

Mobile Pantry is currently looking for a new van to distribute groceries to those in need.
If you or someone you know is looking to make a donation, please let us know!

Beneficiaries of the Mobile Pantry

• An individual loses their spouse and his income. There is no stable monthly income to provide for basic necessities.
• An unforeseen surgery leaves a family member only able to work part time. The other family member coincidentally loses their job.
• An individual is on a fixed income, not in the best of health, and has to rely on volunteer drivers for all means of travel.

Currently the Mobile Pantry delivers to these outlying areas: Junction City, Rosholt, Amherst, Amherst Junction and Almond-Bancroft. Deliveries are made on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of the month.

95% of the households served by Mobile Pantry deliveries reported these deliveries have
or are currently preventing hunger in their household. While the unemployment rate
was “only” 5%, the food insecurity rate among Portage County residents was 36%.

To find out if you are eligible for resources from the Mobile Pantry call (715) 341-9922. All inquiries and deliveries are confidential.

FAQ's

Where is the Mobile Pantry Located?
The Portage County Mobile Pantry, 817 Whiting Avenue, Stevens Point, Wisconsin 54481, is a non-profit, tax exempt, organization that seeks to ensure that rural residents of Portage County have their food assistance needs met.

Where can referrals and volunteers be directed?
The Portage County Mobile Pantry coordinator is Marcy Ferriter, 440 Old Wausau Road, Stevens Point, Wisconsin (54481); telephone number (715) 341-9922.

What is the Purpose fo the Mobile Pantry?
The Portage County Mobile Pantry seeks to ensure that rural residents of Portage County have access to food assistance when needed. We have developed a special bond with this community. We hope to enrich their live. The rural people that Mobile Pantry helps with are low income, have no money for gas, do not have transportation or unreliable transportation, and do not have available means to come into the local food pantries. The people of Portage County that we deliver to are elderly, who may have a medical condition,
be disabled, no transportation, no money for gas and do not have families to rely on. We help families that are low income, perhaps are dealing with job loss, disabilities, and poor health. At this point we are able to make a delivery once a month.

What is the Experience of the Mobile Pantry?
The Portage County Mobile Pantry is a non-profit community outreach program
that consists of a coordinator, Marcy Ferriter, and eight volunteers, and, as stated above, is located in the basement of the Portage County Health and Human Services building. The coordinator can be found sorting, checking dates and shelving food as items are delivered. The second and fourth Thursday of each month, Ms. Ferriter, and the volunteers package grocery and sort through day old produce that is donated by a local grocery store. The Mobile Pantry has been in existence since 2000. In the first year, The Portage County Mobile Pantry provided food for 30-40 households per month -- those numbers have now grown to 60 households per month. We help as many as 179 people per month. We are
careful not to duplicate existing efforts, but rather to reach those who are in need.

In our ten years we have made delivers of emergency food more than 4,800 times. Mobile Pantry supplies supplemental food to rural people who qualify. Rural households in need are referred by case workers at the Portage County Health and Human Services and Community Care of Central Wisconsin. The recipients of the Mobile Pantry in Portage County we deliver to are typically elderly and low income, who may have a medical condition, be disabled, and do not have extended families to rely on. We deliver to the outlying areas of Portage County. These recipients may have no means of transportation and no money for gas or unreliable transportation.

Does Mobile Pantry have any goals for 2011?
The Name of Mobile Pantry’s 2011 project is “Adding Nutrition One Pound at a Time.” Here is a description of the established time frame and goals the project is designed to achieve. The Mobile Pantry going forward from 2010 would like to include one pound of ground meat, one pound of cheese, and one pound of a fresh fruit or vegetables to our rural household’s monthly food bags. If we could provide those three items once a month it would greatly improve the nutritional value for our in- need rural families’ diets. We have discovered, through the generosity of The Green Bay Packer Foundation, receiving their 2009 thousand dollar grant and delivering the funded meat and cheese, that there is a great need and appreciation of fresh nutritional food. The main diet of people in poverty is not healthy, long on starchy and fatty foods and short on proteins, fresh fruits and vegetables. We would like to ease that need by delivering one pound of ground meat, one pound of cheese, and one pound of a fresh fruit or vegetable, to families that need it. Currently we are running 158 to 179 people in 55-60 households.

Who will benefit from this project?
More than 60 rural households in outlying rural area households like Rosholt, Amherst, Amherst Junction, Almond, Bancroft, and Junction City would be benefiting greatly from the addition of protein and fresh produce to their diets. How many times have we heard, “People who eat fruits and vegetables as part of a balanced eating plan are less likely to develop conditions such as stroke, coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, bone loss,
and cancers of the mouth, stomach, and colon? In addition, these highly nutritious foods may reduce the risk of developing kidney stones.

The myth is that rural Poverty rates are particularly low in the Midwest compared to other regions, is this true?
In actuality, poverty in the rural Midwest region is more likely to be hidden than lower in incidence. Only the South, with 51.2 percent of all rural poverty, has more individuals living in poverty in rural areas. The North Central region is home to 25.8 percent of all people living in poverty in rural areas. A 1992 study points out that, characteristics such as norms against conspicuous consumption, the ideology that hard work will automatically result in financial growth, and the prevailing view that "we're all just folks" combine to hide what can be large differences in income and wealth within communities.

Updates

We always in need of additional drivers, and a packer or two would be great as well.  If interested, contact Marcy Ferriter at 341-9922 or agy-joe@charter.net

Mobile Pantry is doing fine,  We have some new packers and interested drivers. This is good as it will give our present drivers some time off here and there. And our new packers are great and fit right in.

We have seen an increase in families with children needing assistance.  But we have also seen a couple of our families find work and were able to be on their own and not need our services any longer.

Mobile Pantry is now part of the Roundy's Foundation - donation of a pallet of food items and a check to go with that.  That will be so helpful to our pantry.

We have a new goal , "Adding Nutrition one pound at a time."  We are striving to provide foods that are more nutritious, e.g. meat, cheese, fresh fresh produce, etc., than just things like Mac and cheese and soups.  This last Thursday we received WONDERFUL fresh organic produce through the Farmshead program. The amount and quality of that produce was such a delight and so beneficial to our clients.  Thank you Eric!

We still depend on the community for food and monetary donations.  We are Thankful for the support we receive.  However,  we need to keep people/ organizations/businesses informed as to what Mobile Pantry is all about and what it can do for someone in need, as well as we can use their help in the form of a food drive, special collections, and the like. So spread the word. Thank you.

Marcy Ferriter