Fortifi Bank’s ‘Supper for 6’ Feeds 200 Families

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A Green Bay, Wisconsin, bank is a hunger hero! Fortifi Bank stepped up to help end hunger with a food drive. The theme of Fortifi Bank’s food drive was “Supper for 6.” Instead of simply collecting random food items, donors were asked to fill a grocery bag with nonperishable food to complete an entire meal. The instructions were simple. Fill a bag with ingredients to make a meal for six people. Drop the bag off at the bank.

Supper for 6 Collects 200 Bags

As a result, the bank collected enough grocery bags of food donations to benefit 13 food pantries. The Supper for 6 food drive yielded over 1,000 nonperishable food items, equaling 200 meals for families of six. Hope Center Pantry received 33 grocery bags of donated meals. Supper for 6 occurred March 13 to April 13 in each of the nine communities where Fortifi Bank operates a branch office.

Organize a Food Drive at Your School or Business

Thanks to the Fortifi Bank for helping address food insecurity in Brown County, Wisconsin, by organizing the Supper for 6 Food Drive. Hope Center Pantry was honored to receive and distribute the donated food to pantry clients. If your school, business, or nonprofit is interested in organizing a food drive or collection drive for Hope Center Pantry, please contact us. Help us serve and guide those who are in need in the Green Bay area.

Keeping Baby Smiling: Love Life Gives Free Diapers to Encompass Childcare

Baby in diaper with mom and dad

Diapers play an essential role in a baby’s healthy development. However, one in three families struggles to provide clean diapers for their baby, according to the National Diaper Bank Network. Babies can use as many as 10 diapers a day – that’s 300 diapers in just a month.

Encompass, Leaders in Early Education and Care

Love Life Ministry helps keep infants and toddlers clean and dry, helping them live healthy, happy lives. Since August of 2020, Love Life Ministry West has been providing free diapers to clients whose children are enrolled at Encompass, Leaders in Early Education and Care. Additionally, Love Life East has helped Encompass families for an even longer period.

Love Life Ministry Partners with Encompass Child Care Center

Basically, here’s how the partnership between Love Life Ministry and Encompass works. Encompass provides a list of clients to both Love Life East and Love Life West on the first of the month. After Love Life receives the list, volunteers print out two labels for each child. The label contains the child’s name, the size of diapers the child wears, and the location of the Encompass Daycare where the child receives child care services. Once the labels are printed, volunteers pull out the correct size diaper and put the labels on the bags of diapers. Each child gets two bags of diapers every month. Encompass picks up the diapers on the second Thursday of the month.

Helping Families with Diapers, Clothing & Child Care Items

Providing diapers for Encompass families has been going very well, and Love Life Ministry is so glad to help. Obviously, the mothers of these children are working and cannot visit Love Live to pick up the diapers in person. We are very happy that we are able to help them. Diapers are not eligible purchases for parents with an FSA (flexible spending account) or HSA (Health Savings Account). Plus, diapers can’t be purchased with FoodShare benefits. That’s what makes this partnership even more important.

Contact Love Life Ministry for Diaper Assistance

If you know of a mom or dad struggling to provide enough clean diapers for their child, or if they need other childcare items, please encourage them to contact Love Life Ministry . Love Life is open from 1-4pm Thursdays at The Hope Center, 505 Clinton St., Green Bay, and Central Church, 831 Schoen St. Green Bay.

Cathy Harrison: Making a Lasting Impact as a Volunteer

volunteer Cathy Harrison at her computer typing data for Hope Center Pantry

Hope Center Pantry volunteers make a lasting impact by feeding the hungry in Brown County, Wisconsin. The pantry offers many different ways to volunteer. Here’s a good example. Cathy Harrison is not your typical volunteer at the Hope Center Pantry. She started about 10 years ago sorting, packing, and distributing food to the needy but now works behind the scenes. She spends her volunteer time on a computer.

Tracking Food & Monetary Donations

Cathy documents the client activity to track how many people Hope Center Pantry helps and the impact the pantry makes. This is critical to ensure that benefactors and organizations providing grants continue to contribute food, money, and time. As a result, Hope Center Pantry can assist more people.

Volunteering for Food Drives

Cathy and her husband, Tom, also pitch in when Hope Center Pantry needs extra help. For example, the annual Boy Scout food drive, Scouting for Food, brings in four pallets of food donations for Hope Center Pantry alone. Hope Center Pantry needs extra volunteers to process the nonperishable food donations from annual food drives.

“It’s a great feeling to help people in need and to do something worthwhile,” Cathy said. “Food is a basic necessity, and the need keeps growing, especially now that everything is getting more expensive. I chose to volunteer at Hope Center Pantry because it’s in my community, and I can see the immediate impact.”

Making Friends, Building Community

Cathy has met a lot of kind people by volunteering for Hope Center Pantry. Volunteers from seven Catholic parishes on the West Side of Green Bay support the pantry’s day-to-day operations. The seven parishes are the Quad Parishes of Annunciation, St. Joseph, and St. Jude, along with Nativity of Our Lord, St. Agnes, St. Patrick, and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. However, volunteers are not required to be a member of one of these Catholic parishes.

Making a Lasting Impact

Contact us about volunteer opportunities or to schedule a visit to the pantry to experience volunteerism first-hand. The pantry is open 1-3pm Monday through Thursday at 505 Clinton St. Green Bay. Read the How You Help information to learn more. Volunteers provide an essential service to those in need in the Green Bay area. Thank you, Cathy, Tom, and all of the volunteers at Hope Center Pantry.

Brown Co. Community Woman’s Club Shows Generosity

Brown County Community Woman’s Club at Hope Center Pantry with donations

When this group of women set out to do good, they surpass all expectations! In April, the Hope Center Pantry was fortunate to be the recipients of a monetary donation and a plethora of food items from the Brown County Community Woman’s Club (BCCWC). What a nice surprise when these women delivered these gifts to Hope Center Pantry!

BCCWC Brightens Kids’ Birthdays

BCCWC also donated six birthday bags. Birthday bags are given to Hope Center Pantry clients who have a child 10 or under in their household. In the child’s birthday month, he or she receives a bag containing a cake mix, frosting, candles and a toy. The majority of these birthday bags are donated by two local high school girls’ soccer teams, Notre Dame Academy and Southwest High School. Read more in this article about Birthday Bags and Christmas gift bags.

14,500+ Volunteer Service Hours Annually

The Brown County Community Woman’s Club is a nonprofit organization that provides charitable services and funding to the community. Eight women established BCCWC in 2008 as a nonsectarian, nonpolitical organization that supports the community while promoting social and personal growth of its members. BCCWC logs more than 14,500 hours of volunteer service annually in Brown County, Wisconsin. To date, the BCCWC has donated more than $478,000 in community awards, all in Brown County.

Thank you, Brown County Community Woman’s Club

Thanks to the Brown County Community Woman’s Club for helping address food insecurity in Brown County, Wisconsin. Hope Center Pantry was honored to receive and distribute the donated food to pantry clients. If your school, business, or nonprofit is interested in organizing a food drive or collection drive for Hope Center Pantry, please contact us. Help us serve and guide those who are in need in the Green Bay, Wisconsin, area.