The Heidemans: Hope Center Pantry Volunteers on the Go

Hope Center Pantry volunteers Charlie and Ann Heideman

Charlie and Ann Heideman have been pantry volunteers at Hope Center Pantry since it opened at its present location at 505 Clinton St., Green Bay. They are members of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Parish, Green Bay. The Heidemans have three children, five grandchildren, and were recently blessed with a great-grandchild. They are fortunate that the whole family lives in the area, with the exception of one grandson who lives in Indiana. Charlie and Ann enjoy getting together for family events and going to the grandkids’ school activities.

Volunteering for Green Bay Nonprofits

Charlie worked for Wisconsin Public Service for 36 years in engineering and managerial roles. Volunteering is an important part of the Heidemans’ lives. They served in different capacities at The Salvation Army, American Red Cross, ASPIRO, Jaycees, St. John’s Homeless Shelter, NEW Community Shelter and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish.

Traveling, Hiking & Enjoying Retirement

After retiring in 1999, they had time to travel with their truck camper. One of their favorite trips is a three-month trip to Alaska, with stops at many places on the way. Another favorite trip is a trip to the Grand Canyon which included hikes into the Canyon with overnight tenting. The longest hike was across the Canyon. They spent four days hiking and three nights tenting.

Pantry Volunteers Build Cabin on the Lake

Retirement also allowed them time to build a new cottage on Half Moon Lake in Oconto County. The cottage project lasted about 10 years. After having a shell built to replace the existing cottage, Charlie and Ann worked on all of the inside and outside finishing. They even built cabinets, with the help of a woodworking class at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College. Charlie and Ann say they are truly blessed and grateful for all of their blessings.

Contact Hope Center Pantry to Volunteer

Are you ready to join Charlie, Ann, and the other pantry volunteers who are feeding the hungry of Green Bay, Wisconsin? Contact us today to learn about the volunteer opportunities available at Hope Center Pantry.

CP Center, Green Bay: Food Drive & Pantry Tour

CP Center, Green Bay tours Hope Center Pantry

The Cerebral Palsy Center’s Life Skills class organized a food drive for Hope Center Pantry in February. The class donated 23 bags of food and 10 huge boxes of paper products and personal hygiene items for Pantry clients. All of the donations will help those in need in the Green Bay community.

Students from the CP Center Life Skills class delivered their donations to the Pantry in person on March 3. They toured the Pantry and learned what’s involved in running the Pantry and serving clients. They were all so attentive and respectful during the tour. Afterwards, they helped unpack and sort some of their donations.

This was truly a great experience for all involved. Their caring and compassion makes a positive impact, and we are incredibly thankful for their generosity. Together, we are creating positive change and making a real difference!

Student Learns Social Justice Through Community Service

Student volunteer earning community service hours at Hope Center Pantry

Hope Center Pantry is always eager to help students fulfill their Community Service hours for school. Recently, a sophomore at Notre Dame Academy volunteered at the pantry. Brianna needed four hours of volunteering for her social justice community service requirement. She was able to help out at the Pantry doing a little of everything. She stocked shelves, packed client boxes, made chili packs and delivered orders to clients.

Brianna witnessed social justice issues firsthand. She saw the good that comes from Hope Center Pantry serving those in need in Brown County.

Hope Center Pantry is always willing to help youth in our area fulfill their community service requirements. Contact us to schedule volunteer hours.

Hunger Task Force Donates Veggies on Valentine’s Day

canned food donations from Hunger Task Force

Hunger Task Force made Valentine’s Day a bit sweeter for Hope Center Pantry. The task force donated a pallet of 36 boxes of canned vegetables to our pantry. Each box had roughly 30 15-ounce cans. That means the pantry received approximately 1,100 cans!

The timing was perfect, because pantry managers were just about to place their next bulk order for canned vegetables. The donated canned vegetables, which filled the pantry’s back storage room, are being distributed to Pantry clients.

New Partnership with Hunger Task Force

The Hunger Task Force, a food bank based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, recently expanded its outreach to Northeast Wisconsin. We eagerly joined up with the organization and are grateful for their food donation. Hunger Task Force believes that every person has a right to healthy food obtained with dignity. The task force works to prevent hunger and malnutrition by providing food to people in need today and by promoting social policies to achieve a hunger free community tomorrow.

Pantry Is Open Monday-Thursday Afternoon

Hope Center Pantry, 505 Clinton St., Green Bay, is open from 1-3pm Monday through Thursday. Stop by the pantry during business hours to register as a client or volunteer.

Women’s Club Fights Hunger in Green Bay

women's club donated food to Hope Center Pantry

The Brown County Community Women’s Club (BCCWC) organized a food drive on Jan. 15. BCCWC donated 50 bags of food, along with 21 colorful birthday bags, to Hope Center Pantry. The Pantry truly appreciates the women’s club’s kindness and generosity. Their commitment to helping those in need makes a huge impact on our community. With these food donations, countless families will be able to enjoy nourishing meals. The club’s compassion truly makes the world a better place.

Would your nonprofit organization like to organize a food drive to help fight hunger in Green Bay? Contact us for more information.

Food Drive: Bags for a Brighter Holiday

nonperishable food from Save A Lot Food drive

On Jan. 7, 2025, Hope Center Pantry received a call that filled our hearts with gratitude. The Pantry’s neighborhood grocery store, Save A Lot, offered us a substantial amount of food for its holiday food drive. The grocery store collected the food donations during its 7th annual Bags for a Brighter Holiday food drive. This nationwide food drive program is a powerful reminder of how communities can come together to support those in need. The Pantry is honored to be the recipient of this generosity.

Milk Voucher Partnership with Grocer

For over three years, Hope Center Food Pantry has partnered with Save A Lot to provide a simple but essential resource for our pantry clients: pre-paid gallon milk voucher cards. This partnership has allowed us to offer a critical item, fresh milk, in a way that gives our clients the flexibility to choose the milk they prefer when they need it most.

Contact Us to Organize a Food Drive

Together, we’re not just providing food; we’re offering hope, dignity, and the resources our neighbors need to thrive, one meal at a time! Contact us to organize a food drive at your business. Hope Center Pantry relies on food donations from the community year-round. Please consider helping us alleviate poverty and hunger in Green Bay.

Fighting Hunger: Pantry Feeds 16,000 in 2024

Landon packing boxes at Hope Center Food Pantry

Thousands of people in Green Bay, Wisconsin, face hunger. They struggled to put food on their tables in 2024. In fact, Hope Center Pantry served a staggering 16,406 people in 2024, according to pantry records. Hope Center Pantry, formerly operating as St. Patrick’s Pantry, is a hunger-relief organization serving Brown County, Wisconsin, since the 1970s. In 2024, the pantry provided food to 4,817 clients, representing 16,406 when factoring in the number of household members. Hope Center Pantry collaborates with other social service organizations to find ways to break the cycle of poverty. We’re making progress, but we still have work to do to end food insecurity for the people in the Green Bay area.

2024 Food Pantry Statistics

  • 4,817 clients served in 2024, a decrease of 111 from 2023
  • 16,406 people served, based on number of people in the clients’ households
  • 87 active food pantry volunteers
  • 751 new clients registered, a decrease of 67 from 2023

Breaking the Cycle of Poverty

Hope Center Pantry believes that access to nutritious food is critical to good health and well-being. We strive to get food into the homes of people who need it. We are extremely fortunate to have the support from seven West Side Catholic parishes: Annunciation, St. Agnes, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, St. Joseph, St. Jude, Nativity of Our Lord, and St. Patrick and many others in the community. Join us in fighting hunger in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Please consider a donation of nonperishable food, time, or financial resources. Contact us to learn more.

Shirts to Spare for the Non-Sheltered Homeless

Non-Sheltered Homeless can receive a T-Shirt from rack at Hope Center Pantry

Occasionally, Hope Center Pantry clients ask volunteers if the pantry has a shirt to spare. These requests typically come from the non-sheltered guests we serve. Well, now we do!

Shirts for Non-sheltered Clients & Other Hope Center Pantry Clients

Hope Center Pantry now has new and nearly new shirts that were donated to the pantry to distribute to those in need. The shirts are available in various sizes and warmth, both short-sleeved and long-sleeved. Panty volunteers can give the shirts to non-sheltered clients and other clients. Volunteers simply ask clients for their size shirt and grab a shirt off the rack for them.

Empowering & Supporting Those in Need

The shirts are just one more example of how Hope Center Pantry lives out its mission: To serve and guide those who are in need, empower and support others. Are you interested in helping us fulfill our mission? Hope Center Pantry, located in Green Bay, Wisconsin, operates solely by volunteers. (Meet our volunteers.) Please contact us to learn about volunteer opportunities.

Hope Center Pantry volunteers

Volunteers Invited to Join New Leadership Team

Originally published in On Mission magazine. Reprinted with permission.

By Jeff Kurowski | On Mission

The value to the community of Hope Center Pantry is clear in the words of the people it serves.

“Your pantry means food in between paying bills and working to keep up. I’m so very grateful for all who volunteer at the pantry. May God bless you all.”

Lisa A

“As a Vietnam veteran, I am thankful and grateful for the food and items the Hope Center Pantry provides. Thank you.”

David B.

“I use the pantry, and I appreciate how organized it is. With my already stressed life, I know that when I go there, I’ll be able to do some laundry or get dish soap to do my dishes, and cook a few meals.”

Billie Sue W.

“Going to your pantry, you make people feel like people are human, and not people who are in need of help and afraid to ask.”

Janine A.

Pantry Leadership Structure Change

As long as the food assistance needs exist, Hope Center Pantry, located at 505 Clinton St. on Green Bay’s west side, will continue to provide groceries and hygiene items, but the leadership structure will change in 2025 and volunteers are still needed to fill three positions. Janice and Chris Clemens, members of Nativity of Our Lord Parish, Ashwaubenon, have served as directors of the Hope Center Pantry since June 1, 2021. They will be stepping down at the four-year mark.

Janice Clemens, and her husband, Chris Clemens, began serving as directors of Hope Center Pantry in June of 2021. They will step down after four years. A new structure that features nine volunteer leadership positions is being implemented. A leadership structure that includes a director and eight other positions succeeds the couple.

Succession Board Forms

“About two years ago, we got together and did a focus group,” said Janice. “We went through all the things that we do. We developed some ideas to take to the (Hope Center Board) for recommendations moving forward. One of the (focus group participants) was a businessman who recently retired. He said, ‘It’s just too much to ask all those duties of one person or one couple. How about we break it down?’” As a result, a succession board was formed to help create and fill the new volunteer positions. The Hope Center Pantry currently has 100 volunteers who serve 400 families each month, which equates to about 1,200 people.

3 Volunteer Positions to Fill

Six of the nine volunteer positions have been filled. One-year commitments are sought for the following:

  • Keeping the pantry stocked
  • Writing the quarterly newsletter
  • Coordinating volunteers

Job descriptions created for each of the nine positions include the estimated number of weekly hours, ranging from one to 12, to complete the tasks.

“These jobs may look scary on paper, but when you actually do them, they’re easy to step into. We have step-by-step what to do. We have everything documented,” said Chris.

“By breaking it into the different positions, if someone leaves, you only have one person you need to replace, not somebody who does everything,” he said.

“We’ve tapped into our volunteers over and over again, but need to look outside that group,” said Janice.

Third Largest Food Pantry in Green Bay

Hope Center Pantry is the third largest food pantry in Brown County after Paul’s Pantry and Manna For Life. It is the former St. Patrick Food Pantry, which was founded nearly 28 years ago at St. Patrick Parish.

The pantry moved to the Hope Center, which when the facility opened in August of 2016. Janice and Chris succeeded Donna Kessler, who served as pantry director for 20 years.

Catholic Parishes Support the Pantry

The Hope Center building, which houses Hope Center Pantry and Love Life Ministry West, is supported through Catholic outreach of the west side Catholic parishes of Annunciation, St. Joseph, St. Jude, St. Patrick, St. Agnes, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and Nativity of Our Lord. Regular donations for the food pantry are provided by Annunciation, St. Agnes, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, St. Joseph and St. Jude parishes; St. Norbert College, De Pere; and St. Matthew and Resurrection parishes, both in Allouez.

The pantry is open from 1 to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday.

A Reward for Volunteerism

“We will be around to guide people,” said Janice about the months before their four-year service term ends. “They can watch us do the job and then we can let them do it. I feel proud of what we can hand off.”

Chris said the reward for their volunteerism is their relationships with other volunteers and clients.

“The clients usually come the same day of the week. I know most of the people who come on Tuesdays (a regular shift he and Janice work) by name and they all know me,” he said. “If they get a new job, they tell us, “I might not need to come back.’ We say, ‘Well, you keep coming until you don’t need to.’”

“We have clients who are nonsheltered homeless, so they aren’t able to cook, freeze or refrigerate anything,” said Janice. “We took the order (of a homeless man) and he asked for pancake mix. ‘A friend let me move in, so now I can do that,’ he said. “We celebrate that with them. He can now have something more than a pop-top can of chicken or tuna that goes on crackers.

A Good Cause & Well-Run Operation

“We need to get the message out that there’s this very good cause and it’s a very well-run operation,” said Janice.

If you are interested in any of the three open volunteer leadership positions or for more information, email hopecenterpantrygb@gmail.com or call (920) 437-3356.

Volunteer Recognized at Gifts of Gratitude

Hope Center Pantry volunteer Nancy Selinsky and John Selinsky at the Gifts of Gratitude Pop-up Event

Hope Center Pantry submanager Nancy Selinsky was honored to attend the Gifts of Gratitude Pop-up Event at the Western Racket & Fitness Club on Dec. 16. She was selected from an overwhelming number of submissions.

Pantry Volunteer Shows Kindness to Others

Nancy is one of the countless individuals who quietly does good work each day in our community. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of volunteering at the Pantry with Nancy, her kindness, willingness to help, and positive attitude make her so enjoyable to work with. At Gifts of Gratitude Pop-up Event, Nancy selected one of the many items donated by sponsoring organizations. Nancy and her husband, John, chose a Coach backpack.

If you’re interested in volunteering at the pantry, please contact us for more information.