Hope Center Pantry gave Green Bay-area residents something to smile about, thanks two Brown County, Wisconsin, dental offices. When the Hope Center Pantry ran incredibly low on toothbrushes, a pantry volunteer contacted Green Bay dentists. As a result, Brodhagen Dental Care of Ashwaubenon and Kids Dental Experts of Green Bay and De Pere donated toothbrushes, toothpaste, and dental floss.
Dental Offices Donate to Pantry
Hope Center Pantry is so grateful for these donations of nonfood items from these two local dentists. The Hope Center Pantry clients received these oral hygiene items as bonus items, in addition to the traditional food items they received.
Toothbrushes, Toothpaste, Dental Floss
Dental hygiene is so important because the health of the teeth and gums impacts an individual’s overall health, medical costs, and quality of life. Proper oral hygiene includes daily brushing and flossing to maintain the health of the teeth and gums. Good oral health enables a person to speak, smile, smell, eat and communicate more easily. Poor oral health can lead to serious consequences. Individuals without access to toothbrushes, toothpaste, and dental floss can experience mouth pain and discomfort. Ultimately, they may end up suffering from costly health conditions.
Thanks, Brodhagen & Kids Dental Experts
Hope Center Pantry loves to see clients smiling! Donations from Brodhagen Dental Care of Ashwaubenon and Kids Dental Experts of Green Bay and De Pere help to make smiles possible.
Donate Food & Non-food Items to Pantry
How can your business or nonprofit organization put smiles on the faces of those in need in Green Bay and Brown County, Wisconsin? The Pantry accepts food and non-food donations alike. Here is a Wish List of Hope Center Pantry’s current needs.
Hope Center Pantry found a bright way to help Green Bay, Wisconsin, families stretch their budgets a little farther. Focus on Energy donated several shipments of 60-watt LED light bulbs to Hope Center Pantry, through a Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin distribution. Residential LED light bulbs use approximately 75% less energy than incandescent light bulbs and last approximately 25% longer. So, think of the money families will save on their electric bills by burning these energy efficient LED bulbs.
A Gift for Tough Economic Times
“We know in these tough economic times it’s important to help our neighbors,” said a Focus on Energy representative. Focus on Energy offers rebates and incentives for energy-saving projects and products. Smart energy decisions, like installing LED light bulbs in homes and businesses in Wisconsin, yield enduring economic benefits.
Pantry Thanks Focus on Energy
Hope Center Pantry, Green Bay, greatly appreciates Focus on Energy’s donation. The pantry’s clients were so grateful to receive the light bulbs. The gift of LED light bulbs helps families stretch their budgets and hopefully, direct the savings to put a meal on the table.
Donate a Food or Non-Food Item Today
How can your business or nonprofit organization shine light on those in need in Green Bay and Brown County, Wisconsin? The Pantry accepts food and non-food donations alike. Here is a Wish List of Hope Center Pantry’s current needs.
Hope Center Pantry volunteers are wizards at implementing solutions to food distribution issues. For example, the pantry considered different ways to make it easier for individuals to carry bags when they walk or bike to Hope Center Pantry. Have you ever tried to balance a paper grocery bag filled with food on a bike? It’s a challenge! Plus, grocery bags become quite heavy to carry even a short distance. Paper grocery bags are cumbersome to transport and if their handles tear, they’re even more cumbersome.
Donation from Bellin Health
Acknowledging the challenges of paper bags for food transportation, Hope Center Pantry contacted the folks that organize the Bellin Run and other races. The Bellin Run is a 10K race held the second Saturday in June that attracts more than 10,000 walkers, runners, and wheelchair participants. Bellin Health and the Green Bay Packers formed a partnership in 2012 to create Titletown Wellness. In addition to organizing the Bellin Run, Titletown Wellness hosts other running events in the spring and fall. So, when we contacted Bellin about donating bags for groceries, they provided over 300 cinch bags that were left over from the Bellin Women’s Half Marathon. Bellin Health consistently comes through to support community needs, and Hope Center Pantry is thankful for the health system’s generosity.
Durable, Reusable Singles Bags for Food
The Bellin Health cinch bags work great for packing “singles bags.” A singles bag is just what it sounds like. It is packed with food amounts for our clients that only have one person in their household. The bags are durable and can easy to carry like a backpack, which is especially beneficial for clients who walk or ride their bike to collect their food from Hope Center Pantry. It is an understatement to say that these sturdy bags are an immense improvement over paper bags. As an added bonus, clients can reuse these bags for other purposes.
The Pantry is always in need of donations. View our Wish List for ideas today.
In a technology-driven world, you wouldn’t think that a printed brochure would be of much use. Yet Hope Center Pantry finds great value in its professional flier and the relationships the pantry built when developing the flier.
2 Donations from Pioneer Metal Finishing
Hope Center Pantry partnered with Pioneer Metal Finishing to produce the professional flier. Pioneer Metal Finishing is a Green Bay, Wisconsin-based custom metal finishing company with 11 facilities in the U.S. and Mexico. A Pioneer Metal Finishing employee created the flier on behalf of Hope Center Pantry. The Pioneer Metal Finishing team was so impressed with Hope Center Pantry’s professionalism and how quickly the Pantry published the brochure on its website. In fact, Pioneer Metal Finishing donated its company’s December 2021 collection of nonperishable food to Hope Center Pantry. The pantry is so grateful for both charitable gestures.
Pantry Brochure Printed in English & Spanish
Because Northeast Wisconsin is home to many Hispanic families, Hope Center Pantry wanted to publish the brochure in both English and Spanish. Hope Center Pantry worked with the Green Bay Area Public School District staff to translate the English text to Spanish. This is just another example of a mutually beneficial relationship sustained by Hope Center Pantry. Read how Hope Center Pantry provides family meal kits to help parents who struggle to feed their kids.
Organizations that serve the under-privileged in Brown County
Green Bay West Side Catholic Churches in the Diocese of Green Bay: Hope Center Pantry collaborates with Annunciation, St. Agnes, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, St. Joseph, St. Jude, Nativity of Our Lord, and St. Patrick.
Sponsor a Corporate Food Drive
The brochure concisely communicates information about Hope Center Pantry services, hours of operation, and eligibility requirements. Additionally, the flier sends the message that the pantry is professional, forward-looking nonprofit organization. Hope Center Pantry is grateful to Pioneer Metal Finishing for its generosity and encourages other Green Bay corporations to follow suit. Please consider sponsoring a corporate food drive or contributing to the pantry in some other way. Here is our Wish List of current needs.
Volunteering at Hope Center Pantry is so rewarding, but a couple of experiences really make volunteering worthwhile. We wish everyone could experience the joy that a Christmas-time gift bag brought to our female clients. In December 2021 we gave 45 gift bags to our female clients. These were nicely boxed gift sets of pump body lotion and soap that we received for free from Feeding America. The clients were so appreciative that it really made us feel good about the work we do at the pantry.
Christmas & Birthday Gift Bags
Christmas only comes once a year, and the same goes for birthdays. You should see a child’s face light up when they see a birthday bag included with their family’s food. It’s priceless! Two Green Bay soccer teams made it possible. The high school girls’ soccer teams kicked it up a notch with their Hope Center Pantry donation! Girls from the Notre Dame Academy and Southwest High School girls’ soccer teams filled 101 birthday bags and donated them to Hope Center Pantry.
Birthday gift bags donated to Hope Center Pantry from high school soccer teams.
101 Cake Mixes, Frosting, Candles & Gifts
Each bag contained a cake mix, frosting, candles and an age-appropriate gift. Panty volunteers distribute the birthday gift bags to families with children age 10 and under for their birthday month. The clients were thrilled to have these items to make their child’s birthday feel more special.
Making Birthdays Extra Special
As a nice addition to the birthday bags, Hope Center Pantry gives each child a Beanie Baby. A generous pantry supporter donated a bunch of Beanie Babies to the pantry. When volunteers grab a gift bag for a child, they also grab one of these Beanie Babies to add to the bag. It makes their birthday extra special!
What’s a Thanksgiving Day feast in Wisconsin without turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie? Hope Center Pantry, Green Bay, Wisconsin, didn’t want its clients to go without the traditional Thanksgiving Day meal because they lacked financial resources. According to the Wisconsin Farm Bureau, the average cost of a Thanksgiving Day meal for 10 people in 2021 was $53.31. Unfortunately, that’s beyond the means of many residents of Brown County, Wisconsin. So, in November of 2021, Hope Center Pantry used monetary donations collected from generous pantry patrons to purchase a variety of turkey options for clients’ Thanksgiving Day meals.
Helping Families Celebrate Thanksgiving Day
Hope Center Pantry purchased frozen whole turkeys (10-16 pounds), 3-pound frozen turkey breasts, and 2-pound turkey hams (similar to a deli meat). Then, Hope Center Pantry distributed the turkeys to clients in November. The pantry’s clients were taken aback by this additional meat item. They were so grateful they could celebrate a traditional Thanksgiving Day meal with their families. In total, Hope Center Pantry contributed Thanksgiving Day food for 122 meals.
Giving Away Turkeys & All the Fixings
In addition to turkey, Hope Center Pantry gave clients several other Thanksgiving Day foods which pantry volunteers had collected throughout 2021. Hope Center Pantry clients received turkey, pumpkin, cranberries, evaporated milk, stuffing mix, gravy, and sweet potatoes. Hope Center Pantry’s Thanksgiving Day meal distribution:
67 whole turkeys
28 turkey breasts
27 turkey hams
Accepting Monetary Donations & Nonperishables
Spending time with family and friends around the table remains an important Thanksgiving Day tradition for many Wisconsinites. Hope Center Pantry is pleased to provide food for the feast. To help the pantry fill plates at the next Thanksgiving, please drop off monetary donations and nonperishable food from 1-3pm Monday – Thursday at the pantry, 505 Clinton St., Green Bay.
Janice Clemens said she believes that “God was at work” in her invitation to become co-director of St. Patrick’s Food Pantry, along with her husband, Chris.
“I volunteered here first,” said Janice. “When Donna (Kessler, former longtime pantry director who followed Franciscan Sr. Louise Hunt) thought about retiring, she said that she remembered that she heard me say that I wanted to focus on one volunteer item. I’m almost 100% sure that I said that I wanted to do a variety of things. I think she saw Chris and I as a couple (for the position). Donna did a great job and left us in a pretty good situation.”
Spending Their Retirement Years Volunteering
Janice started as a volunteer at the pantry in September 2019, following retirement. Chris joined her a year later, after he retired. “We hadn’t even been managers. We have managers on each shift each day. We went right from volunteers to directors,” said Chris with a laugh.
20-Year Run at St. Patrick’s Church, Green Bay
Janice and Chris, members of Nativity of Our Lord Parish, Ashwaubenon, are now the Tuesday managers, in addition to serving as directors. The pantry, housed in the Hope Center at 505 Clinton St. in Green Bay, is open for clients from 1 to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday. This year marks 25 years of providing food for those in need. The first 20 years, the pantry operated in the basement of St. Patrick Church. The Hope Center, a collaboration of the west side Green Bay parishes, opened in 2016. The building is also the west side home for Love Life, which provides basic infant needs to low-income families.
Open to Brown County WI Residents
St. Patrick’s Food Pantry, which is open to anyone living in Brown County, currently only offers curbside pickup in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Premade boxes are packed, based on the family size. Clients may request extra items. Four volunteers work each shift, except for Tuesdays when a fifth volunteer does data entry.
Pantry Directors Automated Operations
Both Janice and Chris have IT (information technology) backgrounds, so they’ve automated most data, including client information, volunteer schedules and packing lists.
“If they’ve been here before, we’ve got them in the database already,” said Janice. “We just pull their sheet out. We know about their household, how many live there. We take their order for the day. If they are new, we fill out a sheet for them.”
Chris has implemented a color coordinated system for food sorting. All boxes are dated. Different color labels allow volunteers to recognize which items need to be rotated to the shelves for distribution first.
Catholic Parishes Support Pantry
The pantry receives monetary donations made through the Quad Parishes on the west side of Green Bay. Parishes also provide support through food collections — designated boxes for donations or through “reverse collections” where parish members receive a slip of paper with a specific food item and donate that item the following weekend.
“St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish (Green Bay) does (a reverse collection) once a month,” said Janice. “It’s great because then we get exactly what we need.” A list of the most needed items is shared with the parishes and provided on the website.
Donations of Hygiene, Paper & Cleaning Products
“The surprising thing is we are a food pantry, but there is a need for hygiene and cleaning products,” said Janice. “Most people on FoodShare can’t use those for body wash or shampoo.” Toilet paper is provided to clients through donations from Bedford Paper of De Pere.
Brown County Food and Hunger Network
St. Patrick’s is part of the Brown County Food and Hunger Network. The number of client visits at all food pantries in Wisconsin has decreased during the pandemic, said Janice. Stimulus funds may be the reason for the drop in client visits, she added. The highest number in recent months at St. Patrick’s was August with 146 clients served.
Feeding Children in Green Bay Schools
In response to fewer numbers, St. Patrick’s Food Pantry extends its outreach into the community. They have connected with the Green Bay Area Public School District. School counselors put pantry flyers in backpacks of children whose families may need food assistance. They also partner with Jackson Elementary School in Green Bay.
“Once a month we are piloting a program with Jackson,” said Janice. “The school counselor started a mini-pantry. At the direction of the (Hope Center) board, this is another way we can use the monetary donations to help the community, especially with our client counts being down.
“We are trying to build family meal time,” she said. “We come up with a theme and do food kits. We will have a recipe and they will put it together. We provide it in English and Spanish. This month, we are going to do something with ham. We did 27 kits in our highest month. Nineteen was our lowest. In that kit, there is also a flyer for our pantry.”
Meals for the Homeless Shelter
A partnership with St. John the Evangelist Homeless Shelter is also in the works. Janice has volunteered at the shelter and recognized the need for to-go meals for shelter guests who have jobs.
For the clients who visit the pantry during the week, some recent changes have been made for their convenience. Milk no longer fills the cooler shelves. Milk vouchers are given to clients which they can use at Save A Lot.
“We have people walking up pulling a suitcase behind and people on bikes,” said Janice. “We reached out to all the 5k and 10k races in Brown County. They gave us some really nice shoulder bags that they can put on their back on their bike.”
A Need for More Volunteers
“What we really need is more new volunteers,” said Chris, “If someone is interested, they can go to the website or stop in.” The pantry has a pool of about 70 volunteers, including eight managers, but will lose some snowbirds during the winter months. In addition to those who serve at the pantry site, two men pick up orders from Feeding America, the pantry’s source for meat. Another man picks up all the boxes for recycling. Two Bay Port students recently became the first high school community service volunteers at St. Patrick’s. The girls make thank-you cards for handwritten messages to donors and help put together spice packets for the meal kits.
Janice said that many of the longtime pantry volunteers continue to be a good resource. “They tell us if we are doing something wrong, and we need that,” she said with a smile.
The Rewards of Being a Pantry Volunteer
The rewards of helping people make the work worth it, said Chris.
“Just seeing the smiles on people’s faces out there, lights you up,” he said. “Everybody is just so grateful to get the food. We put a cart with Thanksgiving items out. They take what they need. They don’t grab everything. Everybody is respectful.”
“We want to be an elite pantry, good service with a smile,” added Janice. “If it’s been donated to us, we’re going to get it to the clients who need it. Any of us could be in that situation. God will provide. He has so far.”
McMahon Associates, an engineering company in Neenah, donated a laptop computer to the Hope Center Pantry to use for a database.
Our sincere thanks to McMahon Associates, an engineering company in Neenah, for the donation of a laptop computer to the Hope Center Pantry to use for our database. Why would a Neenah company located 35 miles from Green Bay donate to the Hope Center Pantry? Because Chris Clemens was a McMahon Associates employee for over 35 years. Chris and Janice Clemens are the current Hope Center Pantry directors. While working for McMahon Associates, Chris noticed that the company provided generous donations to nonprofit organizations in Northeast Wisconsin.
Donation from McMahon Associates
Matt Greely, Executive President of McMahon Associates, said the company was happy to help Hope Center Pantry fulfill its mission. The mission of Hope Center is to serve and guide those who are in need. It is our responsibility to empower and support others.
How the Pantry Uses the Computer Database
The donated computer syncs with the internet so database backups are done automatically. Additionally, Hope Center Pantry converted the database from Works to Excel. The pantry prepared all of the new documentation and trained volunteers in database entry. Lastly, the pantry worked with reporting genius to update all of the end-of-month/quarter reports using the new database. These reports produce the numbers that the pantry submits periodically to Feeding America and the Brown County Food and Hunger Network. Both of these organizations provide a large amount of the food that the Hope Center Pantry distributes to clients.
Improving Pantry Operations & Effectiveness
The panty also distributes the reports to the Hope Center Board, to keep the board up-to-date on the pantry’s client base. The panty also uses information from the database to apply for grants. Recently, the pantry started collecting an additional piece of data, using the new database. The pantry collects the email address of each client. Thus, the panty can notify clients about updates and forward information to them that might be beneficial.
Be a Donor, Like McMahon Associates
Bringing all of the pantry’s data up to current technology was a huge undertaking that is so beneficial to pantry operations. We truly appreciate donors like McMahon Associates, Neenah. If your company would like to make a donation to the Hope Center Pantry, please visit How You Can Help
3 Ways You Can Help Hope Center Pantry
Select Food or Personal Care Items from the Wish List
Drop off a Donation at a Catholic Church on the West Side of Green Bay
Become a Volunteer, 1-3pm Monday – Thursday
“Thanks to Janice and Chris Clemens for your service to the community. You guys are awesome!”
Matt Greely, Executive President of McMahon Associates
The Hope Center Pantry provides meal kits and recipes to families once a month, like this Pizza Mac and Cheese meal kit.
With such an abundance of food in the U.S. today, no child should go hungry. Yet 34 million people in the U.S. are food insecure, including 9 million children, according the Feeing America. Hope Center Pantry is doing something about these troubling statistics by preparing family meal kits.
Social Benefits of a Family Meal
Today’s families are busy, no doubt! Preparing and eating family meals together takes time and effort. But the benefits of regularly gathering around the table for a family meal are worth the effort. 7 Science-Based Benefits of Eating Together as a Family. Families who prepare and eat a meal together benefit from the social interaction of a shared meal. Research shows that having the family involved in meal preparation increases fruit and vegetable intake. In addition, family meals provide a sense of togetherness and security that helps nurture children into well-rounded, healthy adults. Family dinners have a positive impact on children’s personal identity, self-esteem, values, and motivation.
Meal Kits for Green Bay Families
Hope Center Pantry is a Christian-based nonprofit ministry that strongly encourages family time and family meals. The pantry partners with Annie Jackson Elementary in Green Bay to provide the ingredients for a full, nutritious meal families in need. Starting in September 2021, and throughout the 2022-23 school year, the pantry created “meal kits” for a family of four. These meal kits are orchestrated through their school counselor who has a team of 50 students that help pack and distribute the meals once a month. Additionally, the school has a mini pantry available called Hunger Heroes.
Food & Recipes for Hungry Kids
The families pre-register for the meal, and they receive meal recipes in both English and Spanish. The pantry includes an English/Spanish flyer with each meal kit, so families know about the pantry’s location and services. One month, the pantry provided 33 meals – enough food to feed 132 parents and children at a family meal. Pizza Mac and Cheese is one example of a meal kit, with all ingredients provided.
Collaborating with Green Bay School Counselors
To spread the word Hope Center Pantry, we contacted school counselors in the Green Bay School District, sharing information about our pantry and other food pantries in Brown County. We encouraged the counselors to send information home with students whose families have a need for our services. One of the school counselors from Eisenhower Elementary in Green Bay stops by Hope Center Pantry periodically to pick up food to give families with children in the school. The children’s parents don’t have cars to travel to the pantry, so the counselor cheerfully delivers their food right to their door!
Panty Serves Families with Children
Together, we are serving families and children in need in the Green Bay community. Children who have enough to eat perform better at school and have a better chance of growing into healthy teens and adults. We’re grateful to everyone who volunteers, donates, and advocates for Hope Center Pantry, to feed kids and families who are hungry. Contact us to learn more about the ways you can contribute to our mission.
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 the story of volunteering at the food pantry by Sister Helen Plum, SSND (School Sister of Notre Dame).
By Sister Helen Plum, SSND, Hope Center Pantry volunteer Our constitution (rule of life as sisters) is called “You Are Sent.” As School Sisters of Notre Dame, we are called and sent to make Christ visible by our very being, by sharing our love, faith, and hope by striving to foster unity wherever we are. I was conscious of this as I was sent to teach in various schools for my first 17 years in various cities in Wisconsin.
From Teacher to Translator
Then I was called to another, very different ministry – becoming a German – English translator. Born and living in Milwaukee, I had been raised bilingually by my immigrant parents and had studied German formally. The call to this ministry was a transforming experience. I met so many of our sisters living in other cultures and countries. No matter where we met, we experienced the bond of our SSND community. As we worked, and especially, prayed together, it was a profoundly humbling awareness that I was God’s instrument through which our sisters shared their thoughts and prayers with one another.
Working Among the Poor of our World
Our SSND charism of internationality continues to challenge me to witness to unity, to discover unsuspected ways of sharing the gifts God has given me with those who are among the poor of our world, and to find new channels of service in the universal church.
Then, I was once again called to international ministry in Eggenburg, Austria, in 2016. My teaching, translating, and pastoral ministry experiences came together as I taught English and German to teenage boys, refugees from Afghanistan, and also presided at liturgical celebrations at the local parish when the pastor was unavailable.
Volunteering at Hope Center Pantry in Green Bay
Once again, back in the USA, I moved to Green Bay and came to volunteer at the food pantry in 2019. I enjoy working with our volunteers and meeting our clients. All these experiences confirm a basic belief for me – we are all called to be translators of God’s infinite love and joy, no matter what we do and where we are sent to be.
Become a Food Pantry Volunteer Today
Volunteers provide an essential community service by feeding the hungry in the Green Bay area of Northeast Wisconsin. Thank you, Sister Helen, and all of the volunteers at Hope Center Pantry. 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 Can Help information to learn more.
