Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wi

Since 1986 Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin has been working with local hunger-relief agencies in 16 southwestern Wisconsin counties. Through food distribution, promotion of outside food assistance programs, partnerships with healthcare providers and insurers, and raising awareness of hunger we are making our vision of everyone in our community having enough nutritious food to thrive a reality. We are southwestern Wisconsin's largest hunger-relief organization, providing tens of millions of meals each year to those who need them. Every day we prove that lives can be changed with food!from july 1, 2023, to june 30, 2024, 93% of every donation to Second Harvest goes to food on someone's table, and just 7% goes to fundraising and general administrative expenses. Second Harvest operates as the largest food bank in southwestern Wisconsin, and as such relies almost fully on philanthropic support to distribute food across 16 counties. Pandemic aid for food purchasing ended in 2024, leaving Second Harvest to address growing community needs and sustain innovative food distribution programs without federal support. Programs and initiatives that were piloted during the pandemic have been refined and recalibrated to succeed in a post-pandemic environment and continue to provide significant relief to community members and spur the local economy. Among the unique and innovative programs include seed to feed, which increased access to capital for local farmers and producers while increasing the amount of fresh produce we are able to provide to the community at no cost. Market Harvest became fully operationalized in fy24, where Second Harvest played a key role in reducing food waste at farmers markets, purchasing produce from local growers, and providing fruits and vegetables to local food pantries at no cost. Between april and september of 2024, Second Harvest provided over 32,700 pounds of fresh produce to food pantries and over $136,200 to growers right here in Wisconsin. In fy24, the foodshare outreach team assisted with 1,510 applications and renewals for the federal supplemental nutrition assistance program (snap). The benefits received by foodshare recipients helped provide over 1.2 million meals and generated nearly $7.3 million in local economic activity. The Foodbank purchased land during the fiscal year that will be used for our new larger facility within the next three years. The purchase of the land reduced the Foodbank's cash reserves, converting cash of $2,385,000 to assets.

Food share outreach - shfb provides application assistance to potentially eligible applicants.