August 18, 2024 • 29 mins
Robin talks with Michelle Orge, executive director of Second Harvest Food bank of Southern Wisconsin, about the ins and outs of running Southwestern Wisconsin largest food bank.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning. I'm Robin Colbert and this is Madison Forum.
My guest this morning is Michelle Orgay. She is president
and CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank as Southern Wisconsin.
Good morning, Michelle, thanks so much for joining us.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Good morning, Robin, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
I was doing a little background and because I was
always familiar, I believe this was my first time speaking
with you, not our first time talking about Second Harvest.
We tried to do our can, do what we can
to get the word out about the need, the ever
growing need. But you started in twenty nineteen, boy, right
before it really hit with a pandemic.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Huh yeah, about six months before it hit. Yes, but this,
you know, i'd actually been in food banking since. I've
been in food banking since two thousand and one. So
this is a third food bank I've been at. And
I kind of thought folks were like, folks said, wow,
you picked a wild time to, you know, like it
(00:55):
with a good timing bad time. I said, well, I
would be working at a I'd be working with a
food bank probably no matter what. And I'm really glad
to be working with this food bank. The community that
this is that we're in the It's just a very
h a community that really wants to take care of
(01:15):
of of the folks in this community. And I'm really
I was grateful to if I was going to be
any food bank in a pandemic, this was a really
great one to be at and in the community that
we're in.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Yeah, it's Madison area has a reputation for being very
generous and very caring when it comes to helping those
in need, whether it's humans or pets, you name it.
I see you had been. Where are you originally from? Michelle?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I'm originally from northern Michigan, really, and so so I
spent a lot of my my youth in the Upper Peninsula,
which is somewhold consider it more Wisconsin than we're going
to take it years, although it wants to be a
fifty first state sometimes, you know, But but yeah, it's
(02:05):
it's that's where I grew up and then lived in
uh southeastern Michigan for for quite a while before heading
out to Colorado for a little bit, then back to
my favorite place, the Midwest Great Lakes region.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Yeah it is beautiful, Okay. So I was just given
a couple of days ago a heads up about newly
released data that is showing quite an increase in the
number of people here in Southern Wisconsin considered food insecure. Michelle,
if you could just defined what food insecure is, so
(02:45):
there's hunger.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Hunger is a physical sensation, and food insecurity is more
often refers to the you know, the confidence or or
knowledge of knowing where you're meals coming from. So it's
it's more of a of a a more of an
ongoing type thing. We also talk about nutrition security here
(03:08):
at Second Harvest the Bank Southern Wisconsin. That's also about
the types of food that folks are having access to,
because a lot of folks uh do access food, but
because the cost of food and the resources available to them,
often folks will we we know that folks will well
(03:31):
uh spend their resources on less expensive foods so they
can stretch their dollars further, and that is not always
they can't. Folks can't always afford the the food that
they would like to be able to provide for their families,
which is, you know, uh, the more nutritious foods or
the foods that are are familiar and culturally responsive. There's
(03:55):
a lot of different things that you know that folks
are making choices about and and so nutrition security is
also very important.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Yeah, not to knock places like Trader Joe's or Whole
Foods or some of the more upper scale shopping options
we have out there. I can't imagine anybody that is
watching their dollars and pennies where everyone goes can afford
to you know, do that and get the some of
these items. And in fact, you know, worrying about where
(04:23):
your next meal comes from. That just makes my heart hurt.
You know, many of us very fortunate that that's a
foreign thought to us, having to worry about you know, Okay,
I've had something this morning, Am I going to have
something tonight?
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Right? Well, we believe everybody deserves good food and quality
nutritious food, food that is, you know, with dignity and choice,
and and they're you know, the the increase in need
in southwestern Wisconsin has been forty seven percent in the
(05:00):
last in fiscal year, in the last discal year. So
the uh, it's it's uh, it's it's surprising, it's.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
It is very much so, especially because I mean southwestern
Wisconsin that's a pretty vast region. And uh, I know
there are are places like you know, Iowa, Lafayette counties
that are tend to be more depressed. There's not a
lot of industry, but here like Dane County, you know,
median income is up there, and you just you can't
(05:32):
imagine that there's uh this going on in our own backyard, right.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
You know when we when we talk about folks that
you know, when we say for some some folks that
they you know, we're all watching, everyone's watching their their dollars. Uh.
Some I think sometimes folks think about folks who are
experiencing food in security, hunger nutrition insecurity as being of
a specific very low uh uh, having a very low
(06:00):
income perhaps. And frankly, you know, when you look at data,
there's a there's some data that's called ALICE a l
i CE, which is Asset limited, Income, Constrained and Employed.
It's a report that's put out by by United Ways
across the country as a national report. And there's a
Wisconsin report that you can go to to find out
(06:21):
what the type of income you'd need to be in
a survival budget and then a more more sustainable kind
of budget that helps you save a little bit each
month for emergencies. And you know, the for a family
of four for us to qualify for federal benefits and
(06:41):
other things. The federal benefits are very very important. We
really support connecting folks to those if they do qualify.
But for free lunches, reduce lunches, snap benefits, et cetera.
It's like forty to fifty thousand dollars for a family
of four is the threshold for you know, there's a
lot of a lot of you know, subtleties to that,
but it's about that. And then it's in the you know,
(07:05):
fifty to sixty ish range for being in the maybe
sixty five thousand for being in the range of And
there's new numbers that came out recently so for specifics,
and they go by county as well, but I'm talking
kind of generals across Wisconsin. It's the survival budget is
(07:27):
higher than that. And then the budget where you have
an ability to take care of your family, and it's
a family of four without and being able to put
a little bit of money away for some emergencies or
for maybe saving up for education for your kids or
other things. It's well over one hundred thousand dollars for
(07:50):
that family of four. And so the gap between between
first of all between resources available that I think folks
think maybe folks have a lot more access to and
and survival is there and between those resources and being
able to thrive are way way big. And and then
(08:10):
you know, food insecurity is there's a there's different frequencies,
different intensities, a lot of different reasons for it. And
so I think books would be surprised. That's a number
of folks that would struggle with this, and and uh,
it's it's widespread, and it's just.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Been also, uh, just a hell of a just a
rotten several years, rotten five years actually, you know, with
the pandemic and then of course inflation U that has
followed over the past several years. I mean, we're starting
to see prices come back down and become more reasonable,
(08:51):
but such a spike that it's impacting. I'm guessing it's
a trickle down effects because it's impacting people who before
they're they're doing their doing well and they you know,
not living high off the hog, but they got enough
to make ends meet and set some money away and
what have you. But then their bills start to increase
with inflation, and they're probably cutting back on what they're
(09:12):
donating Uh, to those a little bit further down the
economic rung, you know, wrung on the ladder that really
you know, depends on those donations.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
There's not a lot of extra to go around for anybody.
And uh, it's it's it's tough. And when when prices
increase and folks resources don't increase, the match those that
it's it's tough for everyone. Yes, the the during the pandemic,
I think folks had a lot of there were there
(09:44):
were some support in place, and I think that folks
had this image of of need increasing and there was
an acceptance of that. It was it was, it was.
There was a lot there was a reduced stigma maybe
around that because it was a oh, well it's it's
it's clear that it can't be. It's that that there's
(10:05):
that it's not folks faults, right, and and it.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Doesn't weird on me. It's ever you know, we're all
going through this. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
And and and you saw a lot of the drone footage,
if you will, of the lines of lines of cars
outside of food distributions. And because it was no contact deliveries,
we're distributing more food than we were during the pandemic. Well,
above that, and and we're not we're not even able
to get all the food out there that we'd like
(10:31):
to due to resources, capacity, other things. It's it's tough.
And our our partners are seeing you know, two to
three times the requests for food UH. In between our
fiscal twenty three and twenty four, over a one year,
we saw seventy five percent increasing the number of households
supported by our partners. I mean, this is this is
(10:52):
post pandemic. And and during the pandemic, there were there
were some supports in place, not just from food banks
and other folks, but there were addiction moratoriums, there were
child tax credits, there were increased snaps UH or food
share benefits. These things were all in place. There was
some support that helps folks out. And and then those
(11:14):
things have have some setted right. And now with the
with the you know increases and costs and the and
maybe resources, wages, things maybe not keeping up, and those
those supports not being there. It is it is UH,
you know, double triple control, whatever number of whammies you
(11:35):
want to say, it is. It's it's just a not
great combination for folks. And we and our partners are
unable to keep up with with this. We try very hard,
we work very hard to find as many food donations
as we can, but there's a finite number of food donations,
and so we then purchase food to make up for
the increased need. And we do our best to purchase
(11:59):
locally and support local food systems and local economies because
that helps with with the overall picture as well. And uh,
you know, we we I don't like to think we're
we're we're bailing out a robot with a tea spoon,
but it feels, you know, I feel like we're doing
it with a bucket, but it's still a rowboat that's
(12:20):
got water and and and and we're not getting all
that water out.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
And just to remind our listeners here, uh the what
second harvest does your role in this?
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Uh? In the food bank industry? Uh, you're like they're growth.
You're like there costco you supply to what is it
sixteen counties in southwestern Wisconsin to these groups like in
a big one in uh Middleton, the moms group what
is it Middleton out way Forward?
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Yep, they're called way Forward and yeah, they they they
changed their their they they they their name is now
way forward. It's got a year or so. The yeah,
the we're we're uh, we're kind of a behind the
scenes gatherer clearing house of lots and lots of different
(13:09):
sources of food. We're a member of the national food
bank network Feeding America, which gives us access to might
be a distributor might not want this truckload of produce
because it's not going to last as long as they'd like,
and so it will be made available to the Feeding
American network, and then we will work together with those
(13:30):
food banks to get that truckload of food distributed amongst
our our our partners. But it comes to when we
when we get parts of that truck or we get
a whole truckload of bit or a mixed truckload, whatever
it may be, we bring it back to our distribution
center here and in Madison. We have volunteers and staff
who then inspect that we repackage it, we label it
(13:53):
depending on what type of food it is, We quality
control it, and then we turn it into family friendly
portions and then that goes out to our partners that
they can distribute it directly. So we we do that
behind the scenes work of making it of sourcing it,
having that infrastructure looking at food safety and and all
of the different elements of this, and then we make
(14:15):
sure that gets out to our partners. We have three
hundred partners and programs throughout the sixteen counties in southwestern
Wisconsin that we support, and then that food goes out
to folks out throughout all of their all of their communities.
So we're we're a support for those partners. We also
have some of our own programs here to what we
do as as partner support. But we have some mobile pantries,
(14:39):
and we have UH school markets that we support in schools.
We have we do our food share outreach, we have UH,
we have healthcare partnerships. We have a lot of different
things where we're we're working directly with folks. Our mobile
pantries where we where we partner with maybe a group
in in a community, we bring food there and that
(15:03):
food is distributed directly to folks, maybe at a location
a community center, maybe at a religious organization and congregation
will help with that. And those are for places where
we may not have as many partners in that location.
Those often happen in more of our maybe rural communities.
(15:26):
That's one of the other things we do.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
And i'd imagine, you know, describing the scenario where you
have a distributor with a yeah, a truck full of
produce and that's landed at your doorstep. But time is
of it. That's where you really need the volunteers and
the helping hands, because time is of the essence, especially
when you're dealing with produce, because you've got to go
and check it. You know, all the regulations still need
(15:49):
to be followed and then get portioned and wow, that
could you know that can be a very extremely busy day.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Yes, we rescue tons and tons of food every day
and we we aim to to have as much of
that food. We believe there's enough food for everyone. But
getting it, getting it in time to the places and
folks that that and getting it there safely is is
is a logistical puzzle. Right, every second of every day,
every piece of food in our building is one second
(16:20):
closer to not being distributable. And so we we are
always on a time time clock, right, you know, we're
we're always on a on a stop watch to get
that food out there. We triage food when it comes in,
we we evaluate it. You know, it's like, oh, this
food came in this this actually needs to go out
sooner than in the other food. We have to put
it on our inventory system, you know, and we have
(16:40):
to we want to get it out to our to
our partners. And it's uh, it's it's a lot. It's
a lot. And then our partners do a lot of
work as well. I mean they're there, they get the
food and then they it's it's just because we're putting
in family portions and getting out as of partners doesn't
mean that they have an easy job, right they have
you mentioned way forward? You know the other folks. Other
(17:01):
organizations folks may recognize, and in the Madison area would
be Saint Vincent de Paul, the River Catholic Multi Multicultural Center.
There are a lot of Badger Pray Needs Network. These
are not the only ones. They are just some of
the ones that I that are are on the tip
of my tongue right now. They are all doing really
(17:24):
uh uh and we have we have again three hundred
partners and programs. They all do this direct work and
uh and help folks with food, but other things as well,
because you know, when when folks are are facing barriers,
that help that keep them from getting the food that
they need. They also have other other needs as well,
(17:46):
so they are partners help with housing, with healthcare, with education,
with with lots of different things that that go along
with with with food and security.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Now when when when you deal with I suppose UH
rules across the board apply even for those in the
food pantry business. As far as I know, a friend
of mine, way back in the day, you had a
part time job at like a KFC, and at the
end of the night, I still remember watching or throwing
(18:21):
these trays and trays of chicken that you know weren't
sold during the day, just throwing them. They couldn't you know,
hand them over for liability reasons to any sort of
you know, kitchen or any sort of local charity. Is
it still that's tightly UH regulated.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Well, liability and practicality and logistics these all come into
play here. There there are some there are some good
good Samaritan laws and protections that help folks who donate
in good faith. But that doesn't mean that that there
aren't some things that we can't take right. So restaurants
(19:02):
and and UH prepared foods, those those are a little
more they take a little type a bit of different handling.
I've worked in the restaurant industry. Before I was in
food banking, I was in restaurants, and a lot of
the food that is in restaurants when it's and like
when it's the end of the day, that food is
still hot. That food needs to be cooled down in
(19:24):
a specific way before it can be donated unless it
goes hot and stays hot to the place where it's
going to go. So there are ways to get that
food to places, but it has to be a place
that can take it hot and transport it hot and
make sure it stays hot. Because of food safety, if
the food can be cooled down, if it hasn't been
on a on a buffet, if it hasn't been exposed.
(19:44):
You know, there's there's some different things that you know,
but there's this chain of chain of of of of
you know, land of chain of of kind of food safety,
of cold cold, you have to keep it cold. If
it's cold, you have keep it hot. If it's hot.
If it's hot, you have to make it hold. You know,
there's a lot of a lot of into yes, yes,
(20:06):
chain of command, and but we we have to you know,
the we we food safety is important to everybody, and
we we we do. We're not exempt from food safety
just because we want to do good work. And we
we just yesterday we had we we have the you know,
(20:27):
we we are inspected by I joke that anyone with
an acronym can pretty much come in here and and
including you know, we're a nonprofit, so I r S
comes in here, come in here. But but every everyone,
you know, we we we we do the right thing.
We want to do the right thing, and folks double
checks that we're doing the right thing. So food safety
is a really big deal for us. And so those
(20:48):
restaurant foods can be a little more challenging. They're not impossible,
and we have partners. Badger Pray Needs Network is one
of our partners that does some of that specific type
of food rescue. They work with some larger or organizations,
larger businesses to get that food, rescue it and repackage it,
reconfigure it into more family portion sizes from kind of
(21:08):
bigger bigger businesses that have in house cafeterias and food
service type things UH type type UH operations. And then
but the food that we're typically rescuing is from grocery stores, manufacturers, distributors,
other folks, and the you know, the the liability elements
(21:30):
that you mentioned is not as big of an issue
that folks think it is. It's more so the making
sure that we're that that they're partner. That we want
to make sure that we partner with folks that understand
how to hold the food at the right temperatures, which
all food service folks really do, and that they're not
you know, putting mixing different types of foods together, which
(21:52):
they don't because they're all food safety you know, uh trained,
And then we get it, and then they want to
trust that we as a food bank have been trained
in food safety, that we have refrigerated vehicles, that we
have you know, a lot of food safety elements in place,
that we document things. We we take it very very seriously.
(22:16):
And then we in turn need to make sure that
our partners have have that have that food safety training
as well. So being part of that national network of
food banks. When when there are major food grocery chains,
et cetera that want to partner with folks to donate,
they will they will often partner with the Feeding America
(22:38):
Food Bank in the in the community because they know
that we have these these standards, and it's disappointing sometimes.
I know when we get food that I'm like, I
feel like it's probably safe, but it's the packaging or
the labeling is off, or we don't have we don't
we can't guarantee that that food has been kept at
the right temperature, and we just can't chance it right.
(23:01):
We save so much food, and our waste is surprisingly low.
The amount of food that we can't use is surprisingly low,
and we we we do try to connect with farmers
so they can give it for animal feed when we
can't when we can't use it, versus landfilling it as
much as possible. But I'll tell you that in my fridge,
I look at the milk, I smell the milk, like
(23:22):
I keep food in my fridge way longer then I
then I probably should. But here we do extend dates.
We have extensions that we can go beyond cell by
dates because cell buy used by best by dates are
not necessarily food safety there there they're you know, I
feel like every three weeks there's an article that comes
out about why why those dates don't matter?
Speaker 1 (23:44):
I hear yeah, And I'm always reading too with interest
that I'm not so bad because the sour cream in
my fridge it's a few days past and it's the
best by date. I suppose that's when we get the ultimate.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
From that product, right, But we do have sidelines about
that and we we we do, we do go by dates.
But there there we have us. We have some some
standards on that that we follow and UH and share
with our partners and UH, and we can extend some
of those dates based on safety. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
And again I've been talking with if you're just tuning in,
I've been talking with Michelle Orgacia's president and CEO of
Second Harvest Food Bank of Southern Wisconsin. Just these half
hours go by so fast, Michelle, Yeah, a few more
minutes here, And I did want to just touch on
is there a uh We're getting into fall and then
obviously comes winter. Is that the busier time of the year?
(24:37):
But or is there even a sec busy season in
the food pantry industry anymore?
Speaker 2 (24:44):
It depends on what type of busy you know there are.
There are busier seasons for food drives and such. There
are busier seasons for when kids are out of school,
and different types of activities and and food security for kids,
you know increases at different times of year. Uh, I
would say, you know, volunteering often increases, that the interest
(25:04):
in volunteering increases in the fall, into the into the
holiday season, et cetera. Thirty percent of the hours that
are are that that have of that work that folks
work at second harvests are done by volunteers. So we
really do depend on volunteers. Uh. The it's a busy season.
But but food insecurity doesn't really like take a break anytime.
(25:29):
There are ebbs and flows and some of this is
you know for for individuals, it's different for each person
their families. But you know, kids going back to school, Uh,
there are school meals, But it doesn't mean that food
and security goes down. It's it just means that there's
some more consistency for certain meals. But but there's heating
(25:51):
bills that come up, right, so now there's new, new,
new new elements for folks that are are having to
choose between how to pay for those bills and what
types of food they can provide to their family.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
And at the second harvest, of course, money is always
the best right because you guys can stretch a dollar
uh for your purchasing capabilities, way more than your average
or layman consumer.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Yes, we have a lot of buying power. We have
the ability to get a lot of food with a
little bit of money. We we are able to that
food that we rescue. We any any food that we
get at no cost goes out to our partners at
no costs. So, but it doesn't mean that it doesn't
(26:35):
cost us money to procure that food, right. Absolutely, There's
there's the storage, the infrastructure, the other things, and we're
very efficient and effective with what we how we do things.
But it doesn't mean there aren't cost associated with it.
There's there's the you know, the the the building, the refrigeration,
the making sure food is safe, the getting the food
(26:57):
from one place to another, the providing support to our
part partners. There's there's a lot of things that go
into it. So and then just the purchasing of food,
the when we want to purchase produce, milk, eggs, et cetera.
For our partners. We need more money to be able
to do that so that they don't have to then
raise that money and find ways to purchase it themselves.
(27:19):
So the more the more we can get funds for
these purchases. The more we can help provide resources to
our partners, the more they can concentrate their dollars on
their missions, which can help in so many ways. So
when we talk about root causes of hunger, some things
things like lack of access to affordable housing, healthcare, you know, wages,
(27:43):
lots of things go into this. And if we can
help partners by taking the burden of food costs off
of them, they have more resources to put towards missions,
which ultimately help in the bigger picture.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Sure, absolutely, and and so hoping to turn to our
se some progress being made and the statistics going down.
I mean, there's always going to be a need. But
just if you are experiencing tight budgets as well and
there's not much you can give, you could always give your.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Time, Yes, you can. You can give time. You can
become an advocate, You can use your voice. Our website
has a lot of information about that advocacy information. You
can also visit feeding Wisconsin dot org. There is a
lot of ways to use your voice. That way, uh
not to not to not to you know, talk too
(28:36):
much politics here, but we voting is important. I'm not
going to tell you how to vote, but I'm going
to share that voting absolutely, voting in the ways that
you think are going to affect food food food policy, uh,
that are going to help support support the things that
you that matter to you. That's important. So there's there's
(28:57):
a lot of local, state wide, national, you know, you
have you have the ability to influence food insecurity through
your vote.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Absolutely, I agree with you. Michelle Orgay again my guest
this morning. She is the president and CEO of Second
Harvest Food Bank, a southern Wisconsin wonderful organization. You guys
have done such great work over the day. How long
have Second Harvests been around now? Has been about forty
fifty years, more.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Than forty years. Yeah and yeah, and you can you
can find us at Second Harvest sw A in Southwest
dot org. We have lots of information there about how
to get involved and how to participate and yeah it's
this Our history's on there as well.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
All right, again, Michelle, thanks so much. You've been listening
to Madison Forum
Good morning. I'm Robin Colbert and this is Madison Forum.
My guest this morning is Michelle Orgay. She is president
and CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank as Southern Wisconsin.
Good morning, Michelle, thanks so much for joining us.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Good morning, Robin, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
I was doing a little background and because I was
always familiar, I believe this was my first time speaking
with you, not our first time talking about Second Harvest.
We tried to do our can, do what we can
to get the word out about the need, the ever
growing need. But you started in twenty nineteen, boy, right
before it really hit with a pandemic.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Huh yeah, about six months before it hit. Yes, but this,
you know, i'd actually been in food banking since. I've
been in food banking since two thousand and one. So
this is a third food bank I've been at. And
I kind of thought folks were like, folks said, wow,
you picked a wild time to, you know, like it
(00:55):
with a good timing bad time. I said, well, I
would be working at a I'd be working with a
food bank probably no matter what. And I'm really glad
to be working with this food bank. The community that
this is that we're in the It's just a very
h a community that really wants to take care of
(01:15):
of of the folks in this community. And I'm really
I was grateful to if I was going to be
any food bank in a pandemic, this was a really
great one to be at and in the community that
we're in.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Yeah, it's Madison area has a reputation for being very
generous and very caring when it comes to helping those
in need, whether it's humans or pets, you name it.
I see you had been. Where are you originally from? Michelle?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I'm originally from northern Michigan, really, and so so I
spent a lot of my my youth in the Upper Peninsula,
which is somewhold consider it more Wisconsin than we're going
to take it years, although it wants to be a
fifty first state sometimes, you know, But but yeah, it's
(02:05):
it's that's where I grew up and then lived in
uh southeastern Michigan for for quite a while before heading
out to Colorado for a little bit, then back to
my favorite place, the Midwest Great Lakes region.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Yeah it is beautiful, Okay. So I was just given
a couple of days ago a heads up about newly
released data that is showing quite an increase in the
number of people here in Southern Wisconsin considered food insecure. Michelle,
if you could just defined what food insecure is, so
(02:45):
there's hunger.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Hunger is a physical sensation, and food insecurity is more
often refers to the you know, the confidence or or
knowledge of knowing where you're meals coming from. So it's
it's more of a of a a more of an
ongoing type thing. We also talk about nutrition security here
(03:08):
at Second Harvest the Bank Southern Wisconsin. That's also about
the types of food that folks are having access to,
because a lot of folks uh do access food, but
because the cost of food and the resources available to them,
often folks will we we know that folks will well
(03:31):
uh spend their resources on less expensive foods so they
can stretch their dollars further, and that is not always
they can't. Folks can't always afford the the food that
they would like to be able to provide for their families,
which is, you know, uh, the more nutritious foods or
the foods that are are familiar and culturally responsive. There's
(03:55):
a lot of different things that you know that folks
are making choices about and and so nutrition security is
also very important.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Yeah, not to knock places like Trader Joe's or Whole
Foods or some of the more upper scale shopping options
we have out there. I can't imagine anybody that is
watching their dollars and pennies where everyone goes can afford
to you know, do that and get the some of
these items. And in fact, you know, worrying about where
(04:23):
your next meal comes from. That just makes my heart hurt.
You know, many of us very fortunate that that's a
foreign thought to us, having to worry about you know, Okay,
I've had something this morning, Am I going to have
something tonight?
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Right? Well, we believe everybody deserves good food and quality
nutritious food, food that is, you know, with dignity and choice,
and and they're you know, the the increase in need
in southwestern Wisconsin has been forty seven percent in the
(05:00):
last in fiscal year, in the last discal year. So
the uh, it's it's uh, it's it's surprising, it's.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
It is very much so, especially because I mean southwestern
Wisconsin that's a pretty vast region. And uh, I know
there are are places like you know, Iowa, Lafayette counties
that are tend to be more depressed. There's not a
lot of industry, but here like Dane County, you know,
median income is up there, and you just you can't
(05:32):
imagine that there's uh this going on in our own backyard, right.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
You know when we when we talk about folks that
you know, when we say for some some folks that
they you know, we're all watching, everyone's watching their their dollars. Uh.
Some I think sometimes folks think about folks who are
experiencing food in security, hunger nutrition insecurity as being of
a specific very low uh uh, having a very low
(06:00):
income perhaps. And frankly, you know, when you look at data,
there's a there's some data that's called ALICE a l
i CE, which is Asset limited, Income, Constrained and Employed.
It's a report that's put out by by United Ways
across the country as a national report. And there's a
Wisconsin report that you can go to to find out
(06:21):
what the type of income you'd need to be in
a survival budget and then a more more sustainable kind
of budget that helps you save a little bit each
month for emergencies. And you know, the for a family
of four for us to qualify for federal benefits and
(06:41):
other things. The federal benefits are very very important. We
really support connecting folks to those if they do qualify.
But for free lunches, reduce lunches, snap benefits, et cetera.
It's like forty to fifty thousand dollars for a family
of four is the threshold for you know, there's a
lot of a lot of you know, subtleties to that,
but it's about that. And then it's in the you know,
(07:05):
fifty to sixty ish range for being in the maybe
sixty five thousand for being in the range of And
there's new numbers that came out recently so for specifics,
and they go by county as well, but I'm talking
kind of generals across Wisconsin. It's the survival budget is
(07:27):
higher than that. And then the budget where you have
an ability to take care of your family, and it's
a family of four without and being able to put
a little bit of money away for some emergencies or
for maybe saving up for education for your kids or
other things. It's well over one hundred thousand dollars for
(07:50):
that family of four. And so the gap between between
first of all between resources available that I think folks
think maybe folks have a lot more access to and
and survival is there and between those resources and being
able to thrive are way way big. And and then
(08:10):
you know, food insecurity is there's a there's different frequencies,
different intensities, a lot of different reasons for it. And
so I think books would be surprised. That's a number
of folks that would struggle with this, and and uh,
it's it's widespread, and it's just.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Been also, uh, just a hell of a just a
rotten several years, rotten five years actually, you know, with
the pandemic and then of course inflation U that has
followed over the past several years. I mean, we're starting
to see prices come back down and become more reasonable,
(08:51):
but such a spike that it's impacting. I'm guessing it's
a trickle down effects because it's impacting people who before
they're they're doing their doing well and they you know,
not living high off the hog, but they got enough
to make ends meet and set some money away and
what have you. But then their bills start to increase
with inflation, and they're probably cutting back on what they're
(09:12):
donating Uh, to those a little bit further down the
economic rung, you know, wrung on the ladder that really
you know, depends on those donations.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
There's not a lot of extra to go around for anybody.
And uh, it's it's it's tough. And when when prices
increase and folks resources don't increase, the match those that
it's it's tough for everyone. Yes, the the during the pandemic,
I think folks had a lot of there were there
(09:44):
were some support in place, and I think that folks
had this image of of need increasing and there was
an acceptance of that. It was it was, it was.
There was a lot there was a reduced stigma maybe
around that because it was a oh, well it's it's
it's clear that it can't be. It's that that there's
(10:05):
that it's not folks faults, right, and and it.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Doesn't weird on me. It's ever you know, we're all
going through this. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
And and and you saw a lot of the drone footage,
if you will, of the lines of lines of cars
outside of food distributions. And because it was no contact deliveries,
we're distributing more food than we were during the pandemic. Well,
above that, and and we're not we're not even able
to get all the food out there that we'd like
(10:31):
to due to resources, capacity, other things. It's it's tough.
And our our partners are seeing you know, two to
three times the requests for food UH. In between our
fiscal twenty three and twenty four, over a one year,
we saw seventy five percent increasing the number of households
supported by our partners. I mean, this is this is
(10:52):
post pandemic. And and during the pandemic, there were there
were some supports in place, not just from food banks
and other folks, but there were addiction moratoriums, there were
child tax credits, there were increased snaps UH or food
share benefits. These things were all in place. There was
some support that helps folks out. And and then those
(11:14):
things have have some setted right. And now with the
with the you know increases and costs and the and
maybe resources, wages, things maybe not keeping up, and those
those supports not being there. It is it is UH,
you know, double triple control, whatever number of whammies you
(11:35):
want to say, it is. It's it's just a not
great combination for folks. And we and our partners are
unable to keep up with with this. We try very hard,
we work very hard to find as many food donations
as we can, but there's a finite number of food donations,
and so we then purchase food to make up for
the increased need. And we do our best to purchase
(11:59):
locally and support local food systems and local economies because
that helps with with the overall picture as well. And uh,
you know, we we I don't like to think we're
we're we're bailing out a robot with a tea spoon,
but it feels, you know, I feel like we're doing
it with a bucket, but it's still a rowboat that's
(12:20):
got water and and and and we're not getting all
that water out.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
And just to remind our listeners here, uh the what
second harvest does your role in this?
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Uh? In the food bank industry? Uh, you're like they're growth.
You're like there costco you supply to what is it
sixteen counties in southwestern Wisconsin to these groups like in
a big one in uh Middleton, the moms group what
is it Middleton out way Forward?
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Yep, they're called way Forward and yeah, they they they
changed their their they they they their name is now
way forward. It's got a year or so. The yeah,
the we're we're uh, we're kind of a behind the
scenes gatherer clearing house of lots and lots of different
(13:09):
sources of food. We're a member of the national food
bank network Feeding America, which gives us access to might
be a distributor might not want this truckload of produce
because it's not going to last as long as they'd like,
and so it will be made available to the Feeding
American network, and then we will work together with those
(13:30):
food banks to get that truckload of food distributed amongst
our our our partners. But it comes to when we
when we get parts of that truck or we get
a whole truckload of bit or a mixed truckload, whatever
it may be, we bring it back to our distribution
center here and in Madison. We have volunteers and staff
who then inspect that we repackage it, we label it
(13:53):
depending on what type of food it is, We quality
control it, and then we turn it into family friendly
portions and then that goes out to our partners that
they can distribute it directly. So we we do that
behind the scenes work of making it of sourcing it,
having that infrastructure looking at food safety and and all
of the different elements of this, and then we make
(14:15):
sure that gets out to our partners. We have three
hundred partners and programs throughout the sixteen counties in southwestern
Wisconsin that we support, and then that food goes out
to folks out throughout all of their all of their communities.
So we're we're a support for those partners. We also
have some of our own programs here to what we
do as as partner support. But we have some mobile pantries,
(14:39):
and we have UH school markets that we support in schools.
We have we do our food share outreach, we have UH,
we have healthcare partnerships. We have a lot of different
things where we're we're working directly with folks. Our mobile
pantries where we where we partner with maybe a group
in in a community, we bring food there and that
(15:03):
food is distributed directly to folks, maybe at a location
a community center, maybe at a religious organization and congregation
will help with that. And those are for places where
we may not have as many partners in that location.
Those often happen in more of our maybe rural communities.
(15:26):
That's one of the other things we do.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
And i'd imagine, you know, describing the scenario where you
have a distributor with a yeah, a truck full of
produce and that's landed at your doorstep. But time is
of it. That's where you really need the volunteers and
the helping hands, because time is of the essence, especially
when you're dealing with produce, because you've got to go
and check it. You know, all the regulations still need
(15:49):
to be followed and then get portioned and wow, that
could you know that can be a very extremely busy day.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Yes, we rescue tons and tons of food every day
and we we aim to to have as much of
that food. We believe there's enough food for everyone. But
getting it, getting it in time to the places and
folks that that and getting it there safely is is
is a logistical puzzle. Right, every second of every day,
every piece of food in our building is one second
(16:20):
closer to not being distributable. And so we we are
always on a time time clock, right, you know, we're
we're always on a on a stop watch to get
that food out there. We triage food when it comes in,
we we evaluate it. You know, it's like, oh, this
food came in this this actually needs to go out
sooner than in the other food. We have to put
it on our inventory system, you know, and we have
(16:40):
to we want to get it out to our to
our partners. And it's uh, it's it's a lot. It's
a lot. And then our partners do a lot of
work as well. I mean they're there, they get the
food and then they it's it's just because we're putting
in family portions and getting out as of partners doesn't
mean that they have an easy job, right they have
you mentioned way forward? You know the other folks. Other
(17:01):
organizations folks may recognize, and in the Madison area would
be Saint Vincent de Paul, the River Catholic Multi Multicultural Center.
There are a lot of Badger Pray Needs Network. These
are not the only ones. They are just some of
the ones that I that are are on the tip
of my tongue right now. They are all doing really
(17:24):
uh uh and we have we have again three hundred
partners and programs. They all do this direct work and
uh and help folks with food, but other things as well,
because you know, when when folks are are facing barriers,
that help that keep them from getting the food that
they need. They also have other other needs as well,
(17:46):
so they are partners help with housing, with healthcare, with education,
with with lots of different things that that go along
with with with food and security.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Now when when when you deal with I suppose UH
rules across the board apply even for those in the
food pantry business. As far as I know, a friend
of mine, way back in the day, you had a
part time job at like a KFC, and at the
end of the night, I still remember watching or throwing
(18:21):
these trays and trays of chicken that you know weren't
sold during the day, just throwing them. They couldn't you know,
hand them over for liability reasons to any sort of
you know, kitchen or any sort of local charity. Is
it still that's tightly UH regulated.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Well, liability and practicality and logistics these all come into
play here. There there are some there are some good
good Samaritan laws and protections that help folks who donate
in good faith. But that doesn't mean that that there
aren't some things that we can't take right. So restaurants
(19:02):
and and UH prepared foods, those those are a little
more they take a little type a bit of different handling.
I've worked in the restaurant industry. Before I was in
food banking, I was in restaurants, and a lot of
the food that is in restaurants when it's and like
when it's the end of the day, that food is
still hot. That food needs to be cooled down in
(19:24):
a specific way before it can be donated unless it
goes hot and stays hot to the place where it's
going to go. So there are ways to get that
food to places, but it has to be a place
that can take it hot and transport it hot and
make sure it stays hot. Because of food safety, if
the food can be cooled down, if it hasn't been
on a on a buffet, if it hasn't been exposed.
(19:44):
You know, there's there's some different things that you know,
but there's this chain of chain of of of of
you know, land of chain of of kind of food safety,
of cold cold, you have to keep it cold. If
it's cold, you have keep it hot. If it's hot.
If it's hot, you have to make it hold. You know,
there's a lot of a lot of into yes, yes,
(20:06):
chain of command, and but we we have to you know,
the we we food safety is important to everybody, and
we we we do. We're not exempt from food safety
just because we want to do good work. And we
we just yesterday we had we we have the you know,
(20:27):
we we are inspected by I joke that anyone with
an acronym can pretty much come in here and and
including you know, we're a nonprofit, so I r S
comes in here, come in here. But but every everyone,
you know, we we we we do the right thing.
We want to do the right thing, and folks double
checks that we're doing the right thing. So food safety
is a really big deal for us. And so those
(20:48):
restaurant foods can be a little more challenging. They're not impossible,
and we have partners. Badger Pray Needs Network is one
of our partners that does some of that specific type
of food rescue. They work with some larger or organizations,
larger businesses to get that food, rescue it and repackage it,
reconfigure it into more family portion sizes from kind of
(21:08):
bigger bigger businesses that have in house cafeterias and food
service type things UH type type UH operations. And then
but the food that we're typically rescuing is from grocery stores, manufacturers, distributors,
other folks, and the you know, the the liability elements
(21:30):
that you mentioned is not as big of an issue
that folks think it is. It's more so the making
sure that we're that that they're partner. That we want
to make sure that we partner with folks that understand
how to hold the food at the right temperatures, which
all food service folks really do, and that they're not
you know, putting mixing different types of foods together, which
(21:52):
they don't because they're all food safety you know, uh trained,
And then we get it, and then they want to
trust that we as a food bank have been trained
in food safety, that we have refrigerated vehicles, that we
have you know, a lot of food safety elements in place,
that we document things. We we take it very very seriously.
(22:16):
And then we in turn need to make sure that
our partners have have that have that food safety training
as well. So being part of that national network of
food banks. When when there are major food grocery chains,
et cetera that want to partner with folks to donate,
they will they will often partner with the Feeding America
(22:38):
Food Bank in the in the community because they know
that we have these these standards, and it's disappointing sometimes.
I know when we get food that I'm like, I
feel like it's probably safe, but it's the packaging or
the labeling is off, or we don't have we don't
we can't guarantee that that food has been kept at
the right temperature, and we just can't chance it right.
(23:01):
We save so much food, and our waste is surprisingly low.
The amount of food that we can't use is surprisingly low,
and we we we do try to connect with farmers
so they can give it for animal feed when we
can't when we can't use it, versus landfilling it as
much as possible. But I'll tell you that in my fridge,
I look at the milk, I smell the milk, like
(23:22):
I keep food in my fridge way longer then I
then I probably should. But here we do extend dates.
We have extensions that we can go beyond cell by
dates because cell buy used by best by dates are
not necessarily food safety there there they're you know, I
feel like every three weeks there's an article that comes
out about why why those dates don't matter?
Speaker 1 (23:44):
I hear yeah, And I'm always reading too with interest
that I'm not so bad because the sour cream in
my fridge it's a few days past and it's the
best by date. I suppose that's when we get the ultimate.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
From that product, right, But we do have sidelines about
that and we we we do, we do go by dates.
But there there we have us. We have some some
standards on that that we follow and UH and share
with our partners and UH, and we can extend some
of those dates based on safety. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
And again I've been talking with if you're just tuning in,
I've been talking with Michelle Orgacia's president and CEO of
Second Harvest Food Bank of Southern Wisconsin. Just these half
hours go by so fast, Michelle, Yeah, a few more
minutes here, And I did want to just touch on
is there a uh We're getting into fall and then
obviously comes winter. Is that the busier time of the year?
(24:37):
But or is there even a sec busy season in
the food pantry industry anymore?
Speaker 2 (24:44):
It depends on what type of busy you know there are.
There are busier seasons for food drives and such. There
are busier seasons for when kids are out of school,
and different types of activities and and food security for kids,
you know increases at different times of year. Uh, I
would say, you know, volunteering often increases, that the interest
(25:04):
in volunteering increases in the fall, into the into the
holiday season, et cetera. Thirty percent of the hours that
are are that that have of that work that folks
work at second harvests are done by volunteers. So we
really do depend on volunteers. Uh. The it's a busy season.
But but food insecurity doesn't really like take a break anytime.
(25:29):
There are ebbs and flows and some of this is
you know for for individuals, it's different for each person
their families. But you know, kids going back to school, Uh,
there are school meals, But it doesn't mean that food
and security goes down. It's it just means that there's
some more consistency for certain meals. But but there's heating
(25:51):
bills that come up, right, so now there's new, new,
new new elements for folks that are are having to
choose between how to pay for those bills and what
types of food they can provide to their family.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
And at the second harvest, of course, money is always
the best right because you guys can stretch a dollar
uh for your purchasing capabilities, way more than your average
or layman consumer.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Yes, we have a lot of buying power. We have
the ability to get a lot of food with a
little bit of money. We we are able to that
food that we rescue. We any any food that we
get at no cost goes out to our partners at
no costs. So, but it doesn't mean that it doesn't
(26:35):
cost us money to procure that food, right. Absolutely, There's
there's the storage, the infrastructure, the other things, and we're
very efficient and effective with what we how we do things.
But it doesn't mean there aren't cost associated with it.
There's there's the you know, the the the building, the refrigeration,
the making sure food is safe, the getting the food
(26:57):
from one place to another, the providing support to our
part partners. There's there's a lot of things that go
into it. So and then just the purchasing of food,
the when we want to purchase produce, milk, eggs, et cetera.
For our partners. We need more money to be able
to do that so that they don't have to then
raise that money and find ways to purchase it themselves.
(27:19):
So the more the more we can get funds for
these purchases. The more we can help provide resources to
our partners, the more they can concentrate their dollars on
their missions, which can help in so many ways. So
when we talk about root causes of hunger, some things
things like lack of access to affordable housing, healthcare, you know, wages,
(27:43):
lots of things go into this. And if we can
help partners by taking the burden of food costs off
of them, they have more resources to put towards missions,
which ultimately help in the bigger picture.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Sure, absolutely, and and so hoping to turn to our
se some progress being made and the statistics going down.
I mean, there's always going to be a need. But
just if you are experiencing tight budgets as well and
there's not much you can give, you could always give your.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Time, Yes, you can. You can give time. You can
become an advocate, You can use your voice. Our website
has a lot of information about that advocacy information. You
can also visit feeding Wisconsin dot org. There is a
lot of ways to use your voice. That way, uh
not to not to not to you know, talk too
(28:36):
much politics here, but we voting is important. I'm not
going to tell you how to vote, but I'm going
to share that voting absolutely, voting in the ways that
you think are going to affect food food food policy, uh,
that are going to help support support the things that
you that matter to you. That's important. So there's there's
(28:57):
a lot of local, state wide, national, you know, you
have you have the ability to influence food insecurity through
your vote.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Absolutely, I agree with you. Michelle Orgay again my guest
this morning. She is the president and CEO of Second
Harvest Food Bank, a southern Wisconsin wonderful organization. You guys
have done such great work over the day. How long
have Second Harvests been around now? Has been about forty
fifty years, more.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Than forty years. Yeah and yeah, and you can you
can find us at Second Harvest sw A in Southwest
dot org. We have lots of information there about how
to get involved and how to participate and yeah it's
this Our history's on there as well.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
All right, again, Michelle, thanks so much. You've been listening
to Madison Forum
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