Menominee annual food drive benefits community

MENOMINEE — An annual food drive put on by area postal carriers and volunteers collected almost 8,000 pounds of food this year to benefit the Menominee community.

The annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive, to benefit the St. Vincent de Paul food pantry located in Resurrection Church in Menominee, was held Saturday, May 11.

The annual food drive began in 1993, as a partnership between the National Association of Letter Carriers, the postal workers union, and local food pantries. The NALC sponsors this food drive around the country, always on the weekend of Mother’s Day. Nationwide, this food drive has collected more than 1.9 billion pounds of food since it was created.

Jack Nicholas is a St. Vincent de Paul volunteer and the co-chair of the food drive. Nicholas said the drive helps St. Vincent de Paul collect a third of all the food it will need throughout the course of the year to serve local families.

Nicholas said the food pantry has seen a spike in the number of people visiting for food pantry services in the last few years, so this food drive is more important than ever.

Nicholas said that during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the number of people visiting the St. Vincent de Paul food pantry actually dropped, because of increased funding in federal and state assistance programs. Combine the added benefit dollars with school districts providing breakfast and lunch programs and sending food home over weekends, and local traffic at the food pantry dropped.

But now, with those federal and state assistance programs ended, the number of people visiting the food pantry has risen to pre-COVID levels, with many new families visiting the pantry. Nicholas said the pantry has also seen a “sharp increase in the number of children.”

Nicholas said that on average, 15 new families are visiting the food pantry each month. In 2023, St. Vincent de Paul had an increase over the previous year of 179 families, about 16%. And in the last six months, there’s been an increase of 135 families, about 23%.

This year, the Stamp Out Hunger food drive on May 11 collected 7,800 pounds of food, said Ruth Wesoloski, the president of the Menominee St. Vincent de Paul Conference. The drive total yielded 770 bags of donations.

“This was, once again, a very successful endeavor between our group and the postal workers,” Wesoloski said.

“Without this food drive, we would be very hard pressed to have a successful food pantry,” Nicholas said, adding that “with the increases in families needing assistance…this food drive is critical to that.”

In addition to the Stamp Out Hunger drive, on April 27, the Menominee Cub Scouts Pack 4071 held a food drive for the Menominee St. Vincent de Paul. The pack collected about 210 bags of donations, at about 2,000 pounds total, Wesoloski said.

“We are so very grateful to both groups as well as the residents of Menominee for their generosity in helping us in our mission to serve the hungry people in Menominee County,” Wesoloski said.

The Stamp Out Hunger drive used the help of 13 city mail carriers serving Menominee, and two rural carriers, that participate in the food drive, along with volunteers, said Tammy Casperson, a mail carrier and the NALC coordinator for the food drive. Family members of mail carriers and St. Vincent de Paul volunteers also help collect food off of local doorsteps.

Mail carriers, their families and St. Vincent volunteers collected the bags of food on their routes on May 11, loaded them up in vehicles, and transported them to the basement of Resurrection Church, where St. Vincent de Paul volunteers will be sorting and processing all donations.

“It takes about 6-8 hours to process all the food,” Nicholas said, and it takes about 20 volunteers.

“It’s amazing,” Casperson said. “It’s a massive amount of people and tables everywhere…where are you going to put all this!”

Casperson said it’s a day full of energy — mail carriers get to bring their families to work, wear t-shirts instead of their uniforms, the only time each year that happens, and enjoy snacks all day.

“That’s kind of nice, it’s a family day for them,” Casperson said. “I do like the action. It’s a good thing for helping people have more food.”

The pantry collects donations year-round. Nicholas said anyone can drop off nonperishable items, and asks they refrain from donated refrigerated items, due to limited refrigerator space.

St. Vincent de Paul is a 100% volunteer organization, and while it’s associated with the Catholic church, volunteers and visitors don’t need to be religious to use services, Nicholas said. The pantry is always looking for more volunteers, to help staff food pick up shifts, restock or help with applications.

To volunteer to help, or to ask questions about receiving services, people should call 906-863-3405 extension 6.

The food pantry is open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for food collection between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. at Resurrection Church, 2607 18th Street. People can drop in to collect food during pantry hours, they will just need to fill out an application, and then they’ll be provided with food immediately. People can call the number listed above if they’d like to talk to someone about the pantry.

In addition to food pantry services, St. Vincent de Paul also helps people in Menominee with rental assistance and utility payments, if they are struggling to pay bills.

“Financial donations are split between buying food and keeping people in their homes,” Nicholas said.

Nicholas said he’d like to “thank the local community… (and) for all the past years. Every year they come through for us.”

The drive yields around 8,000 pounds of food each year typically, and “that number has been fairly consistent for years, and for a community this small that’s an excellent response,” Nicholas said. “People here tend to be very generous and very supportive of nonprofit organizations.”

That support does not go unnoticed, Nicholas said.