Group fighting to keep local food pantry open

The clock is ticking on the Indianhead Community Action Agency (ICAA) Food Pantry in Medford.

With the loss of state and federal funding ICAA announced plans to close the pantry at the end of September.

The Ladysmith-based agency operates a pantry located on Hwy 13 in the city of Medford. It is currently open three days a week. It is staffed by 19 volunteers and a paid manager who drives from Marshfield to do the ordering and oversee the pantry. About 350 households utilize the ICAA Food Pantry in Medford each month. Of that number 51% are from the city of Medford and 45% from elsewhere in Taylor County.

The ICAA pantry is the largest single food program in Taylor County and while there are pantries and food events held elsewhere in the community, including a monthly food distribution at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Medford at a pantry at First Baptist Church in Medford, there are none that have the capacity to handle the additional load if the Indianhead Pantry closes its doors. closes its doors.

A large coalition of individuals concerned about combatting hunger in the community and ensuring a continued food pantry in Medford have met three times since the announcement that the ICAA Food Pantry would close if nothing was done. In that time, the group has been able to secure funding to keep the pantry operating in its current location through the end of the year, buying some time to make long range plans for the future of the food pantry.

Padraig Gallagher, executive director of Feed My People, a regional food bank that provides food to ICAA Food Pantry, has helped facilitate the meetings with area individuals.

As the only food bank in West Central Wisconsin, FMP serves 14 counties, including Rusk and Taylor. FMP is actively coordinating with local hunger-relief partners and community stakeholders to assess needs and plan for next steps. The Indianhead closures are expected to take place on September 30, and FMP is preparing for immediate and long-term responses to prevent gaps in food access and ensure a smooth transition.

'While the details are still being finalized, our focus remains on making sure no one in our region goes without the food they need,' said Padraig Gallagher, executive director of Feed My People. 'We will work with remaining partners and community stakeholders in Ladysmith and Medford to explore options and maintain support.”

Gallagher said FMP remains committed to continuing to help bring food to the community to help keep the pantry shelves stocked. However, he told the more than 30 community representatives at last week’s meeting held at First Baptist Church in Medford that FMP will not run the pantry in Medford.

Instead, Gallagher explained there needs to be a local group that is running it and who will be responsible for staffing it. None of the existing pantries have the space or the ability to take over the role the ICAA pantry has.

The short-term crisis is that without action, the food pantry was set to close at the end of September. Mike Bub, who in addition to serving on the Medford City Council and the Taylor County Board of Supervisors, operates Medford Area For Tomorrow Inc. (MATI), offered his organization to be the fiscal agent and conduit for receiving monetary funding and making expenditures. However, he noted that the bylaws of MATI prohibit them from directly having people on payroll. He explained that while they could help with the financial side, the site manager would need to be listed as an employee of another organization. Representatives from area churches are looking into having the manager be employed through their organizations.

The property manager for the building the shelter is currently renting, stated that as long as the rent is being paid, the shelter can remain there as long as it wants. ICAA currently is paying about $1,100 in rent each month, which includes utilities.

It was projected that it would cost close to about $8,000 to keep the shelter in its current location and staffing level through the end of December. This would address the immediate short-term crisis and buy time for the community to address the long-term question of food pantry ownership and operation. At a meeting on Wednesday afternoon, it was announced that donors have come forward to make that possible.

According to Gallagher, in the experience of FMP, the most sustainable community-based food pantries are ones where they own their building and therefore minimize ongoing costs due to rent. It was noted that it is easier to have a successful community fundraising drive to purchase a building than to get support for ongoing expenses such as rent.

The challenge of owning a building is that there are ongoing costs associated with repairs, insurance, snow removal, garbage collection, to name a few. Those at the meeting with experience in owning and renovating commercial buildings said there are ways to reduce operation costs, but said they needed to recognize that there were costs to ownership versus renting.

Another major long-term discussion is centered on leadership. While FMP committed to continuing to be a food supplier for the pantry, they are not interested in taking over management of the pantry here. Ideally, a community organization could be formed to establish an independent Taylor County food pantry.

The focus at this time is to get interested people together to form a five to seven member board to begin the process of getting the organization up and running. It will be up to that board and the organization to determine if the current location remains viable or if other opportunities exist. This group would also work with long-term funding of a community-based pantry.

As of October 1, FMP will also take over administration and distribution of The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) in Rusk, Taylor, Clark, Sawyer, Washburn and Burnett counties. The USDA program, which provides nutritious, high-quality food at no cost to eligible households, will continue to be administered by ICAA until September 30. 'Feed My People looks forward to coordinating with ICAA during this transition,' Gallagher said. 'We are excited to partner with current TEFAP pantries and hope to grow the impact of this important program in the region.'