Since Covid, food insecurity has been a growing issue in the U.S. The Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin aims to help people experiencing food insecurity while also helping local farmers.
Michelle Orge, the President of the Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin says, “we are a connector, and we work within 16 counties of southwestern Wisconsin. We gather food from a lot of sources whether it be donated food or purchased food. We then bring the food back to our distribution center in Madison where we inspect it, sort it, and repackage it to make it family ready. Then we send it out to our over 300 partners.”
Orge explains the partners they send food to includes meal programs, pantries, mobile pantries, kids’ cafes, and many others.
Work With Farmers
The Second Harvest Foodbank works closely with local farmers to help provide the food. Orge says that they have a Farm to Foodbank Program. In this program they work with farmers to purchase food from them at a fair market price. This allows them to support food insecure people and farmers at the same time. As part of this program Second Harvest goes to farmers markets and purchases what is left over from the farmers.
“For every dollar we spend on local products, it spurs $1.60 in the local economic activity,” explains Orge. “Helping the local economy, supporting local farmers, and providing good food to people who need it makes this program one with a lot of wins.”
Possible Loss In Funding
Currently the Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin is in jeopardy of losing funding from Dane County. They have had the funding since the beginning of the pandemic but are not currently in the 2025 budget. Orge explains that this funding has allowed them to help so many more people in a wider range, and now there is an even larger need for the program as the numbers for food insecurity have continued to rise by 50% over the last 2 years.
Michelle Orge says that if you want help, contact your county surpervisors to help advocate for Second Harvest to continue to get funding from Dane county to combat the increasing need. She exlpains you can find your county supervisor at board.danecounty.gov. She also says that if you would like to donate then you can do so at secondharvestsw.org.
