Hodag Kids food programs help pantry strengthen community

A “stellar” year, said RAFP Executive Director Courtney Smith, due in part to extra outreach during back-to-school events.

“We know we’re not serving as many families as we should be here,” Smith said. “Why? We don’t know, but let’s find a way where we can meet families where they’re at. If that means kids cart home a little bag of food on the weekends, then that’s what we’ll do.”

The pantry purchases 95% of the food that goes in the Weekend Food for Kids bags and it takes about 15 volunteers a week to make it happen. Students are registered through elementary school and they can register older children as well. The cost is about $8 per bag. The program is anonymous and confidential. Parents only have to say they want to participate, indicate how many bags are needed and the ages of the children. They also offer bags for babies.

“It’s not the Rhinelander Area Food Pantry, it’s members of our community that came to the pantry and said this is something we need to do,” Smith said. “It’s completely volunteer-driven, completely community funded, completely neighbors helping neighbors and making sure our kids are fed. We provide the structure; the demand is from the community.”

Another program for kids is the Hodag Snack Attack, a project by a Leadership Oneida County class that provides snacks for students from elementary through high school. It is a “whole student, whole school, whole community approach” to food, Smith said.

“We know the power of food,” Smith said. “There are days, when you’re having a hard day and a little extra snack; a juice box can totally change your world.

“It’s done a lot of leveling I think. Kids are smart – they already know about food insecurity. Sending that message that there’s a whole group of adults in your community that care about you and are going to help make sure that you get the things you need, is a really powerful message we can send kids,” Smith added.

July 11 will kick off the summer Hodag Food Wagon program. Families with children can stop by the Rhinelander District Library lawn from 4-6 p.m. Thursdays. Again, after bumping up outreach efforts, food wagon distribution increased from just shy of 500 bags in 2021 to 1,700 bags of food in 2023. Last year the pantry changed the hours of availability and contents of the bags. Rather than single-serve items, the bags now contain full-size family servings, such as the makings of a spaghetti dinner and a salad, more produce, plus coupons for bread, eggs and milk.

“If the kids are food insecure, the parents are, too,” Smith noted, adding summer is an important time of year to provide a little extra.

“We know there are families for whom the cost of child care in the summer is almost crippling,” she said. “If we can give a bag of food a week that helps out with that and alleviates that cost and keeps that household trucking along, we are happy to do it.”

UW-Extension Food Wise program provides recipes, food samples and games. It’s open to anyone with children and youth at home.

Most of the people who shop at the RAFP are seniors and single adults; children are about 20% of who is served. Ultimately, Smith said would like to see more of these families with children regularly shop at the food pantry.

“We can meet their needs and save them a ton more money than just this bag of food can do,” Smith said. “We have butter and eggs and frozen meat, amazing produce and pantry staples. We can make the largest impact by getting them here.”

Right now the income eligibility for a household of four members is $5,000 per month. Anyone making $5,000 a month or less can shop there. Smith said 10% of Oneida County lives below the federal poverty line; the RAFP income eligibility is 200% of the federal poverty line. People, she said, should be taking advantage of the pantry.

“You want a strong community, a thriving community? Feed it. Literally and figuratively,” Smith said. “This is what we have to do. And our community wants that, which is why we exist.”

For more information about the Rhinelander Area Food Pantry and its programs, visit rhinelanderareafoodpantry.org.