Muskego pantry lacking food
Donations down during summer, but users still in need
Director Julie Frahmann tallies baked foods July 29 donated by area stores to the Muskego Food Pantry at E.J. Salentine Buick on Janesville Road in advance of a food distribution to about 35 familes. Photo By C.T. Kruger
Muskego — The dog days of summer have brought dog days to the Muskego food pantry, where the shelves are virtually empty, said Julie Frahmann, pantry founder and director.
Donations have been trickling in, especially from restaurants, she said.
"But we have had no significant donations in six weeks," Frahmann said, until this week when food came in from a Girl Scout food drive.
"It's summer and we don't have a lot of people going to church and filling (donation) baskets," Frahmann said. And the schools are out, so almost no food drives are being held, she said.
"It's incredible the difference between fall and winter and early spring and in the summer," said Kristine Huss, pantry volunteer coordinator. Two or three volunteers are usually kept busy sorting food on the mornings before the afternoon food distributions, she said. But in summer she said, "We haven't had anything for them to do."
While donations are down, families' needs are up, Huss said. With schools closed, children are not getting a school lunch for free or at a reduced price, she said.
And even though the economy is believed to be improving, the pantry has seen no drop in the number of families needing help, Frahmann said.
"For every family we have seen are not coming, we're signing up a new family," she said.
Those who cannot come until later in the food distribution go home without some of the food they had hoped to get, Frahmann said. "It's sad."
But they are always grateful, she said.
"They say, 'Thank you for whatever you can afford to give us,' " she said.
The 30 to 40 families the pantry serves every week largely come from Muskego, but also Big Bend, Wind Lake and a few from Waukesha, Frahmann said.
To keep food flowing this summer, Frahmann has been spending about $200 per week buying food. But she said she hopes residents will remember the pantry when they are shopping and toss in a couple of extra cans of fruit or canned meats and other items into collection barrels at Pick 'n Save and Piggly Wiggly.
Or people can drop monetary or food donations off at Salentine Buick. The dealership has given the pantry a home and support.
Besides canned fruit and meat, the pantry particularly needs canned pastas, boxes of rice and potatoes, gelatin desserts and pudding, Frahmann said.
AT A GLANCE
Donations for the Muskego food pantry can be brought to:
• Salentine Buick, 14444 W. Janesville Road, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, until 8 p.m. Wednesdays, 8 a.m. to noon Saturdays
• Pick 'n Save, W17005 Janesville Road
• Piggly Wiggly, S7847 Racine Ave.
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