MARSHFIELD - About 30 people regularly volunteer at the St. Vincent de Paul Outreach Food Pantry.
They perform a lot of different jobs, everything from unloading truckloads of food that come in from area grocery stores, convenience stores and Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin, to guiding clients around the pantry and helping them choose food. The volunteers' work is crucial, said Stacy Clements, who manages the pantry alongside other duties with the Outreach.
St. Vincent de Paul Outreach is separate from St. Vincent de Paul Store, Clements said.
"We only have five employees (at St. Vincent de Paul Outreach)," Clements said. "Without the volunteers, we couldn't operate the food pantry."
The pantry typically provides food to about 500 families per month, Clements said.
Sharon Draeger, 65, of Marshfield regularly volunteers at St. Vincent de Paul's food pantry.
The work is an extension of some of the fundamental values she learned growing up as a farm girl in rural Auburndale. There weren't social service safety nets in place back then, and if there were, most people would have refused to use them. Instead, neighbors and friends helped other neighbors and friends. Sometimes that meant giving a helping hand. Sometimes that meant sharing food, or sometimes, loaning money.
But Draeger also feels compelled to give of her time for spiritual reasons.
"I believe we are commanded to serve by the Lord," Draeger said. "We are commanded by Scripture to serve: 'Feed the hungry, visit the lonely.'"
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Working for St. Vincent de Paul always was part of her retirement plan. She worked full time in the mail room at ODC in Marshfield, a nonprofit organization that provides skills training and employment services.
It bothered her back then that she simply didn't have time to help out organizations such as St. Vincent de Paul. She said her family donated money, but she always wanted to do more hands-on work, directly helping people.
Once she retired, she immediately began to help out with the food shelf. She fills in when other volunteers can't make it in to the pantry. And she regularly helps unload the food trucks. Working in the ODC mail room helped prepare her for that work, she said, because it helped her develop a strong back and arms.
It wasn't long after she started volunteering at St. Vincent de Paul that she had an experience that highlighted why her effort was so important. As part of its outreach, St. Vincent de Paul opens a toy room at Christmas time, and allows parents to come in and get free toys to give their children.
Draeger said she happened to be working in that toy room when a young mother came in. As the woman picked out some toys, she broke down into tears. The woman told Draeger her story about how the family was grappling with financial setbacks.
"She was terrified of the future," Draeger said. "I gave her a hug, and tried to say something encouraging."
The incident solidified Draeger's resolve to help. She regularly see people in situations similar to that woman when she works at the food pantry. That woman, Draeger said, "taught me a lot."
Draeger said she was "so lucky" to never have been in a desperate financial situation. "But that could change in the blink of an eye."
Stock the Shelves is USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin's biggest community fundraiser of the year, which aims to ensure families in area communities have food for the holidays. Jen Zettel
More about Stock the Shelves
Stock the Shelves is USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin's annual campaign to help local food pantries across our coverage area. The campaign aims to ensure that food banks have enough food to last well after the December holidays have passed, when donations go down but needs stay the same.
Since 2010, Stock the Shelves has raised nearly $5 million for food pantries in northeast and central Wisconsin thanks to the generous donations of newspaper readers and community partners across USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin newspapers, including The Post-Crescent in Appleton and the Fox Cities; The Reporter in Fond du Lac; Green Bay Press-Gazette; The Herald Times Reporter in Manitowoc; Marshfield News Herald; The Northwestern of Oshkosh; The Sheboygan Press; Stevens Point Journal; Wausau Daily Herald; and Daily Tribune in Wisconsin Rapids.
The program is being expanded to include readers of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which helps Stock the Shelves align with the footprint of Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin, which assists people in 36 counties across eastern Wisconsin. Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin serves as a food bank, distributing food to pantries to get to residents. Donations to this year's Stock the Shelves campaign will be distributed by Feeding America to the local communities that the money comes from.
For the 2019 campaign, the goal is to raise funds to provide 1 million meals to feed hungry people. The campaign will run throughout October, which is hunger awareness month.
Here's how to give: Visit www.feedingamericawi.org/stocktheshelvesdonate/.
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Contact Keith Uhlig at 715-845-0651 or kuhlig@gannett.com. Follow him at @UhligK on Twitter and Instagram or on Facebook.
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