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TWO RIVERS - Nearly 400 low-income families in the Lakeshore area may have a tougher time filling their kitchen cupboards, as the Two Rivers-Mishicot Ecumenical Pantry could close by Christmas.
Leaders say they don’t have enough cash to keep the food pantry running beyond the holidays. Administrators have been tapping into reserves to pay the electricity bills, salaries and other expenses. That money could run out soon without help.
“Donations have gotten smaller,” said Jackie Ackerman, president of the pantry board. “We’re running out of time.”
The pantry, known as TREP, receives donations from a number of area churches, but the dollars have declined as churches have closed or lost membership, she said. Also, some corporate donors, like Hamilton Manufacturing and Manitowoc Cranes, have closed or left the area.
“The last few years we’ve been able to survive on reserves,” Ackerman said. “But those are nearly gone now.”
TREP is state sponsored, and it receives commodity items to distribute to clients. Local food drives also keep shelves stocked. But funds are needed both to run the site and to purchase food items that typically aren’t donated, TREP director Lynn Skarvan said.
Leaders have planned two fundraisers and hope corporate and other donors will step up. The ultimate goal is to bring in enough money to keep doors open and rebuild reserves.
If TREP closes, clients likely will need to rely on Manitowoc food pantries, which could be a challenge as many don’t have reliable transportation, Skarvan said. Those pantries also face challenges to keep up food supplies.
TREP served 20 families when it first opened in 1983. Today, around 379 families rely on its services, including 400 children. Many clients are elderly, disabled or are part of a growing number of the working poor — those who have jobs but don’t make enough to pay bills and feed their families.
Clients can visit the pantry twice a month, although no one is turned away.
In addition to giving away food, TREP distributes school supplies, coats and mittens, Christmas gifts for children and other needed items to families, Ackerman said.
“We are providing a needed service,” she said. “Any support people could give us is very needed and goes to help people in the community.”
Other food pantries also need support.
Lisa Stricklin, program and outreach director for The Salvation Army Manitowoc County, says the organization's food pantry serves 400 families per month.
“The needs of the food pantry outweigh our abilities to give people what we would like,” Strickland said. “We would like to offer healthy foods, not just ramen noodles, but we don’t have the money for that.”
Families can visit once per month, she said. But like at TREP, clients are never turned away.
“We have people come in halfway in between and say they are barely squeaking by, they don’t have any food in their home," she said. "We do the best we can to help them."
Food insecurity is an ongoing issue in the Manitowoc area.
About half of the Manitowoc Public School District’s 5,000 students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, according to district superintendent Mark Holzman. Schools also provide breakfast for students, and teachers have snacks on hand for students who may come to school hungry.
According to a 2018 study by the League of Women Voters of Manitowoc County, food pantry use in the county rose 53% from 2012 to 2017.
Yvonne Sharlein is supervisor of the Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program, which provides food to pantries in a nine-county area including sites in Maribel, Two Rivers and the Salvation Army in Manitowoc. The county received almost 178,000 pounds of commodity foods from the federal government in 2017, she said. But that's a small portion of the 300 tons distributed by the three local pantries she works with.
Many businesses and individuals support local pantries, including Manitowoc’s Helen Gajdys Reis and Lester Reis Endowment Fund, which each year gives at least $5,000 each to TREP and Peter’s Pantry.
George Reis, who helps administer the fund named for his parents, said things have gotten tougher for food pantries and other nonprofits as local manufacturing has declined.
“When you get outside companies running businesses in Manitowoc County, they don’t have that social sense of responsibility for the community," he said. "Others need to step up to fill the need.”
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