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St. Vinny’s Williamson Street thrift store has been recognized for architectural and design achievement and is honored to receive a 2025 Historic Preservation Award. Our thrift store and adjoining Social Service Suite on Madison’s east side was chosen as this year’s Sensitive Infill Award from Madison Trust for Historic Preservation.

This space is extra special because our charitable service in Dane County began in the Williamson-Marquette neighborhood where the store stands today.

Building History

In 1925 parishioners at St. Bernard’s Catholic Church and Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Madison formed our first St. Vincent de Paul conferences. These members visited struggling neighbors in their homes and offered assistance like food, clothing, and other basic essentials. By 1941 the supply closets they kept at the churches for these essentials were becoming too full. With a $1,000 loan from St. Vincent de Paul friends in Milwaukee, members purchased the building at 409 S. Baldwin Street in Madison to form a “Salvage Bureau” to give away clothing and household goods to families in need.

This “Salvage Bureau” later turned into a thrift store when the amount of donated goods exceeded the amount they could give away. The store grew in 1954 with the addition of the J.A. Brady Garage next door, and again in the late 1970’s and 1980’s with the addition of former retail and restaurant space. The house formerly on the corner of Baldwin and Williamson street served as our food pantry during the 1990’s until 2008. It then provided housing for women leaving incarceration and office space for our housing program. 

Today, the first floor of this beautiful remodeled and expanded space is all retail, supporting our mission and anchoring our thrift store operations. The second floor is program space for our social services programs. It’s home to the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Program which provides housing stabilization support for newly-housed families. It’s also home to our microlending program which helps people escape predatory debts including payday and auto title loans. This building stays true to the character of the Williamson-Marquette Neighborhood history and stays true to our history of service in Dane County.

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Special Thanks To…

As 2024 comes to a close, here are the top 5 best stories that resonated most with St. Vincent de Paul — Madison supporters this year. These stories celebrated the inspiring legacy of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and shared the excitement of St. Vinny’s Willy Street Grand Reopening. They highlighted the benefits of volunteering, shared some of the recycling efforts at the Processing Center, and unveiled the 2024-2027 Strategic Plan. Here are the top 5 best stories that captured the heart of what makes St. Vincent de Paul — Madison special, quality programming for neighbors in need and fabulous thrift shopping for all.

#5 / 2024-2027 Strategic Plan

Kicking off the top 5 list is the 2024-2027 Strategic Plan. St. Vincent de Paul — Madison will focus on three key goals over the next three years: improving service delivery, reigniting Vincentian values, and cultivating an equitable community. These efforts aim to enhance communication and accessibility, inspire exceptional neighbor services rooted in faith, and foster a sense of belonging for all involved in the organization’s mission. Guided by simplicity, humility, gentleness, selflessness, and zeal, St. Vincent de Paul — Madison remains committed to responding to neighbors’ changing needs while embodying its core values in every aspect of its work.

 

 

#4 / Recycling Efforts at SVdP Processing Center

An amazing team of dedicated staff at the Processing Center sort, hang and price your quality donations. Once items have been processed, staff distribute them to seven St. Vinny’s Thrift Stores across Dane County. Any unsold goods are sent to Dig & Save Outlet Store where they’re sold by the pound! Centralized processing ensures stores receive ready-to-sell items while maximizing the sustainability of donations through extensive recycling efforts. By donating and shopping at St. Vinny’s Thrift Stores, you support neighbors in need, protect the planet, and contribute to a mission aligned with global sustainability goals.

#3 / 9 Benefits of Volunteering

Next on this list is a nod to the many, many volunteers serving in the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry! Volunteering offers many benefits that can enhance both your life and the lives of others. It provides a sense of purpose and community, helps you meet new people, and strengthens your social skills while boosting self-esteem and teaching valuable skills. Beyond personal growth, volunteering can bring fun, happiness, and creativity into your life, helping you step out of your comfort zone and make a meaningful impact in your community.

#2 / St. Vinny’s Willy St Grand Reopening

St. Vinny’s Willy St fully reopened in October with an expanded retail space, additional dressing rooms, a larger furniture and mattress area, and eco-friendly solar panels. Above the store, the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and Microlending Programs provide essential support to neighbors in need, including family services, job assistance, and affordable loans. A stunning mural in the lobby connects the thrift store’s history with its charitable mission, reflecting St. Vinny’s ongoing commitment to serving Dane County with modern, sustainable, and impactful facilities.

 

#1 / Celebrating St. Elizabeth Ann Seton’s Life and Legacy, January 4th

The most popular story of 2024 celebrated the life and legacy of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton! She was a widow, mother, and Catholic convert, who overcame immense personal loss to establish the first U.S. parochial school for girls and co-founded the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph, inspired by St. Vincent de Paul. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul — Madison honors her legacy through the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Program which provides personalized support to single adult families transitioning from homelessness to stability.

Mural for St. Vincent de Paul Social Services Building

This beautiful mural now hangs in the lobby of the new St. Vincent de Paul Social Services Building! Above St. Vinny’s Willy St. at the intersection of Williamson and Baldwin Streets in Madison, the mural will welcome people into the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and Microlending program spaces.

A huge round of applause goes to Eva Pratt, St. Vinny’s Verona Assistant Store Manager, for creating this art! Additional thanks to Deborah Goedel, St. Vinny’s Verona Store Manager and Leighla Baney, St. Vinny’s Waunakee Assistant Store Manager, for their design collaboration.

The mural showcases and highlights the connection between our thrift stores and charitable programs across Dane County. Two more panels will be installed beneath the stairs. While four separate pieces of artwork, each panel flows together. When asked about the inspiration, Eva said…

“The ideas were all of ours, we collaborated. We thought about the services that we, Society of St. Vincent de Paul — Madison, offer and talked about the history of our first thrift store on Williamson Street. It was interesting doing research on the store to understand our history. We went with a somewhat 1950s vibe with that section. I knew the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Program was going to be upstairs in this building, so I thought that it would be a really nice visual of the mother and children walking up to people helping them. We did some preliminary sketches, looked it over all together, and came to agreement on what looked good. After that, I went for a cleaner sketch and designed the final artwork.”

On June 25th, St. Vincent de Paul — Madison joined with 35 other Dane County food pantries to raise awareness about the increased need for food assistance. The group hosted a press conference on the steps of the Wisconsin State Capitol to share a letter to the community published in the Wisconsin State Journal. The goal of the activity was to encourage people to donate to local pantries to buy food, and collaborate on solutions that will reduce food insecurity long-term.

Thank you for the work you have already done and continue to do to support neighbors in need – specifically through food. Thanks to you, neighbors receive quality food and personal-care items from the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry when they cannot afford to buy them themselves. Thanks to you, seniors without transportation receive groceries each week delivered to their home. Thanks to you, families have the ability to order dietary-friendly and culturally-relevant food from our pantry to feed their families.

By consistently providing food and personal-care items to our neighbors in need, you help them alleviate some financial burdens and help them free up budget space to afford other necessary bills.

Dane County, we need your help.

As Dane County food pantries, we serve thousands of people in our community each day. Our shared mission is to make sure our neighbors don’t face hunger.

But we are facing a serious challenge.

Visits to many of our food pantries have more than doubled in the past two years. We know some of the reasons why. Food prices are higher and rent is rising more here than anywhere else in the country. Federal assistance that helped people make ends meet during the pandemic is gone. We are also the fastest-growing county in Wisconsin. Nearly 13% of kids in Dane County were food insecure in 2022, up from 7.5% in 2021 — and that was before our food pantries started seeing drastic increases in demand.

We’re also spending more on food than ever before.

The options we have to keep our shelves stocked continue to shift and are more limited than they were just a few years ago. Buying food in bulk is more expensive now and our traditional suppliers of free food can’t keep up with the demand. Permanent changes to the food system over the last few years mean there is less surplus available for our food pantries.

These trends make it challenging to keep food on our shelves.

Food pantries have worked hard to stretch our resources, space, and teams as far as possible. The pressure will rise in the coming weeks as kids have less access to free food with schools out for the summer.

You can help.

Making a financial donation to your local food pantry enables them to purchase needed food. We welcome food drives and volunteers, too. We know there is no quick or easy fix to food insecurity and the structural and economic factors that drive it. So we urge our local, county,
state, and federal officials, as well as other community leaders, to help find long-term solutions to food insecurity. We can’t do it alone.

This is a critical moment for us to come together for our neighbors.

When our community supports local food pantries, we are stronger. With access to food, kids can learn, families can work, and seniors can stay healthy. It will take all of us to meet this challenge and make sure our neighbors don’t experience hunger. We are committed to doing all
we can. We are asking you to join us.

In partnership with you,

Allied Food Pantry
Babies & Beyond of WI, Inc.
Badger Prairie Needs Network
Bayview Community Center Pantry
Catholic Multicultural Center
Community Action Coalition for South Central Wisconsin
Deerfield Community Center
East Madison Community Center
Extended Hands Pantry
Fountain of Life Covenant Church
Good Shepherd Food Pantry
Goodman Community Center’s Fritz Food Pantry
Grace Food Pantry
Great Lakes Dryhootch Madison
Heights Unlimited Community Resource Center (Mazomanie)
Islamic Community of Madison
Kennedy Heights Food Pantry
Lakeview Food Pantry
Lussier Community Education Center – Food Pantry
Mission Nutrition DeForest
Neighborhood House Community Center Food Pantry
Neighbors Helping Neighbors, Mt. Horeb
Oregon Area Food Pantry
OutReach LGBTQ+ Community Center
Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin
Society of St. Vincent de Paul – Madison Food Pantry
St. Mark’s Lutheran Church Food Pantry
Stoughton Food Pantry
Stoughton United Methodist Church Food Pantry
Sun Prairie Food Pantry at Sunshine Place
The Keep Food Pantry
The River Food Pantry
Vivent Health Food Pantry
Waunakee Food Pantry
WayForward Resources
Willy Street Pantry at the Social Justice Center

Donate Now

Without food pantries, thousands of people in our community wouldn’t have access to enough food to meet their basic needs.

The demand across six of Dane County’s largest food pantries has reached record highs, more than doubling over the last two years, while charitable giving has plummeted nationwide during that same time period. The 112% increase represents the average increase in the number of household visits across the six pantries between December 2021 and December 2023.

Up to this point, community support has been a critical part of how pantries have met the need, local pantry leaders said.

“We have never turned anyone away, but we have had to put some limits on the amount of food people can take,” said Ellen Carlson, executive director for WayForward Resources in Middleton. “We worry about how we and other local food pantries can continue to ensure that everyone in our community has access to nutritious food.”

The pressure on pantries to meet the need escalated in Spring 2023 as pandemic-era supports phased out, including the expanded child tax credit, universal free school lunches, and increased federal food and rental assistance.

“In the past four years, we’ve felt the impact of a pandemic, inflation, high housing costs and increased migration,” said Tracy Burton, Badger Prairie Needs Network Food Pantry Director. “All of these combined have resulted in over five times the number of visits to our pantry from pre-pandemic levels.”

Rhonda Adams, executive director of The River Food Pantry, said the number of households in need of the pantry’s services began growing steadily over the past few years and then surged when most pandemic relief programs phased out last spring, resulting in over 276,000 visits by households in need of groceries and meals in 2023 alone. “Food insecurity is a communal issue, even if we may not always recognize when it is affecting our friends and neighbors, and support from the broader community will continue to be essential to successfully addressing it,” Adams said.

While inflation has slowed down, prices for basic goods and housing have not returned to pre-pandemic levels. The consumer price index, the most widely-followed measure of inflation, remains about 20% higher than it was before the pandemic. In addition, the steep increase in housing costs in Dane County means many households in our community have to focus even more of their income on rent.

“Many of our customers are people who are employed full-time and finding it necessary to choose between paying bills and buying food,” said Francesca Frisque, Goodman Community Center food pantry assistant director, who said growth there has been consistent and “sometimes staggering.”

“We’re thankful for so many generous partners throughout the community, and we have an incredible base of donors who give regularly. Even still, we’re not seeing as many donations come in, and we’re having a hard time keeping our shelves stocked,” Frisque said. “Without help from the community, we wouldn’t be able to meet the need of our Madison neighbors.”

Food pantries help families stretch their budgets so they don’t have to go without basic necessities and can continue to cover costs such as filling their gas tank to get to work and paying for prescriptions.

“We continue to respond to escalating pantry need with a variety of food options so people and families don’t have to choose between paying rent and buying groceries,” said Chris Kane, senior director of client services at the Society of St. Vincent de Paul — Madison.

Here are some of their stories:

“We won’t turn anyone away, and we’re spending more money each month to make sure our shelves are stocked,” said Catie Badsing, manager of food security programs at the Sun Prairie Food Pantry at Sunshine Place. As the gap between wages and cost of living continues to widen, Badsing said pantries will keep seeing more new families who need their services. More than 8% of employed adults in Wisconsin live in food insecure households, according to a recent Census Pulse Household Survey.

“Our shifts outside of regular working hours are our busiest, which means most of our customers are working, sometimes multiple jobs,” Badsing said.

There is a misconception that food pantries operate mainly with state or federal support, but only a small amount of food comes in through the federal Emergency Food Assistance Program. Instead pantries must stock their shelves by relying on a complex web of systems and collaborations. That includes strategic partnerships like those with Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin, food rescues from local grocery and convenience stores, as well as monetary and food donations from businesses, foundations, churches, and individuals.

“Unfortunately, many grants have stayed at the same levels, pandemic era funding is gone, our guests’ SNAP benefits have been reduced, and our food banks have been struggling to keep up with this growth,” said Burton from Badger Prairie Needs Network. “We’ve been grateful to be in a community that has always risen to the need — but with this enormous growth, we will need to find new sources of food and/or money or will have to restrict access to the pantry.”

While generous food drives at the end of 2023 had a major impact for people in our community, hunger doesn’t end with the holiday season. Donations of money, food and your volunteer time can all make an immediate difference in the lives of so many of our neighbors who need our support now more than ever.

You voted St. Vinny’s Thrift Stores as the best around town. Thank you! And, thank you for shopping and donating. We are proud to operate quality thrift stores and bring you unique, one-of-a-kind events.

Recent awards:

Madison Magazine Best of Madison:
Madison.com People’s Choice:
Waunakee’s Tribune Best of Waunakee Awards:
Sun Prairie STAR Best of Sun Prairie Awards

 

During November, National Homelessness Awareness Month, take a moment to learn about the realities of homelessness. In our own community, roughly 750 Madison Schools – MMSD students currently experience homelessness.

Key definitions:

  • Homelessness: “a condition in which an individual or family lacks a fixed, regular, nighttime residence; resides in a public or private residence that is not designed or intended to be a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings; lives in a supervised shelter designated to provide temporary living arrangements; and/or is at imminent risk of losing their housing and has no subsequent residence identified or resources to obtain other permanent housing.”
  • Unaccompanied youth / homeless families with children: have experienced a long term period without living independently in permanent housing, have experienced persistent instability as measured by frequent moves over such period, and can be expected to continue in such status for an extended period of time because of chronic disabilities, chronic physical health or mental health conditions, substance addiction, histories of domestic violence or childhood abuse, the presence of a child or youth with a disability, or multiple barriers to employment.

Source: Cornell Law School

Media coverage about the Society of St. Vincent de Paul — Madison.

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Expanded Thrift Store

Construction at St. Vinny’s Willy St is DONE! The store, donation drop-off and parking lot are now fully open.

Come shop the new space featuring:

The store is open Monday through Saturday from 10:00 am – 7:00 pm and Sunday 10:00 am – 5:00 pm.

Shop St. Vinny’s at 1309 Williamson Street, Madison, WI 53703.

Women’s clothing, main entrance and check-out

 

Check-out with dressing rooms on back wall

 

Expanded furniture section

Social Services Suite

Above St. Vinny’s Willy Street thrift store is office space for two Society of St. Vincent de Paul — Madison programs. We call this space our “Social Services Suite.” It’s a place for families to meet with case managers and human service professionals, search for job opportunities, identify affordable child care, and access additional resources. The Social Services Suite is home to our St. Elizabeth Ann Seton program and microlending program.

Community Room

 

Kid’s Room

Mural Showcases Thrift Stores + Charitable Programs

A beautiful mural now hangs in the lobby of the St. Vincent de Paul Social Services Building! Designed by Eva Pratt, St. Vinny’s Verona Assistant Store Manager, the mural showcases the connection between our thrift stores and charitable programs across Dane County. Additional thanks to Deborah Goedel, St. Vinny’s Verona Store Manager and Leighla Baney, St. Vinny’s Waunakee Assistant Store Manager, for their design collaboration.

When asked about the inspiration, Eva said, “The ideas were all of ours, we collaborated. We thought about the services that we, Society of St. Vincent de Paul — Madison, offer and talked about the history of our first thrift store on Williamson Street. It was interesting doing research on the store to understand our history. We went with a somewhat 1950s vibe with that section. I knew the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Program was going to be upstairs in this building, so I thought that it would be a really nice visual of the mother and children walking up to people helping them. We did some preliminary sketches, looked it over all together, and came to agreement on what looked good. After that, I went for a cleaner sketch and designed the final artwork.”

Mural welcoming neighbors in to SVdP Madison Social Services Building

Building Plans

Current Plans and Renderings Background and FAQs

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul — Madison will conduct a building project near the intersection of Williamson Street and S. Baldwin Street in Madison. The zone currently hosts the St. Vincent de Paul Williamson Street Thrift Store and the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Program office.

The intent is to demolish two structurally compromised buildings along Baldwin Street – as well as the Williamson Street store’s book room, which shares the lot with one of those buildings. A two-story building at the Baldwin Williamson corner will be erected and a single-story building will be expanded retail space, while the new corner building’s second floor will house the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Program, supportive services for single parents of minor children to stabilize their housing and lives.

Brief History

The core mission of the District Council of Madison – Society of St. Vincent de Paul is helping Dane County neighbors in need. A nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization, the Society has been engaged in that mission in Madison since 1925 and has had a physical locus in the Williamson-Marquette neighborhood since 1941, when SVdP Madison opened a store on Baldwin Street. From that location, St. Vincent de Paul’s retail and service complex grew organically around the Baldwin corner to Williamson Street to become the Society’s local flagship thrift store. The parcel at the corner of Williamson and Baldwin streets has since served as the Society’s busy food pantry and then as the office location of the Seton House women’s transitional housing program – as well the site of the adjoining Willy Street store’s book room.

The Williamson-Baldwin corner property and the original Baldwin Street portion of the thrift-store complex have clearly reached their end of life. SVdP Madison has been advised that the corner “Seton 2” building, an old balloon-frame structure, is not sound enough to salvage and remodel. Compromised wooden roof trusses of the Baldwin retail property have led the Society to empty that space and leave it unused for its usual purpose. The century-old concrete structure of the Baldwin store space is of unknown design capacity. After carefully considering options, St. Vincent de Paul is seeking to rebuild in the footprint of these two parcels. New construction designed to sensitively honor the look and feel of the local traditional shopping street and historic district will best serve the interest of safety, modern code compliance, energy efficiency, sustainability, and avoidance of unintended consequences.

These are key objectives for the future of properties SVdP Madison intends to continue using for purposes toward which the site has long been put. Those purposes are supporting and meeting the Society’s mission by selling and giving away donated goods and by offering other charitable services to local households in need. Through new, historically sensitive construction, SVdP Madison’s plan is to devote almost all first-floor space to retail and – for the corner – parcel create second-floor space focused on serving neighbors in need through SVdP Madison charitable programming.

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