Drive Change – 2026 SVdP Madison Car Raffle
MADISON, Wis. — The Society of St. Vincent de Paul — Madison is holding its “Drive Change – 2026 SVdP Madison Car Raffle,” offering community members the chance to win one of five brand-new vehicles while supporting charitable services for neighbors in need across Dane County.
Running May 4 through June 30, the raffle will fund SVdP Madison’s core programs, including its food pantry, charitable pharmacy, and housing assistance efforts. The organization serves more than 100,000 people each year.
Five winners will be drawn. Two 2026 Honda CR-Vs, two 2026 Nissan Rogues, and one 2026 Maxda CX-50 will be raffled off.
Tickets are $100 each, and only 5,000 are available.
Proceeds from the raffle will provide groceries, medications, rent assistance, and other essential support to Dane County families facing financial hardship.
How to participate:
- From May 4 to June 30, tickets will be available at St. Vinny’s Thrift Stores. In the stores, there are large posters with QR codes that lead to the ticket purchase page.
- From June 1 to June 30, tickets will be available in person and online.
The raffle drawing will take place on July 1, 2026, at 12:00 ppm at Russ Darrow Mazda of Madison. Winners do not need to be present to win. Learn more here.
Dane County Food Pantries Launch Collaborative Bulk Purchasing Effort with 20-Ton Beef Delivery
Six major pantries partner with Second Harvest and local foundation to meet rising food insecurity through innovative cost-saving strategy
MADISON, Wis. — April 14, 2026 — Six of the largest food pantries in Dane County—The River Food Pantry, Badger Prairie Needs Network, Goodman Community Center, Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Sunshine Place and WayForward Resources—will gather at Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin for an exciting delivery on Wednesday, April 15 at 8 am. Media are invited to arrive at 7:45 am.
This marks the launch of a new bulk order process, representing a new and creative approach to working together to meet growing community needs. This initial shipment of 20 tons of beef, ordered through Second Harvest, will be distributed across the six pantries and made available to neighbors experiencing food insecurity throughout Dane County.
“This collaboration represents what’s possible when organizations come together with a shared purpose,” said Rhonda Adams, Executive Director of The River. “By pooling our resources and thinking differently, we can stretch every dollar further and ensure more families have access to the nutritious food they need.”
Local food pantries are facing sustained, unprecedented demand. Many are now serving two to four times as many households as just a few years ago. This increase is driven by several factors, including population growth, rising food costs, and, most significantly, the sharp increase in housing expenses. As more families struggle to keep up with basic needs, food pantries are playing an increasingly critical role in filling the gap. Recent and anticipated reductions in federal support, including SNAP and Medicaid, are expected to place even greater pressure on both families and the emergency food system.
At the same time, traditional free food supply sources have not kept pace with this surge in demand. As a result, pantries are relying more heavily on purchased food to keep shelves stocked. This challenge brought these pantries together to explore whether buying in bulk could reduce costs and increase the total amount of food available to the community.
As the group of pantries developed this approach, the Dan & Patti Rashke (TASC) Family Foundation stepped forward with a generous investment to support this pilot effort. Wednesday’s delivery is made possible through their commitment to innovative solutions to significant community issues.
“The Dan & Patti Rashke (TASC) Family Foundation is excited to support the collective as they take a coordinated approach to meeting community needs,” said Abby Schulz, Community Investment Administrator at the Dan & Patti Rashke (TASC) Family Foundation. “We believe in giving nonprofits the space to try new approaches and build on what works, and hope efforts like this encourage others to lean in and support creative solutions across our community.”
Over the coming months, the group of six food pantries, in partnership with Second Harvest, will continue to pilot and refine this collaboration. The partners look forward to identifying meaningful ways for the community to support and strengthen this work in the future. In the meantime, they encourage continued support for the individual needs of participating pantries, including expanded space and financial resources to meet increased demand.
Delayed SNAP Benefits Cause Significant Increases in Demand at Area Food Pantries
Families across Dane County are feeling the effects of SNAP benefit delays in Dane County, as federal funding interruptions leave many without the food assistance they depend on. Local food pantries like ours are stepping in to fill the gap, but with record demand and limited resources, the strain is growing. Here’s how we’re responding with our fellow pantries, and how you can help ensure no one goes hungry.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 4, 2025
MADISON — Six of Dane County’s largest food pantries are already seeing the impacts of SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) delays. SNAP, known as FoodShare in Wisconsin, provided benefits to nearly 65,000 people in Dane County in 2024. As America’s most extensive anti-hunger program, it gives out monthly government benefits to low-income households to help them purchase food. Even before SNAP benefits lapsed over the past weekend due to the federal government shutdown, many area food pantries began seeing increases as people turned to them to fill anticipated gaps. This comes on top of significant demand increases that Dane County food pantries have already experienced over the last several years.
“The disruption to the SNAP program is already creating additional pressure as we enter our busiest time of year,” reports Rhonda Adams, Executive Director of The River Food Pantry. “The River provided nearly 500 grocery orders and over 900 take-home meals in a single day last week, even before benefits were delayed. That is our busiest day ever outside of a holiday week. We are bracing for a surge in need, both among current clients and families who have not been visiting a pantry. I spoke to people waiting for their groceries last week, and most worried about how they will replace the meals that FoodShare covered, even with the support available from local pantries.”
Other food pantries are also seeing significant increases in visitors. “Last Tuesday, we saw our highest number of customers ever in our food pantry,” said Goodman Community Center’s Director of Food Resources, Francesca Frisque. “This included a large number of new shoppers who had never visited our pantry before. The rest of the week continued to be high, and we anticipate more this week.”
Food pantries are bracing for hard weeks ahead. Yesterday, in response to a federal judge’s order to release a contingency fund, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that this contingency fund would only cover $4.6 billion of November’s SNAP benefits, roughly half of what is typically distributed each month. No timeline was provided for when people would receive these benefits.
Despite these challenges, Dane County food pantries want to emphasize to community members impacted by the delay and partial payment of FoodShare benefits that they are prepared to do everything possible to ensure continued access to basic food. They are seeing firsthand the strain that the delay in benefits, along with the disruption and confusion from constantly changing information, is putting on families.
“People are worried. We’re hearing concern from both those who need help and those eager to offer it,” said Ann Maastricht, Executive Director of Sunshine Place. “Sunshine Place and our partner pantries across Dane County have food and support available, and together with community support, we are making sure everyone who needs help can get it.”
For now, food pantries are filling a critical gap. Although they can do this for a short time, food pantries can’t be the permanent solution. “Food pantries and SNAP are intended to work together to combat food insecurity,” said Chris Kane, Senior Director of Client Services at St. Vincent de Paul — Madison. “Food pantries cannot replace SNAP. According to Feeding America, for every one meal provided by food pantries, the SNAP program provides nine meals. That is too large a gap for the charitable sector to replace.”
Community members can give now to their local food pantry to make sure pantries continue to have food to meet the surge in demand. Even after the SNAP crisis ends, community support will still be critical as we head into the holiday season. “Crisis or not, hunger doesn’t take a break,” said Marcia Kasieta, Business and Development Director at Badger Prairie Needs Network. “Even when SNAP funding begins to return, record-setting need will continue. And with more federal cuts on the horizon, even more vulnerable families will be affected. Dane County has one of the most organized and collaborative food pantry networks in the country — but we rely on the strength and generosity of our wider community to help lift our neighbors through tough times.”
Cash donations enable pantries to target their buying to the most-needed items and to purchase in bulk at lower prices than retail. Most pantries also accept donations of nonperishable food. Check your local food pantry’s website for more details about giving or to see information about volunteer needs they may have.
“WayForward Resources and other local pantries have already seen an incredible response from the community,” said Ellen Carlson, Executive Director of WayForward Resources. “Thank you. We appreciate the monetary and food donations, as well as the offers to volunteer and the concern and support that have all come our way. It is essential. Please continue to partner with us during the delay and reduction in SNAP benefits–and into the future so that we can build a strong community together.”
Contacts
- Anne Shlimovitz, WayForward Resources, anne@wayfordwardresoures.org, (608) 826-3408
- Lisa Marshall, Badger Prairie Needs Network, communications@bpnn.org, (608) 347-2112
- Florence Edwards-Miller, Goodman Community Center, (608) 204-3127
- Becca Bolton, The River Food Pantry, becca@riverfoodpantry.org, (608) 665-0819
- Katherine Addison, St. Vincent de Paul — Madison, kaddison@svdpmadison.org, (608) 442-7200 x37
- Susan Schmidt, Sunshine Place, susan@sunshineplace.org, (608) 478-5556
Photos and logos, approved for press use
About the Food Pantries
About Badger Prairie Needs Network
Founded in 1986, Badger Prairie Needs Network (BPNN) is a volunteer-powered 501(c)(3) nonprofit working to end hunger and reduce poverty in Dane County. In addition to operating one of the region’s most collaborative food pantries and food recovery programs, BPNN offers a range of wrap-around community services, including pro bono legal assistance, onsite social workers through Joining Forces for Families, a commercial kitchen, community meals, and job-training programs in partnership with the Latino Academy of Workforce Development. Demand for food assistance continues to reach historic levels. In 2025, BPNN is on pace to support more than 95,000 neighbors — nearly triple pre-pandemic levels. Learn more at bpnn.org.
About the Fritz Food Pantry at Goodman Community Center
Located on Madison’s east side, the Goodman Community Center strengthens lives and secures futures, through programs focusing on food security, older adults, children ages 3–19, and building community. The Fritz Food Pantry at the Goodman Community Center provides groceries for more than 350 households every week. We believe everyone should have access to a variety of healthy, fresh foods, regardless of their income level, and we’re proud to provide this valuable service to anyone in our community who needs it. The pantry is open three days a week and all are welcome. No pre-registration is required.
About The River Food Pantry
The River is South Central Wisconsin’s busiest food pantry. Services include free groceries for pickup or delivery, to-go meals, online grocery orders, mobile meals, and after-hours food lockers. The River also recovers food and resources—that would otherwise go to waste—from local retailers. Since 2006, The River has grown to serve over 3,500 people every week in pursuit of its vision: a fully nourished community. Learn more at www.riverfoodpantry.org.
About St. Vincent de Paul — Madison
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul — Madison is a membership organization dedicated to helping our neighbors in need. They offer services such as food, prescription medicine, clothing, furniture, household goods, storage lockers and guidance to neighbors in need. Seven St. Vinny’s Thrift Stores across Dane County help fund these services and provide direct charity through a furniture, household goods and clothing voucher program. St. Vincent de Paul — Madison is currently accepting new volunteers during their “Volunteers Are Magic” drive with Magic98. Please visit /event/magic98-volunteer-drive/ to learn more.
About Sunshine Place
Located in Sun Prairie, Sunshine Place is a community resource serving Dane County and surrounding areas. The nonprofit provides a one-stop shop for support, offering its own programs focused on food, housing, and basic needs, alongside co-located partner agencies that provide additional wraparound services. The largest of Sunshine Place’s programs is the Sun Prairie Food Pantry, a full-choice pantry open six days per week and serving households across Dane County and beyond. The pantry also provides community-based food distribution to children in Sun Prairie and nearby communities through neighborhood and school partnerships. Learn more at https://sunshineplace.org.
About WayForward Resources
WayForward Resources focuses on creating food security and housing stability. Located in Middleton, their food pantry and clothing center are open five days a week to anyone in Dane County. WayForward’s housing stability programs provide case management, referrals, and financial assistance to community members living in the Middleton-Cross Plains School District and part of the west side of Madison. Learn more at wayforwardresources.org.
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Read how your care, compassion and encouragement help neighbors in need. Hope in Action is the Society of St. Vincent de Paul — Madison’s seasonal newsletter sharing the impact of donor support. In it, you’ll find updates from CEO & Executive Director, Julie Bennett, neighbor success stories, volunteer and employee highlights, upcoming events, and more. Want to receive the newsletter in your email Inbox? Sign up here.
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Lacy Garden season began in May
The 26th season of Lacy Garden is underway! Volunteers gathered on May 22nd for a garden blessing with Fr. Brian Wilk and Cheryl Horne from Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish. Volunteers then held an informal reception to kick-off the season, share in community, and appreciate the generosity of the Lacy family who provides the land.
Lacy Garden is part of 10 Madison-area gardens that grow produce for pantries like the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry. Last year, volunteers planted, grew, and harvested 10,000 lbs. of produce from this 1.25-acre sustainable garden.
Each year, volunteers plant over 50 different produce varieties including squash, watermelon, tomatoes, and peppers and are intentional about choosing a wide variety of produce to satisfy varying preferences of pantry users. The garden is an incredible resource for neighbors using the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry as the produce they receive is locally grown, high quality, and extremely fresh. Food pantry users like Donna especially appreciate these vegetables during summer months. Read more here: Bountiful Blessings for Food Pantry Families.
During the harvest season, volunteers pick produce on Monday or Thursday evenings, deliver it to the pantry, and the food goes out to pantry users the very next day – can’t get much more fresh than that.
Want to help?
Many area businesses send employee groups to volunteer at Lacy Garden. If your business has an interest in volunteering, contact Garden Co-Leader Peg O’Donoghue at (217) 649-7210.
New pantry software provides increased food choice and speedy delivery for neighbors
There are many ways to serve our neighbors with dignity. Before the COVID 19 pandemic, neighbors came to the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry to shop for food with the help of a volunteer. Their ability to personally select which food they wanted respected their choices. However, this model did not greatly respect their time. Because of the high number of people visiting the pantry, neighbors often waited 30 – 60 minutes before shopping for food. For many neighbors, time was (and still is) literally money. Waiting this long meant lost wages and added unnecessary stress.
The pandemic forced adaptation. Pantry operations transitioned from in-person shopping to a drive-thru model to keep up with the escalating demand for food. As demand grew even higher, pantry staff needed to adapt again to reduce neighbors’ wait times for food. View the pantry’s usage here: Food Pantry Use by Month.
With help from two volunteers, pantry staff reduced food delivery time by 50% in 2025. New pantry software now provides increased food choice and speedy delivery for neighbors.
A note from pantry staff, Yoshio…
On the first pantry day of January 2025, we launched a new client registration system. It was a slow-going process on day one and, as the line of waiting cars in the street became dangerously long, we almost postponed. But, we survived the launch, and now, after five months of the new system, neighbors are seeing the dividends!
Our goal in implementing the “Bob Software” (affectionately named after local software developer Bob Braier, who generously donated the program) was to use better data to improve quality and speed of neighbor service. I’m happy to report that both of these goals are being met. First, more robust data helps us have better conversations with families during check-in to tailor service. We can now ask questions like, “You marked your family as pescatarian, can we bring you a fish bag?” or “Last time you mentioned you don’t have a kitchen, can we bring out extra ready-to-eat foods today?” Second, the new system includes barcoded cards for all pantry neighbors. Approximately 80% of families using our pantry now have these cards. With a card in hand, check-in is as quick as a scan of a barcode. There is dignity in food choice, of course, and there is also dignity in expeditious service—we are glad to offer the latter for busy families with little time to spare.
The speed of check-in, and customization of service, will only continue to improve as more families register and receive new cards. We are proud to have a culture of adaptation and thankful for all of the volunteers who’ve worked alongside us building this system.
Yoshio Leeper
Food Pantry Coordinator
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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View all 2025 Historic Preservation Award winners
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Special Thanks To…
- Dave Mollenhoff for your invitation and work to complete the application for this award.
- Dimension 4 Madison Design Group, Ron Siggelkow, our architect, and Tina Gordon, our designer, and their teams who had the vision to create a building that meets current program needs and beautifully reflects the history and character of the Williamson-Marquette neighborhood.
- Gary Tree of Advanced Building Corporation and Gary’s team, who turned Ron and Tina’s vision into reality. They faced the challenge of combining six former buildings into a single place. Added thanks to Mike Leiferman and Tony Arts who brought necessary and exceptional engineering skills.
- Williamson-Marquette neighborhood who generously and patiently supported us through this project.
#3 / 9 Benefits of Volunteering
#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






