Showing entries tagged: 'programs'

The Holidays on a Low-Income

What's it like to celebrate the holidays living with a low-income? Lisa Williams, our resident storyteller and blogger, shares some of her feelings about the holidays and her experiences growing up with a low income in the Mississippi Delta, in Chicago, and as an adult in Milwaukee.

Advocating with Clients

"Advocacy" can be such a loaded word to some but for the team on our Helpline, all advocacy means is storytelling. Learn about how they advocate with the callers to our Helpline and help to empower them to live healthier, more stable lives.

The Self-Reliance of Asking for Help

On a recent trip through the Northwoods of Wisconsin to learn about the challenges and opportunities to expand hunger fighting capacity in local communities, many common themes emerged - seasonal employment, the vast distances and the lack of dependable transportation - most of which community members and elected officials are already working on. But there was one cultural challenge that had no easy solution: Sisu. Learn more about Sisu and its corollary cultural value in America.

The Rise of College Food Pantries

When I was traveling the country doing focus groups on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, known as FoodShare in Wisconsin), it became very clear that people with only partial college have it really tough. They are often saddled with debt and having stopped their college course load, they don't have the degree to get the job that would help to get them out of debt. Partial college with debt is like an albatross dragging people from reaching their full potential. And as we are learning, the line between simply being the proverbial poor college student and being a someone with partial college is razor thin.

Thank you for your support of Harvest for Hope

The 2016 state legislative session has wrapped up and unfortunately, we were not able to pass SB 474 Harvest for Hope. Thanks to many of you, we had really good momentum but in the end, we just didn’t have enough time to get the bill scheduled for a full vote. We were able to start an important conversation at the state capitol about the importance of fighting hunger and increasing health outcomes through our state’s magnificent agriculture and food industries. This, to us was a win.