Interchange Food Pantry 2023 Healthy Food Project

Please support the 2023 Healthy Food Project!

The dollars received from the GoFundMe page and our other revenue sources, grants, and individual donations not through this page will be put towards the cost of the three programs of the Healthy Food Project: the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, the Thanksgiving Dinner Giveaway, and the Protein Program.

The 2023 Healthy Food Project cost is $177,056, of which we have raised $104,056, leaving us $73,000 to raise this year.

In 2022, the Interchange Food Pantry provided healthy food to 53,002 guests; 47% were children. Providing children with healthy foods improves their thinking, learning, growing, and staying healthy. For seniors eating the right food helps prevent chronic disease.

The three programs of the Healthy Food Project are:

The Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program is our cornerstone program. The program purchases quality fresh fruits and vegetables directly from Milwaukee wholesale produce companies, the same quality in your local grocery store when donated produce due to poor quality and lack of availability from food banks, grocery stores, food drives, or other options are of poor quality and a lack of availability. The cost of the FFVP is $98,056.

We purchase culturally specific foods such as sweet potatoes, collard, and mustard greens along with popular and healthy fruits and vegetables such as apples, bananas, oranges, pears, cucumbers, onions, peppers, potatoes, and when in season, strawberries and blueberries.

The Thanksgiving Dinner Giveaway provides dignity during the holidays to the underserved by providing a Thanksgiving Dinner to our guests. When most Americans enjoy a traditional holiday meal with their families, many of our guests go without; IFP provided a turkey or ham, the traditional trimmings, and twenty pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables to 992 families the weekend before Thanksgiving in 2022. The cost for the Giveaway in 2023 is $65,000, which will provide 1,000 dinners.

The Protein Program purchases chicken and peanut butter to provide needed protein for our guests. Since the pandemic, at no fault of theirs, food banks, our primary source of free food, cannot offer the same food as in the past due to the high price of foods, an increase in demand, and shortages. We have increased the number of food drives and receive many dry goods for our guests to maintain or improve their health, but frozen poultry is an item that isn’t suitable for food drives, and we are always in need of providing children with peanut butter. The cost of the Protein Program is $14,000.

Your support will help Interchange Food Pantry provide our guests with the right food to eat a healthy and well-balanced diet. IFP believes the food we serve to our families at home should be the same food we provide to our guests, predominately low-income residents; the majority are Black and living in the food deserts of Milwaukee.

IFP is rethinking how food pantries operate by purchasing quality food for our guests when food banks, food drives, and free food options can't supply our pantry with the right food.

Please help with a donation today!

Who we are: Interchange Food Pantry, is a city-wide food pantry serving the city of Milwaukee; serving all who enter our doors. We are a faith based nonprofit organizaion and since 1971 we have served people struggling with food insecurity. We now have three sites serving more than 50,000 people each year who struggle with food insecurity. 82% of our guests live in food desert areas. Children represent 47% of those we serve.

Our mission: To improve the health and well-being of our guests through nutritious food and compassion.

Our vision: Feed all guests who enter our door until there is no one at the door.

Our philosophy: We are committed to offering nutritious foods that impact a young person’s health, growth, and ability to learn. IFP’s food program also helps adults and seniors focus their limited resources on other basic needs including rent, utilities, and medication.

We believe our guests deserve the very best. We focus on providing healthy, appealing, and fresh produce. This past year, IFP invested $103,000 in culturally sensitive and healthy produce.

In 2022, our first Thanksgiving Dinner Givewaway we provided 992 families with a choice of a turkey or ham, the traditional holiday trimings, and 20 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Your gift is extremely important because it provides resources that make an immediate impact and help our neighbors. Please consider making as generous a gift as you can through this GoFundMe page or by texting INTERCHANGE to 53-555 or by mailing a check to Interchange Food Pantry, 1105 N. Waverly Place, Milwaukee, WI 53202. Please make your check out to "Interchange Food Pantry" and write "Healthy" in the memo line.

Peace & Happiness from the IFP Board of Directors, Staff, and Volunteers!