Food for the Hungry, Inc

Poverty and want

Have many faces

Speak many languages

Are of many faiths

And have many causes Who are the poor? A man lost his job because the company closed or moved. He has to compete with many others for a new job. He lacks the skills. He gets behind on his bills, his credit scores tumble. He’s behind on his rent or house payments. Perhaps evicted he’s lost furniture, clothing etc. He’s lost health insurance, hasn’t seen a dentist , can’t afford medications. Many have gone through divorce, fam-ily and friends have abandoned them. Some have had criminal records that stay with them forever it seems. Oth-ers turn to drugs or alcohol in attempt to have a bit of relief from the pain. Some suffer from mental illness. In the Milwaukee area about 1 out of 4 homeless are Veterans. We reach out to serve those who served us. One program in the past two months has found housing for 53 Homeless Veterans and their families, and have been able to provide them with furniture, clothing and household items. It’s a wonderful blessing to be able to help someone who has given up hope on life, to help them start anew.

Partners From a single food pantry and one bakery provider we have grown. We are grateful to the many volunteers, the food pantries and programs that are serving the poor. Milwaukee is one of the poorest metro areas in the country. We’ve been impressed with the col-laboration among food pantries, and other programs and services reaching out to help the poor and the elderly. Whether it’s food or clothing, household items, medical care, hous-ing, or help winding through the pa-perwork that accompanies applying for assistance, more and more programs are willing to help. It’s just a matter of finding them. We are seeing churches of all denomi-nations providing food pantries and programs to serve the poor in their neighborhoods. Fraternal and Social organizations extend their mission to helping those in need. Yes, it’s a new world !

.HELP ! As our program has expanded we have had increasing needs. Whenev-er possible we have the receiving pantries and programs collect and deliver food. Some programs are able to do this, while others need help with transportation. If you could help an hour or two one or two mornings per week, it would certainly be appreciated. Give Mike a call at 414-771-0715 and find out details about helping. Spring, when it comes, will be the time for rummage and garage sales. Some of our volunteers stop by and ask what they plan to do with what they have left over after the sale. We can always find a place for clothing, household items, furniture. We still find stores that throw products that are near the “sell by date” in the dumpster, while some of our poor are going hungry. Ask when you shop….what do you do with the dated products, or the cans or packages that are dented? We have added several stores to our product donor list because someone asked the question. So ask, and if you get a positive answer, give us a call at 414-771-0715 PS. Thanks to our volunteers and donors who make it all possible.

Food for the Hungry, Inc foodforthehungryinc.org.

April 28, 2013 Knights of Columbus Hall 1800 S 92nd Street, West Allis WI 53214

Officers and Directors

President John Schmitz

Vice President Jim Luther

Treasurer Jerald Fetzer

Secretary Betsy Derfus

Coordinator Mike Czarnecki

Adm. Asst Irene Czarnecki

Tech. Director Steven Johnson

Directors Frank Jelen

Charlie Ruzick

Sharon Kimball

Doris White

John Marino

Doug Schuh

Food for the Hungry, Inc is a

501 ( c) 3 Organization

EIN 20-8277733

Donations are tax deductible

Mail to Food for the Hungry, Inc

405 Lynnwood Lane

Brookfield WI 53005

262-784-6591

414-771-0715

Our Providers

We are proud of the bakeries

and stores that are our regular pro-

viders. It is our agreement that

none of what we receive will be re

-sold. Everything we receive is

promptly delivered to those in

need.

Aids Resource Center

Aldi’s (Several Locations)

Atlanta Bread Company

Breadsmith (several locations)

Brownberry Oconomowoc

Brownberry Outlet Brookfield

Einstein Bagels

G Weston Bakery

Grasch’s Foods

Jimmy John’s (Several Locations)

Kaiser’s Bakery

Kwik Trip

Little Debbie

National Bakery (Several Stores)

Panera Bread (Several locations)

Pepperidge Farm (Several sites)

Pick n Save (Several Stores)

Piggly Wiggly (Several stores)

Pizza Express

Rocket Baby Bakery

Roma Bakery

Sara Lee Baking Company

Scardino’s Bakery

Sendik’s Market (Several stores)

Sentry Foods (Several sites)

Starbucks

Wal-Mart

Wild Flour Bakery

Where Does It Go?

We cover a geographic area that

covers most of southeastern Wis-

consin. There is hardly a food pan-

try, meal program or other group

serving the poor that we have not

partnered with.

Food Pantries all over the area

depend on us for bakery. .Some of

them are based in churches while

others are part of a wider service

agency that provides clothing, shel-

ter, and a wide variety of other ser-

vices.

Many of our sites are low in-

come housing facilities. A loaf of

bread often means being able to

afford to fill a prescription.

Homeless men, women and

children are among those receiving

food from the programs. Some liv-

ing under bridges, in abandoned

buildings, cars and other places.

We provide food for programs

that provide shelter for women

and children whose lives are threat-

ened by someone abusing them.

The locations are kept private.

Rehabilitation programs for

those battling to overcome addic-

tion to drugs or alcohol.

Veterans: men and women who

have served our country now find-

ing their lives a struggle as they re-

turn from service unable to find a

job, without a place to stay, or

means of support.

Thank You to our Donors Our “Breadraiser” is an important source of financial support, as well as an opportunity for needed publicity. The people we serve are grateful to this year’s donors. Their generosity enabled us to provide meals to needy veterans as well as provide wonderful raffle prizes. We’re sure we missed a few names by the time we went to print, for that we apologize. There are numerous anonymous donors as well.

Green Bay Packers

Tosa United Methodist Church

Scrub a Dub Car Wash

Jimmy John’s

Ronald McDonald House

Papa Murphy’s

Elliott Ace Hardware

Prasser Kleczka Funeral Home

Mr & Mrs Henry Neizen

Maggiano’s Restaurant

Bevsek-Verbick Funeral Home

Arby’s (Joe)

Starbuck’s Coffee

Nick Lucas

Full Service Car Wash

Mr & Mrs Dick Berka

Toppers Pizza (Emily)

Starbuck’s Coffee (Jen)

Starbuck’s Coffee (Jay)

Arby’s (Jen)

Outback Steak House (Dave)

Herbert H Kohl Charities, Inc.

Milwaukee Bucks (Jill)

Carrabba’s Italian Grill (Fabian)

Double Tree (Amy)

Woodman’s Market (Clinton)

Mitchell’s Food Market

Starbuck’s Coffee (Nancy)

Starbuck’s Coffee (Kasie)

Pick n Save (Manager)



Kohl’s Department Store

Club Paragon (Manager)




Red Lobster (Heather)

Schlossmann’s Honda City (Craig)

Fuddrucker’s (Sue)

Lynne Oszewski


Mr & Mrs Tony Bonesho

Papa Murphy’s

Starbuck’s (Manager)

Magoo’s Sports Bar (Tom)

Sports /Clips

Milwaukee Brewers

Knights Popcorn

Jimmy John’s (Manager)

Texas Roadhouse

Landmark Senior Apartments W.A.

West Allis Senior Center

Cheesecake Factory

Oscar’s Frozen Custard

Carmelites of Wauwatosa

St. Roman’s Parish

St. James Parish

Redi-Quick Dry Cleaners

Town Beer & Liquor

Sam’s Club

Hardees

Starbuck’s Coffee (Patti)

Sue Nowak

Lynch’s

Oasis Senior Center

Sharon’s Unique Salon

Jimmy John’s (Manager)

Jill Ardis


Alioto’s Restaurant

Charlotte Muha


Trader Joe’s

Harder Funeral Home

Piggly Wiggly (Ted)

Sears Roebuck

Starbuck’s Coffee (Manager)

Stir Crazy

Arby’s (Manager)


Pick n Save (Manager

Pick n Save (Manager


Baychar Auto Service, Inc.

Tom Cassidy

K of C Council 4706

K of C Council 3095

Starbuck’s Coffee (Manager)

West Allis Car Wash

Ralph Lipenski

Firehouse Subs

Hooters

Nails by Livia

Esthetically Yours

Grady’s Saloon

Culvers

Sir Gregory’s Pub

Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi

John Schmitz

Betsy Derfus

VFW Muskego

Milwaukee Archdiocesan Holy Name

Anita Liebl

Lynn Egan

John & Monika Merrick

Rev. Robert Richter

Kathy Wiskowski

Aldi’s (Tom)

Olive Garden

Hunger Task Force

Nancy Pritchard

Krause Funeral Home

K of C Guadalupe Council

Delphine Schlichting

Cottonwood Trails

B & K Bar Supplies

Briggs & Stratton

Ted Swiezynski

Don Lucas

George Strobl

West Allis Rotary (Jack Driessen)

Pius High School (Tom Chmielewski)

Catholic Financial Life Ins.

Hunger Relief Program

Biltrite Furniture

Maryangela Layman-Roman

Faithe Coles

Betty Brinn Foundation

Richard Wiederhold

Penworthy Books

Almost Anything New Clothing

Carol Domroes

Some donations have been received from several locations (e.g. Starbucks or Pick n Save) We have made multiple entries to indi-cate that their generosity has extended to many of their locations. Special thanks to Mike Czarnecki who has done an outstanding job again soliciting donations. (and to his wife Irene for keeping track of them and sending thank you notes)

Veterans About five years ago, Dennis Johnson began working with Repair-ers of the Breach delivering food to homeless veterans living in aban-doned buildings, under bridges or make-shift camps. He stored food in eleven refrigerators in his garage. He made contact with the pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church near the VA Hospital and the food pantry opened in the basement of the Church. Veterans Services provides food to over 200 people each Tuesday and delivers over 50 boxes of food to homebound veterans. Thursday morning breakfast provides a hearty breakfast along with nurses who do blood pressure and health checks and a chance to sit and talk. Donated clothing, hygiene products etc. are distributed when available. Another group is the Milwaukee Homeless Veterans Initiative that provides other services to Veterans and their families, furniture, housing, clothing, emergency food, help to ob-tain needed services.

Dry Hooch is a program dealing with addiction problems. It began on Brady Street a few years ago and has opened another side on National Ave-nue near the Veterans Hospital. Oth-er sites have opened in Madison and Chicago. The one on National Ave-nue works closely with Veterans Ser-vices.

We’re Different Food for the Hungry, Inc. has operated from the beginning with volunteer help. We have no paid staff, no rented office space. We often get phone calls from fund raisers for various organiza-tions. What percentage of the funds raised goes to the fund rais-ers? Our expenses? Obviously we have expenses for phone, computers, printing and supplies. Our volunteers with a few exceptions donate the use of their vehicles. We try to get as many of the pantries to provide their own helpers to collect bakery from our providers.

Our agreement with our providers is that we will not sell what we re-ceive from them. We do not discriminate on the basis of ethnic origin or religious belief. Hunger and need are our criteria. Through the years we have met some of the most wonderful people whose giving hearts are an inspira-tion every day. In the early days of Christianity, saints were people whose lives were an inspiration to those who followed in their footsteps. We meet them every day as they open their hands to help those less fortu-nate. Their statues will never be on a pedestal in a church, but will be in the hearts of those they helped.

Donations

With any cause or organization,

success depends on Four M’s

Mission

Manpower

Media

Money.

A clear cut mission statement is

the guiding light. What do we do

and why do we do it? Our Mission

from the beginning has been to live

out the teaching of the gospels: I

was hungry and you brought me

food.

Manpower is supplied by over

450 volunteers , the most wonder-

ful, generous and loving people.

They are the heart of our organiza-

tion

Media coverage:getting the

message out by word of mouth,

newspapers, TV and radio. Visit

our web site.

foodforthehungryinc.org

The final “M” is Money.

Without financial support even the

most wonderful causes will struggle

and probably fail.

The financial support of church-

es, fraternal organizations, founda-

tions and our Breadraiser are es-

sential.

Several donors send a check

each month. It’s tax deductible!

EIN 20-8277733

Send your donations to:

Food for the Hungry, Inc.

405 Lynnwood Lane

Brookfield WI 53005

And yes, we will send a thank you

on behalf of the needy people we

serve.

Who Are We? Mike Czarnecki our Coordina-tor, retired from delivering bakery to retail stores in southeast Wisconsin and northern Illinois. He used his contacts to begin Food for the Hun-gry twelve years ago. His wife Irene handles much of the administrative things. Sharon Kimball is the owner of Sharon’s Unique Salon for over 40 years. Always a smile, and an inspira-tion to customers who end up helping Food for the Hungry. . Doris White retired from Miller Brewery. A Board member and Team Leader, she serves many pantries on Milwaukee’s North Side, and you’re likely to see her Toyota Tundra filled with bakery, clothing, or whatever else she can deliver to those who need it.

Bruce and Kim Reyes deliver bread and food items to our Native Ameri-can Community. For the past 22 years they have been Foster Parents, getting their children involved to teach them the importance of helping others. Their loving help to At Risk Youth is an inspiration. Charlie Ruzick makes “old age look good” filling his truck and twelve food trailer with bread for several pantries. In between he is likely to be picking up donated furniture. He has a few helpers he calls “Charlie’s An-gels.” He’s been with our program for over 10 years.

Sister Shirley Forbes is a member of the School Sisters of St. Francis. She reaches out to about 80 needy families to supply them with needed food, and friendship. George Strobl was one of our early volunteers at Brownberry, and reaches out to the Amish Commu-nity around Hartland and Hartford. Fran Powell has been gathering bakery from Brownberry Outlet in Brookfield for many years, reaching out to many programs in West Allis, Milwaukee and Wauwatosa. Fran’s been one of our Team Leaders. Jim Radtke another of our retirees that works with multiple pantries and programs in the inner city and east side. Mary Lazynski delivers bread to several programs on Milwaukee’s East Side. John & Shirley Knoebel from Oconomowoc work with several programs in the area, extending to Beaver Dam and Wisconsin Dells. Von works at Sharon’s Unique Salon, but with her sister, a Domini-can Nun, makes sandwiches and travels around to the homeless liv-ing under bridges and in parks or abandoned buildings, as part of their street ministry. Jan also works in Sharon’s Sa-lon, and delivers bread to Colum-bus, Allenton and West Bend. Pastor Cindy Neely works in Street Ministry both in Wisconsin and Illinois. Rick from Urban Ministry de-livered over 1800 Food Baskets to the needy at Christmas on Milwau-kee’s south side. Jim Luther, Board Vice President, is the operator of Sty. Hyacinth’s Food pantry that reaches out to sev-eral sites on Milwaukee’s South Side Feeding over 500 families

Wisconsin Hills Middle School Students and their teachers are regu-lar volunteers on Tuesday’s. One of

the teachers, Jean Woolridge, was honored as Teacher of the Year by the Brookfield Jaycees. Another teacher, Ceil Carse has been work-ing with us for years. John Schmitz, Board President of Food for the Hungry, was recently awarded the Medallion Award by the Wisconsin Knights of Columbus for his outstanding service. He serves on several organization boards, and is the author of several books Judy Leikness who operates the Fort Atkinson Food Pantry gets her whole family to help out, as they serve over a half dozen other pan-tries in the area. Jim and Arniss Droescher oper-ate the largest pantry in the Lake Ge-neva area . John Marino spent a career in the instruction business, and now is one of our volunteers...and a Board Member. This is just a sampling of the wonderful people we work with every day of the week. Thank you from all the people we serve.

Go West Young Man ! Our first few years of operations focused on the Milwaukee area, but as the word got out, we began expanding to the west. (I guess you can’t really go far to the east in Milwaukee.) We soon found not only needs, but models of distribution and out-reach programs. Pantries in Beaver Dam, Sussex, Wisconsin Dells, Mukwonago, Fort Atkinson Water-town and others became distribution points sharing with other area food pantries and social service programs. It was a lesson we shared with others, so that when they receive more food from donor providers than they can use, they share it with other programs in their area. Food is too precious to waste, especially when there are hungry people next door.

Quite often our volunteers bring their children to help. Some schools ask for community service, while others are working toward merit badges in scouting. We appreciate their help, and print a certificate of appreciation for their efforts. We often hear from parents that that certificate is hanging proudly on the wall of a child’s bedroom. We hope it also hangs in their hearts, a sign of gratitude.

Over the Border Hephzibah House is a special ministry in North Central Indiana that has a unique ministry to help Christian families with their trou-bled and wayward teenage daugh-ters. Their son runs one of the pan-tries in Wisconsin and on occasion when he has surplus food he has taken it to his parent’s ministry in Indiana. At Thanksgiving Hunger Task Force delivered thousands of tur-keys to needy families. Working with Brownberry we were able to supply the croutons for dressing. Christmas dinner at the Delta Airlines Center served nearly 10,000 people. Again, we were able to supply the bread. Too often we read of domestic problems leading to violence. Many of the places on our delivery list are shelters for women and children in danger for their lives. Some are places to help the victims of abuse get their lives together, find a place to live, a new job, and a new life. One of the most important things we give on a daily basis is hope. Those who are down on their luck, having lost house and home, jobless, without cash or cred-it, food or clothing. Yes, some have sought temporary relief in drugs or the bottle. We are grateful to our providers and volunteers who reach out to help those in needs. Maybe we’re not successful in every case but for many we have made a difference.

You Never Know Over the twelve years in our pro-gram, there’s always some uncertain-ty we’ve had to deal with: supply, drivers, places to deliver We’ve had to deal with changes. We’ve lost major suppliers because of corporate changes. This meant less bread, and we were no longer able to supply all our pantries. For-tunately, we’ve been able to manage in the short term and find other sources. Cell phones are a buzz for volunteers when needed, or when there’s a short supply. The amount of product available will vary from day to day, location to

location. Some days we scramble to find a place that needs it, while an-other day we go through our list to distribute the small amount available to places that need it most. Our agreement with our provid-ers is that we will take what we re-ceive and distribute it to those who need it. We do not sell any of the products we receive. Many of the pantries we deliver to know what their needs are, and if they receive more than they can use, they pass it on to other pantries in the area. Many of our delivery sites are distribution points for multiple programs in their areas. Our goal is always that nothing goes in the dumpster while there are hungry people who need it.

War is Hell ! Civil War General Sherman re-putedly said these words after de-stroying a good portion of the state of Georgia. The effects of war on the soldiers who fight them goes back in history as far as the conflicts themselves. Death rates were high before the dis-covery of antibiotics and better med-ical care. Infections were usually fa-tal. While the physical injuries were visible, the emotional and mental effects were often swept aside as they often took years or even dec-ades to surface. Soldiers seldom talked about their experiences in bat-tle. They tried not to think about them. Words like “shell shock” were used to describe these injuries during World War I, which changed the way wars were fought with the introduc-tion of armored tanks and airplanes, as well as chemical weapons. Viet Name brought a new kind of warfare as the enemy seemed to crop up everywhere, blending in with ci-vilians so that no place seemed safe any more. Iraq and Afghanistan added new dimensions with roadside bombs and suicide bombers. Weapons could now be detonated with a hand-held cell phone. Soldiers viewed the widespread death and injury of civil-ians, often children killed or maimed for life. The enemy became invisible so that no one could be trusted. We began to recognize some of the hidden injuries that were mental and spiritual as well as physical. Of-ten these injuries linger for life, trig-gered by everyday events. The Veterans programs we’re in-volved with today are a small step toward dealing with the problems

Other Services

It’s not just food, but a variety of services offered by many of the pan-tries we work with. Many of them worked with the public health de-partments to provide flu shots and pneumonia shots. CVI (Center for Veterans Issues) deals with a wide range of needs for veterans and their families, including health, illness, disability, and unem-ployment and a wide range of other problems. Books Many poor families do not have reading materials for their children, putting them at a disad-vantage with their peers. We have been able to provide books donated by Penworthy Books at some of our pantry sites.

Sister Ann Catherine is a regular at the Veterans Service Food Pantry, and also volunteers at the VA Cen-ter, Dry Hooch and other programs. As a young nurse, she volun-teered at a huge refugee camp in Cambodia.

Church Upstairs Church Downstairs Working with many churches over the past dozen years or more, we have noticed change. Tradition-ally the church upstairs is elegant, perhaps fancy with a pulpit and altar, a choir and organ. Nothing is too good for God. It’s used for a few hours on Sun-day, and perhaps a bit during the week as people come to pray and sing and listen to a homily or have a

ceremony for Baptism, or marriage. But the “church downstairs” is dif-ferent, as people gather for meetings to deal with the problems of life, whether alcohol or drugs, marital problems, or just getting acquainted socially with other members. We’ve seen more and more churches extending a hand to those less fortunate. Many now have food pantries, used clothing, and provide services beyond what goes on up-stairs. They live the gospel that’s read in the church upstairs. The church upstairs is struggling with rules and regulations, trying to find the correct formula for salva-tion, the meaning of sacred books written thousands of years ago in a foreign language and culture. The church downstairs knows meaning that goes beyond words. It is as simple as a hot meal, food for another day, a warm embrace, God’s love in action. He is here, in a giving heart. Love is not something you can give away, it keeps coming back.

How Can I Help?

Can you spare a couple hours on a morning to help load or deliver bakery to a pantry?

We have a multitude of places to col-lect from and places to deliver to. We’re sure we can find a time and place that will work for you. Maybe just to fill in when needed Give Mike a call at 414-771-0715 and ask where he needs help

Donate You can donate household items, furniture and of course, cash . All donations are deductible on your income tax. We are a 501 ( c) 3 or-ganization, and will send you a thank you note with each donations. Send money to Food for the Hungry, Inc 405 Lynnwood Lane Brookfield Wisconsin 5305 For furniture, household items, clothing or whatever, call Mike at 414-771-0715 Or John at 262-784-6591 We’ll arrange for pickup.

Spread the Word Some of our regular providers got involved because someone asked what they do with their surplus. Ask your bakery, super market, furniture store, etc. it they would be interested in donating items to Food for the Hungry. If you’re poking around estate or rummage sales, ask the question. You’d be amazed at what we receive that would have gone to a landfill when a needy person could use it. Have them give Mike or John a call. 414-771-0715 or 262-784-6591 It’s a win-win situation. They get rid of it and some poor person can use it.

Food for the Hungry, Inc

405 Lynnwood Lane

Brookfield WI 53005

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Food for the Hungry, Inc