FILL ’ER UP. Michelle Gribble, field services director for Feed My People Food Bank in Eau Claire, prepares food boxes with donated items to be shipped to food pantries. The food bank serves organizations in 14 counties.

There’s just something about the holiday season that makes us all feel a little more giving. It could be the fumes of fresh cut pines, the winter wonderland outside our windows, or the fear we might not make the nice list. But something this time of year pushes us to spread love and cheer.

The season of giving has officially begun, the time we start giving to not only our loved ones but to local food drives and donation centers.

UW-Eau Claire kicked off the festivities with their yearly food drive, striking success once again. Blugold Dining, in partnership with Helping Hands Across America, collected 3,087 pounds of food and $1,184 in cash during this year’s annual food drive. All of the proceeds went to Feed My People Food Bank in Eau Claire, which serves more than 14,000 people each month, 38 percent of them children. Over the past nine years, the Helping Hands Across America Food Drive has collected 32,443 pounds of food and $3,455 in cash for Feed My People.

In 2014, more than 70,000 individuals living in west-central Wisconsin relied on food received from programs that were supplied by Feed My People Food Bank. Last year, Feed My People distributed more than 7 million pounds of food to hunger-relief agencies.

With so many people relying on Feed My People for food to get them through the year, drives like UW-Eau Claire’s are a step in the right direction. Feed My People takes the donations they receive and distributes them to more than 120 hunger-relief organizations in 14 counties – one of them being Eau Claire’s Community Table, which provides one meal a day, 365 days a year, no questions asked.

“It always amazes me how agencies work together,” said Rachel Kenison, director of the Community Table. Rachel spends her time not only making sure that our community has the chance for one free meal a day, but she also works to enlighten the public on food insecurity and the needs of our community.

“There’s no reason, in a country that’s full of abundance, that anyone should have to go with poor nutrition,” Kenison said. “When people go without healthy food, it effects their health, their ability to work, make decisions, and to learn. If people can stretch dollars, be able to stay in their home, and stay healthier, it is a benefit to all of the community.”

While the Community Table provides a free meal to 100 people most days, food pantries provide another opportunity for those in need to get food as well as a great place to donate to this holiday season. Food pantries in the area work hard, year round, to supply food to those in need within our community. Recent statistics show that 13 percent of Eau Claire – or one in every eight people – are food insecure.

Those are our friends, our neighbors, and members of our community.
Most food pantries in the area accept not only non-perishables, but produce as well – while some accept household necessities and clothing donations.

This holiday season, gather up that can of cream of mushroom you told yourself you’d eat but never did, or that old coat you’ve got hanging in the closet, and go donate to a local food pantry. If you aren’t using it, someone out there will be grateful for it. If you don’t have goods to donate, donate your time. Make it a December to remember.

Local Food Pantries and Donation Centers

Feed My People Food Bank
2610 Alpine Road,
Eau Claire, WI 54703

Campus Harvest Food Pantry
UW-Eau Claire
Schofield Hall 4
105 Garfield Ave,
Eau Claire, WI 54701

St. Francis Food Pantry
1221 Truax Blvd
Eau Claire, WI 54703

Trinity Lutheran Food Pantry
1314 E. Lexington Blvd
Eau Claire, WI  54701

Shepard’s Closet at Good Shepard Lutheran
1120 Cedar St
Eau Claire, WI 54703

The King’s Closet
310 South Barstow St.
Eau Claire, WI 54701