Post from Community: Local soup kitchen gives away groceries to community | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
The Gathering
August 12, 2020
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The Gathering is a local community meal program that provides close to 90,000 free meals a year to the hungry and homeless populations. In addition to daily programming, The Gathering is partnering with Amazon, Feeding America, Running Rebels & Walnut Way to do a grocery giveaway, open to the public, on Tuesday, August 11, 2020.
“We are feeding more individuals by the day,” says Lyn Hildenbrand, Executive Director of The Gathering. “…and as areas of our city are affected differently by the pandemic, we need to make sure we’re doing everything we can to provide access to groceries for our meal guests as well as members of the community we serve. We’re thrilled to have such incredible partners that believe in our Mission.”
The Gathering has partnered with Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin for decades. When it was announced that Feeding America would be delivering goods donated by Amazon, it only made sense to conduct this giveaway with additional support from Walnut Way and Running Rebels.
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“As the Running Rebels Community Organization celebrates 40 years of service to the community, we are honored to be partnering with The Gathering to provide free groceries and essentials on a weekly basis to our community members who are most in need of basic needs assistance…” says Dawn Barnett, Co-Executive Director of Running Rebels. “During a time when we are facing an increasing number of challenges, now is the time for all of us to be creative and collaborative in order to best serve the community moving forward.”
The giveaway is held every Tuesday, in the Running Rebels parking lot (1300 W Fond du Lac Ave), beginning at 8AM until 9:30AM. During this time, The Gathering serves a free breakfast to the community and after guests receive their breakfast to-go, they will have the opportunity to go grocery shopping in the parking lot. All members of the community are invited and welcomed. To ensure the safety of staff, volunteers and guests, The Gathering is strictly following guidelines recommended by the CDC. Masks will be required to enter the parking lot and social distancing will be set in place. If guests do not have masks, disposable ones will be provided.
About The Gathering of Southeast WI, Inc.
The Gathering was founded in 1982 and over the years, has provided the community with a Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner program that run throughout the week across four different meal sites. The Gathering provides other programming such as the Bag Lunch Program and Fresh Produce Preservation Project. Its Mission is to provide meals to the hungry and homeless population who would otherwise go hungry or without. The Gathering works with over 2,000 volunteers and serves nearly 90,000 meals in a fiscal year with only 10 paid staff members. To learn more visit, www.thegatheringwis.org