Our mission is to provide food, hope, and dignity to community residents in need, and advocate the awareness of hunger through community partnerships.

Our Pledge

____

We hope a day will come when food security is no longer a challenge for you. Until then, we will do our best to help by providing supplemental food for your household.

Because we cannot be your sole source of food, we recommend you explore eligibility for FoodShare; School Breakfast (SBP) Program; the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Program; Senior Dining, or other resources to make your household more food secure. You may use our pantry while you are enrolled in other programs.

Our History

____

Berlin Food Pantry opened for the first time on August 10, 2017 as an ecumenical non-profit organization dedicated to providing food for the poor and needy in our area.

The beginnings of what would become Berlin Food Pantry, Inc., was a consortium of churches in the 1980’s, called the Berlin Emergency Food Pantry.  In the early days it was housed at Grace English Lutheran on Huron Street and later moved to the Federated Church basement.  

It operated there for many years until Pastor JoAnn retired and the church no longer operated in May 2017. Soon after a group of volunteers along with both Pastor Jordan Wind and Pastor Casey Getz of the River Shores Community Church initiated plans to continue the mission.  

River Shores Community Church graciously donated nearly 3000 square feet on the west side of their church building, which was the former receiving area for the original grocery store on that site.  It allows flat egress for handicapped guests, and currently serves the needs of the pantry.  

Grace English Lutheran Church donated $15000 toward the pantry start-up expenses, which was used for cleaning, painting, purchasing shelving, doors and hardware, tables, supplies, concrete work to make the entrance door accessible, and initial food costs. The food and refrigerators/freezers from the Federated Church were transferred, and contact was made with Feeding America of Northeast Wisconsin (FA) to become an approved pantry, which allowed the Berlin Food Pantry, Inc. access to donated groceries and products for only a small administrative cost.  Berlin Food Pantry, Inc. began soliciting funds locally and food from various sources.

Today, Berlin Food Pantry, Inc. receives donated grocery items from Wal-Mart in Berlin and Webster’s Marketplace in Ripon.  We also receive donations from Kwik Trip, a Feeding America donor, as well as make purchases of milk and eggs and occasional produce and bakery item.  The vast majority of our grocery items are purchased from or donated by Feeding America and through The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), a government program. The pantry also receives generous donations from individuals and community businesses through food drives and special events.

Currently Berlin Food Pantry, Inc. is distributing approximately 3000 pounds of grocery items weekly. 

Criteria for qualification as a receiving guest is declaration that income does not exceed the maximum income allowed for the household size determined by the Federal government poverty level.  Currently for a single person that monthly income figure is $3,190 for a single person family.

The new formation of the Berlin Food Pantry opened for the first time on August 10, 2017. On August 14, 2018 it became its own corporate entity incorporating under the name Berlin Food Pantry, Inc.