River Food Pantry gets $110,000 grant

TESSARA CLARK Staff Writer

The River Food Pantry, south central Wisconsin's busiest food pantry, recently received a local food insecurity emergency grant from the Dane County Executive's Office that totals over $110,000.

According to the River Food Pantry website at https://www.riverfoodpantry. org/, the pantry operates with the help of dedicated volunteers and local community donations, providing food and other supplies to thousands of people every week. They buy fresh food, take donations and recover food that would otherwise be wasted, using it in programs such as mobile lunches in low-income neighborhoods and roadside grocery pickups.

In 2022 alone, over 2,000 River Food Pantry volunteers helped redistribute almost 3 million pounds of food to contribute to their vision of a fully nourished community.

The additional funding comes at a fortunate time for the pantry, which is expecting a rise in need with the decrease in federal food aid starting early this year.

FoodShare, a federally funded program that helps feed tens of thousands of families in Wisconsin every month, will no longer be supplemented with emergency COVID-19 support funding starting in March 2023.

The end of this additional pandemic support resource will potentially impact the many food distributors, farmers and families which it assisted over the past few years. With this grant, the River Food Pantry can help support the increased number of people in need resulting from the reduction in FoodShare benefits.

According to their website, most of River Food Pantry’s support funding will be used to buy fresh produce and staple foods for their programs, although some will be allocated for hygiene products such as toiletries and cleaning supplies.

The remaining money will be used on packaged meals and to improve River Food Pantry's capacity. Regardless of each dollar's specific purpose, though, the entire grant will be used to reduce the overall impact of food insecurity on the local community.

special training the college offered to help assist hospitals.

Graphic designer Valenzia Cina won two awards, earning first place in the advertising category for Division AB and second place in the page design cat- egory for Division AB.

Managing editor Kelly Feng won honorable mention for collegiate journalist of the year in Division AB and took home two other awards. She took second place in the sports story cate- gory for Division B and an honorable mention in feature story for Division B. The contest judges said the four students recognized as finalists for collegiate journalist of the year were “really good journalists who will go far in this industry.”

Copy editor Iman Alrashid received two awards, a third place in the feature writing category for Division B and an honorable mention in feature photography for Division AB.

Camryn Gardner took first place in the arts and entertainment story category for Division B, while Bryce Dailey placed second in the same category.

Courtney Van Horn earned a second-place award in the freedom of information category for Division AB, while Ebenezer Idowu Jr placed third in column writing for Division B. Graphic designer Michelle Meyer earned an honorable mention in Division AB in the infographic category.

Two awards were presented to the staff, a third place for general excellence and a third place for website. Both were for the combined Division AB, which included all student newspapers statewide. First place in general excellence went to The Daily Cardinal at UW-Madison, while second place went to the Marquette Tribune.

Fire/EMS

Career Expo

Madison College held its third annual Fire/EMS Career Expo on March 28 at the Protective Services Building’s Fire Bay. The event was designed to help students learn about career options in firefighting and other emergency services. Current, former and prospective students in EMS and firefighting were able to connect with area employers and learn more about available job opportunities. More than 25 EMS and fire employers from the Madison College district were available to answer questions and share information about available job opportunities.