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Janesville Mobile Pantry Program gets fed

JANESVILLE — A $10,000 grant to Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin will help hungry local families stretch their food budgets.

The grant from the Monsanto Fund, a private foundation and the philanthropic arm of Monsanto Co., will support the Janesville Mobile Pantry Program. It provides a monthly source of free groceries.

“This grant will provide more than 90,000 pounds of nutritious food to help Janesville families at risk of hunger,’’ Dan Stein, president and CEO for Second Harvest Foodbank, wrote in a news release.

The local Second Harvest Foodbank, Madison, operates 25 mobile pantries in conjunction with partner programs in 11 counties, including Rock County.

Marge Sell, resource coordinator at ECHO, who oversees the faith-sponsored charity’s food and mobile pantries, said the donation will definitely help fill a need.

“It’s going to be a wonderful boost to the mobile pantry inventory that already comes here,’’ she said.

ECHO is serving more than 300 families each month at its mobile pantry, Sell said.

Among the 323 families who came to ECHO’s August mobile pantry, 482 children were served along with 561 adults and 73 senior citizens, she said.

“Our numbers are skyrocketing,’’ Sell said.

A spokesperson for Church of the Nazarene said it has been serving about 120 families a month, a number that has remained steady.

St. John Vianney hosted its first mobile food pantry Sept. 14 when it distributed food to 65 families.

By supporting Second Harvest Foodbank’s Mobile Pantry Program in Janesville, the Monsanto Fund is hoping families won’t have to make impossible choices between basic needs and eating the proper amount and type of food to sustain their health and well-being, said Thomas Jury, soybean breeder/station manager for the Monsanto Soybean Research Facility in Janesville.

“Monsanto is committed to supporting the communities where our employees live and we do business,” he said.