With the current State of Emergency, Sheboygan County Food Bank (SCFB) is closed to the public, but remaining open in service to partners who serve seniors, families, and children throughout Sheboygan County.

SCFB’s primary focus during this time is to safely deliver targeted emergency food within the community to well-equipped shelters, low-income senior housing sites, schools, and food pantries.

This includes:

• Continuing to distribute requested food orders to partner food pantries and other partner agencies.
• Continuing to deliver Food for Thought (weekend food backpack program for children) bags for 400 students at grab-n-go school meal sites.
• Continuing to deliver Stockboxes to low-income senior housing sites.
• Distributing extra support through prepackaged emergency food boxes – which contains a weekly supply of food for a family of four – to school meals sites and partners.

When comparing food distribution numbers to March of 2019, SCFB doubled the amount of food that it distributed through its emergency food network in March of this year. A large part of this is due to providing the prepackaged emergency food boxes, which amounted to 1,307 boxes in the last two weeks of March alone.

In addition to providing emergency food, SCFB has worked closely with partner food pantries to help them efficiently transition their distribution strategies into either a drive-thru service, or grab-n-go method, in order to best protect volunteers and clients.

As Sheboygan County businesses and organizations have adjusted to take necessary precautions in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19, SCFB has already seen a 25% increase in households served (prior to the health crisis, SCFB typically served about 3,000 families per month) and is expecting this figure to double in the coming weeks given the projected amount of people who will be unemployed due to the State of Emergency.

Cash donations to purchase food items are important to Sheboygan County Food Bank during this time to cover shortfalls in food donations and meet the increased demand.

SCFB recently launched the Sheboygan County Hunger Relief Food Fund. If you would like to contribute to this fund where donations go specifically to purchase healthy emergency food during this time, any amount is accepted and it is the easiest, safest way to help. Checks and online donations are accepted.

If you decide to send a check, please make checks payable to “Sheboygan County Food Bank” and mail to 3115 N 21st St., Suite #1, Sheboygan, WI 53083, and please note “Sheboygan County Hunger Relief Food Fund” if you want the money to go specifically for food purchases in response to COVID-19 in our community. Online donations have a “Sheboygan County Hunger Relief Food Fund” designation option.

To donate online now and for the latest updates, resources, and FAQs related to emergency food in Sheboygan County, visit SheboyganCountyFoodBank.com.