Patti Habeck has been named president of hunger relief nonprofit Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin.
Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin has locations in Milwaukee and Appleton. It serves as a food bank for a network of more than more than 600 member organizations, including food pantries, meal programs, shelters and mobile pantries, to provide more than 20 million meals to about 400,000 people in 36 eastern Wisconsin counties each year.
“The bulk of our work really is to serve the food pantries and make sure that they have the staples,” Habeck said.
Habeck succeeds Charles McLimans, who served as president for two years and chose to pursue other opportunities in January; he is now executive director of The River Food Pantry in Madison.
Habeck was hired at Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin in 2011 to serve as northeast Wisconsin regional manager. She was promoted to executive vice president in March 2015. Habeck has helped expand Feeding America and raised money to build a new food bank in Little Chute to better serve its northeast members. Previously, Habeck gained fundraising experience as community engagement officer at both the Community Foundation in the Fox Valley and the Children’s Museum in Appleton.
In her new role, Habeck will continue to split her time between the Milwaukee and Appleton locations. Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin has 55 employees, 41 of whom are based in Milwaukee. The organization has an 88,000-square-foot warehouse on West Fond du Lac Avenue in Milwaukee.
“My goal for the organization really is what we’ve been working on all along. We are looking to really find ways to solve hunger,” Habeck said. “I’m very collaborative and I welcome everyone to the table to help us really look at both serving and solving hunger.”
“Patti Habeck has been a tireless champion of our mission to solve hunger since joining the organization in 2011,” said William Bohn, board chairman of Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin. “She has been instrumental in developing Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin into the leading hunger relief organization in the state. Her passion for ensuring everyone in eastern Wisconsin has access to fresh, healthy and nutritious food is truly inspiring.”
