Hunger Task Force expanded a food pantry in Milwaukee’s Amani neighborhood Thursday with help from an $85,000 donation from the Northwestern Mutual Foundation.
Maurice Allen, Sherrie Tussler, John Kordsmeier, Pastor Bernie Allen and Mattie Allen stand together on a podium during a ceremony held Thursday, March 24 to unveil the expanded Amani food pantry.
The Greater Little Hill Church Food Pantry had been struggling to stay open more than once or twice a month — the church pastor who ran it with his wife couldn’t afford the amount of food they needed to distribute food more frequently.
Armed with the Northwestern Mutual Foundation’s donation, Hunger Task Force partnered with the pantry, provided its operators with financial support and taught them how to more effectively distribute food.
“We know how to run food pantries well,” said Hunger Task Force executive director Sherrie Tussler. “Our job was to teach people at the Amani food pantry what we know and how they could improve their services.”
The pantry, now called the Amani Community Neighborhood Food Pantry, will be open once a week, with plans to open twice a week in the future.
Expanding the food pantry was the first step of many the nonprofit plans on taking to expand food services in the Amani neighborhood, Tussler said. The group is working on establishing another regularly accessible pantry in the neighborhood and revving up its summer meal program, which will offer food during the summer at nearby Milwaukee Public Schools and Moody Park.
“Without support from foundations like Northwestern Mutual, we wouldn’t exist,” Tussler said. “It takes all kinds of individuals, corporations, foundations to make a difference. Our model relies completely on community institutions to support our work so we can keep doing what we do.”
