IN-KIND SUPPORTER WINNER
Fred Usinger Inc.
1030 N. Old World Third St., Milwaukee
Usinger’s Famous Sausage is a name almost synonymous with Milwaukee, and also with giving back to the community.
For more than a century, the Usinger family has been making sausage in Milwaukee, and for just as long, the company has given back to the community it calls home.
Fred Usinger Inc. regularly provides in-kind donations of its famous sausages to organizations and causes doing good work in the community.
One relationship extends back 10 years, to when the Capuchin Ministry established the first ever Capuchins’ Run Walk for the Hungry to German Fest. Proceeds from the event support the Capuchin Community Services’ two locations: St. Ben’s Community Meal and the House of Peace emergency food pantry.
The late Debra Usinger, former vice president of the company, saw the long lines of people outside the Capuchins’ St. Ben’s Community Meal waiting for food. After learning about the new event, and how the Capuchins work to make a difference in the community, she committed to donating Usinger’s meat to the Capuchin Community Services for every participant in the Capuchins’ Run Walk for the Hungry.
Ten years later, the relationship is still going strong and the company has donated more than 25,000 pounds of ham, bacon and sausage valued at more than $150,000 to Milwaukee’s hungry.
The race continues to grow. In 2015, more than 2,600 participants signed up to run or walk in the race.
St. Ben’s Community Meal serves a hot, homemade dinner six nights a week. Each week, thousands of hungry men, women and children come for a hot meal and fellowship.
More than 100,000 meals are served each year and more than 4.5 million meals have been served to Milwaukee’s poor, hungry and homeless since its foundation. Usinger’s longstanding commitment to Capuchin Community Services has meant essential protein to guests who come seeking food assistance.
