Volunteers filled the Wisconsin State Fair Park Exposition Center in West Allis Thursday for the Million Meal Pack, a one-day push to assemble up to one million meals for families across the state who are struggling to put food on the table. The event was free to attend, and organizers offered a free T-shirt to the first 2,000 people who signed up to help.
The effort was scheduled to begin Thursday, Nov. 5, with the stated goal of assembling one million meals for local families facing food insecurity, according to FOX6 News Milwaukee. The Wisconsin State Fair Park event listing described the target slightly differently, saying organizers hoped to pack up to one million meals for families across Wisconsin. Pick ’n Save, Metro Market and Mariano’s led the coordination, working alongside U.S. Hunger as partners in the push, per the fair park’s own event page.
Grocery chains Pick ’n Save, Metro Market and Mariano’s planned to coordinate direct meal pickups with local food bank partners during the event. Those partners included Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin, Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin and the Northern Illinois Food Bank, FOX6 reported.
Volunteer Shifts Open to All Ages
Volunteers could register for one of three two-hour shifts spread across the day, and no previous experience was required, according to OnMilwaukee. All ages were welcome, though children younger than 14 needed to be accompanied by a parent, the outlet noted.
Michael Marx, president of Pick ’n Save, Metro Market and Mariano’s, said the day was about ensuring neighbors have access to nutritious food. He said communities can work together to make that happen, and that the effort would help food bank partners provide nourishing meals to families facing hunger across the region. Marx invited everyone to volunteer and make a meaningful difference.
Why Wisconsin Needed the Help
The timing lands amid a sharp rise in hunger across the state. Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin’s Map the Meal Gap data, based on 2023 estimates, found nearly one in eight people across its 35-county service area facing food insecurity, up from one in ten the year before. The organization estimated 459,730 people in its footprint lacked consistent access to enough food, an increase of more than 53,000 people from the prior year.
Milwaukee County’s overall food insecurity rate rose from one in eight to one in seven, and Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin reported that every single county in its service area saw an increase. Child food insecurity in the region actually dipped slightly, from 17.7% to 17.3%, though the organization noted one in six children still live with uncertainty about their next meal. OnMilwaukee separately reported that Wisconsin’s statewide food insecurity rate climbed from 7.2% in 2021 to 13.5%, with the rate among children rising from 11.1% to 20.2% over the same period.
Part of a Larger National Push
The West Allis event joins a string of similarly named Million Meal Pack drives held around the country this year. Illinois State University partnered with State Farm and U.S. Hunger for its third annual Million Meal Pack in September, aiming to assemble one million meals for food pantries across McLean County and Illinois, according to Illinois State University News. That event ran from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the school’s CEFCU Arena, and organizers said participants as young as five could choose from a variety of volunteer roles and shifts.
In Atlanta, the Hawks and State Farm marked the sixth year of their own Million Meal Pack collaboration this year, drawing more than 5,000 community volunteers to State Farm Arena, as reported by Black Enterprise. That event resulted in the assembly of 1,002,402 shelf-stable meal bags for metro Atlanta, giving West Allis organizers a benchmark for what a single-day packing effort can produce elsewhere in the country.
