MILWAUKEE (SPECTRUM NEWS)- 56th and Townsend in Milwaukee’s Sherman Park neighborhood is a quiet, residential street, like countless others in Wisconsin.
Look down the alley though and an uncommon sight greets you: A thriving garden and an overflowing food pantry.
Vivid color shines within a concrete jungle.
Emma Toth is the one who started it all.
“I moved here from Riverwest, which had a lot of resources,” Toth says. “Upon coming here to Sherman Park, it was very apparent there was a lot of food access disparities across the city.”
Last summer, she planted some seeds in her own garden to feed her family and left some excess produce out on a small table for anyone who wanted it, free of charge.
“In the spring, we gave away over 1,000 vegetable starter plants (so people could tend to their) own garden,” she says. “We have people coming back now telling me how good their peppers and zucchini are coming in.”
This spring, April 7 to be exact, was also when Toth's free food pantry took off.
“It’s been going every single day, 24-hours per day since then,” she says. “We have people coming all the time and then we see people who now have a job and we don’t see them as often.”
As more passers-by began noticing the little pantry tucked away in the alley, they began donating. It has eased the cost burden on Toth, who says in the beginning, she would sometimes scrape together her last pennies to re-stock the pantry.
“We encourage people to drop off whatever donations they see fit at any time of the day,” she says.
When she says "whatever donations they see fit," she means it.
“Yesterday, we came out and found a bunch of school supplies here,” she says. “There were notebooks and rulers and crayons and glue sticks.”
This is a community uniting to take on hunger and food injustice.
“One of the first things people start talking about is financial barrier access or health issues,” she says. “To meet someone, and five minutes later, be talking about something that personal, is really powerful and I’ve realized most people just want to be listened to.”
She has joined a nationwide non-profit called the Food is Free Project. You can find her on Facebook and Instagram under the name Food is Free MKE.