MADISON, Wis. — For the past 36 years, the Goodman Community Center in Madison has been holding its Thanksgiving Basket Drive.
Florence Edwards-Miller is the director of communications at the Community Center. This year, she said more families than ever before have signed up for Thanksgiving baskets.
“In years past, we would open registration for the Thanksgiving baskets and it would stay open for a week, maybe longer. This time, we opened public registration and it filled in about 24 hours,” Edwards-Miller said.
A total of 4,000 families in the Dane County area need help feeding their families. That's 25,000 residents according to the center.
She said the Goodman Community Center has been noticing the increasing need at the food pantry over the past few years.
Edwards-Miller and her team have promised 4,000 families Thanksgiving meals and they need the community's help reaching that goal.
“Before we can do that, before we can fill those bags that we are going to give out, we need to get the food in right now, so that is where our focus is,” Edwards-Miller said.
Jim Freeman and many others are volunteering their time to sort through the food.
“Whenever I come around the Goodman Community Center, I am always impressed by the number of activities that are going on, the variety of activities for people of all ages,” Freeman said.
Freeman said he has been volunteering at the community center for around 15 years.
He and his wife have lived in Madison for most of his life and said he feels that being part of a community means helping your neighbor.
“We particularly like being outdoors and meeting the people and getting the baskets into their cars; that is a great experience,” Freeman said.
According to Feeding America, 7% of Dane County's population struggles with food insecurity.
Freeman said food insecurity is an issue that impacts people from all walks of life and he said no one should ever feel bad about asking for some help.
“The volunteers and the staff at the Goodman Center do everything they can to make people not feel that they are being judged,” Freeman said. “These are people that are coming through and need some help now and that is it.”
As of Nov. 22 at 6 p.m., the Goodman Community Center still needed:
- 556 frozen turkeys
- 1,657 units of gravy
- 2,548 units of cranberry sauces
- 962 boxes of stuffing
- 1,325 bottles of vegetable oil
Donations can be made, here.