Paul's Pantry of Green Bay, WI, is the largest food recovery and distribution pantry in the United States. www.paulspantry.org
SEE STATISTICS BELOW.
Paul's Pantry in Brown county is the largest and one of the many food pantries that Hunt For The Hungry provides for in Northeast Wisconsin. Paul's Pantry could easily distribute over 100,000 pounds of donated ground venison every year. So far, our program has been able to meet about half of that year long need.
Hunt For The Hungry provides for food pantries in all 11 counties we partner with, every deer donation season. We encourage processors in each of our counties to work with their county officials to make sure the donated venison "stays" in their county. Paul's always serves as a backup location for processed venison in case the smaller pantries have all they need.
Paul's helps meet the ongoing food needs for thousands of families and individuals throughout Brown and other surrounding counties in N.E. Wisconsin. They also share donated food with other food pantries in the communities of Manitowoc, Appleton, Marinette, Sheboygan, and Algoma, WI.
The following statistics show the size and scope of the food distribution program at Paul's Pantry. These figures are for (12) months as of September 2000. As of 2004, Paul's Pantry is serving over 4,000 families and distributing over 5,000,000 pounds of much needed food for those families.
Number of household visits - 32,739
Number of needy people served - 151,238
Pounds of food distributed - 3,291,902
Pounds of food for other pantries - 989,605
Total pounds of food for the poor - 4,281,507
The Great Need for Deer Donation
Hunger Stats in Wisconsin
1998 Population - 5,127,000
Total Households Food Insecure - 7.2%
Persons Living in Poverty - 449,000
Children Under 18 Living in Poverty - 173,000
Your donations, both financial and in the form of donated deer and packaged wild game are very important to the lives of many less fortunate people.
Paul's Pantry, like many of the pantries our program helps out, must "purchase" the meat they need with "limited funds". Deer donation provides a No Cost source of high quality meat for the many needy families that rely on Paul's and other food pantries in our area. Your involvement and continued help with deer donation and the donation of packaged wild game meat will help us supply this ongoing need.
Thank You for Being a Food Provider and a Responsible Caring Deer Hunter!
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A Special THANKS to Leo Frigo!
On Tuesday, February 13, 2001, Hunt For The Hungry lost a good friend. Leo Frigo, founder of Paul's Pantry passed away at 69 years of age.
Leo started Paul's Pantry in 1984 after selling the family cheese business. He encouraged area grocery stores to let him have food items that the stores could not sell due to expired shelf dates...good food the stores planned to through away. Leo would crawl into dumpsters to salvage good food for the poor. His determination was rewarded.
Rather than have all this food go to waste, Leo kept after these stores to give him the food. He started distributing this good food out of the back of his station wagon. His faith in God, determination, and sincere concern for the needy in N.E. Wisconsin grew Paul's Pantry into the "largest" food recovery and distribution program in the United States.
When Hunt For The Hungry was organized in 1994, Lee Dudek presented the program concept to Leo Frigo. Leo immediately embraced the idea of deer and wild game donation. In fact, Leo had been receiving deer and wild game for many years prior to any organized deer donation program in the state. He was thrilled that deer donation would get organized and promoted in N. E. Wisconsin for the benefit of the many needy families that he cared so much about.
Leo continued to provide his guidance and inspiration for this program. Most of all, he became a good friend and role model to everyone associated with Hunt For The Hungry. If any man modeled the love that Jesus has for the poor, it was our friend and mentor, Leo Frigo.
Leo Frigo, we will miss you! Well done good and faithful servant! Enjoy your eternal reward in Heaven!
