Wisconsin Food Banks Seeing Milk Shortages

Despite being in the Dairy state, Wisconsin’s food banks and pantries aren’t getting as many milk donations as they’d like.

At WAFER food pantry in La Crosse, executive director Erin Waldhart opens an industrial refrigerator filled with cottage cheese, butter, and yogurt. On the bottom shelf are some jugs of milk. Waldhart says they usually don’t have enough milk for all their clients.

“Of course we’d like to give them more, especially those who have kids, because we all know how important milk is for kids,” Waldhart said. “It’d be great if we had more to offer our clients.”

Although fluid milk sales are down nationally, the demand is still high at food pantries. According to the national hunger-relief organization Feeding America, pantries often have a hard time filling those needs.

Milk donations are complicated. Since it’s perishable, food pantries have to be able to trust that the milk is safe. Waldhart prefers people who donate milk to bring it directly from the store with a receipt or donate money to help buy milk.

Sherrie Tussler is executive director of Hunger Task Force, a food bank serving the Milwaukee area. She says if they don’t have enough fresh milk to give to their clients, they turn to milk that is easier to distribute.

“They call it ‘ultra-high temperature milk,’” Tussler explained. “You can leave it on the shelf until you open it. As a result, the food pantries, the soup kitchens, and homeless shelters, they don’t have to worry about refrigeration.”

The dairy industry and Feeding America kicked off the year-long Great American Milk Drive this month with the goal of getting more milk in the refrigerators of people who need it.