The Hunger Task Force will open a new Southside Community Resource Center in March, just a short walk west from its current location on Historic Mitchell Street.
For 15 years, the food and advocacy organization has helped clients and families on the South Side apply for and access benefits for FoodShare, Wisconsin’s version of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
Now, the Robles FoodShare Resource Center, 723 W. Historic Mitchell St., will relocate to 802 W. Historic Mitchell St.
The new location will serve as the permanent home for Hunger Task Force’s outreach team with expanded space to better serve residents.
“The clientele in the community know where we’re located, so that’s why we only moved across the street,” said Tammy Keen, FoodShare advocate supervisor of the Robles Center.
The move comes months after Hunger Task Force closed the Coggs FoodShare Resource Center, 1220 W. Vliet St., in the fall.
Hunger Task Force continues to operate Alicia’s Place, 4144 N. 56th St., in Midtown Center on the North Side.
Hunger Task Force purchased the building in July and started remodeling it in September, CEO Matt King said.
Adding new features
From October to December, the Robles FoodShare Resource Center had 4,350 client interactions. It serves about 1,000 families per month, according to data provided by Hunger Task Force.
The new 7,000-square-foot building will include a larger waiting area and an expanded self-service area with more stations for clients to access technology like computers, phones and printers.
“With the location being as big as it’s going to be and with that much more space that we have, we will be able to take in a lot more customers on a day-to-day basis,” Keen said.
Also being added are three private offices, which can be used to give clients an additional degree of privacy, provide more space for a family or to accommodate a partner organization visiting the location.
“Oftentimes, if someone comes in in a crisis, then the most dignified way to serve them is to give them some privacy,” King said.
The private rooms can provide space for clients to work with an interpreter service, King said, though the organization’s FoodShare advocate team speaks over a dozen languages.
A conference room will serve as a space for meeting, training and community gatherings. There will also be a break room for staff.
Coggs Center site closed
Hunger Task Force closed its central FoodShare Resource Center in the Marcia P. Coggs Human Services Center, 1220 W. Vliet St., in October, after seeing the number of clients coming to the location consistently decline, King said.
The staff had been informing people that Milwaukee Enrollment Services, which manages FoodShare program assistance in Milwaukee County, moved its office from the Coggs Center to a new location at 6055 N. 64th St.
“The human services hub that it once was has changed a lot and that’s affected the amount of people that go there looking for resources,” King said.
However, as the Aging and Disability Resource Center of Milwaukee County prepares to move into the new Marcia P. Coggs Center being developed at 1230 W. Cherry St., King said Hunger Task Force remains open to reassessing the possibility of adding staff to that location.
Sustaining and expanding service
Hunger Task Force has raised $1.7 million out of $2.6 million of a capital campaign to purchase and remodel the building and fund the outreach team, which is in the process of hiring two new staff members.
Nancy Bush, executive director of the Historic Mitchell Street Business Improvement District 4, said the new location will allow the organization to continue to provide needed services to South Side residents.
“We’re glad to continue to have them in the business district and I’m very happy that they were able to purchase property,” she said.
For more information
Visit Hunger Task Force’s website for more information on FoodShare resources. For information on financial contributions, email Kim Muench, director of development, at Kim.Muench@hungertaskforce.org.
