8th Annual Feed the Body, Feed the Soul packages over 250,000 pounds of rice

OSHKOSH, WI—(WISS)— The Sunnyview Expo Center buzzed Thursday with excitement, action, and even live music, as the 8th Annual Feed the Body, Feed the Soul event in partnership with Oshkosh Corporation saw more than 252,000 pounds of rice packaged for Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin. The 12-hour-long event featured over 1,200 volunteers coming together to help feed hungry families.

The Food

Each volunteer shift featured about 200 people from Oshkosh Corporation and other organizations and businesses from throughout the Fox Valley. The volunteers scooped white and brown rice into plastic bags. They were then packed into boxes for distribution. 

It may be hard to picture 252,000 pounds of rice. Liz Wollenberg, Chief Systems and Strategy Officer at Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin, broke it down.

“ Visually, it’s about five semi-loads full of rice,” she said, adding that volunteer events like this are crucial to Feeding America.

“Without our volunteers, we wouldn’t be able to do the work we do in the community,” Wollenberg said. “A lot of the food that we have donated, we need it processed by volunteers in order to get it ready to go out to food pantries. Particularly, things like bulk rice like this. We get to pack it into family-friendly-sized portions so that a family can take it home and use it right away.”

The Volunteers

Oshkosh Corporation has sponsored the event for eight years. Jodie Larsen, Vice President of Community Engagement at Oshkosh Corporation, said they do so out of love for the community.

 ”Part of our values is are, ‘We are better together.’ So it’s bringing our team and our talents and our time with our community together to make an impact to those facing food insecurities in our community,” Larsen said.

The employees of Oshkosh Corporation are on board, from the leadership team on down.

“ It’s just a great event to give back to the community. We’ve been having it for, I don’t know, eight years. So ever since the first one, I’ve been volunteering,” said Alec Streeter, a Director of Global Trade and Compliance at Oshkosh Corporation and a volunteer at the Feed the Body, Feed the Soul event. “It’s just a great event to give, bring everybody together, and do something wonderful for the community.”

“We love doing stuff like this. We love the challenge; we love the competition. But more than anything, we enjoy helping people out, said Jake Bleazard, one of the volunteers from Oshkosh Corporation.

Volunteers came from the community and other organizations as well, such as Joan LaCroix who works with Menasha Corporation. 

“ Well, I think one of the most important things in the world is feeding people who are hungry. So I think it’s a great thing. I think it’s a wonderful endeavor,” LaCroix said. 

The Reason

According to Feeding America’s most recent Map the Meal Gap report, 1-in-8 people in Eastern Wisconsin are currently experiencing food insecurity, including 1-in-6 children. 

Since its launch in 2017 by Oshkosh Corporation, the Feed the Body, Feed the Soul event has helped package more than one million pounds of rice to be distributed to food pantries across Northeast Wisconsin.

Larsen said planning for the next ‘Feed the Body, Feed the Soul’ event starts right away.

“We will start tomorrow, looking at next year’s event. We actually already have the date, September 17th, 2016. So we’ll start thinking about what went good at this event, and how we can continue to improve it,” said Larsen.

This event is made possible thanks to the generosity of nearly 1,200 volunteers, and dozens of community sponsors including U.S Venture, Amcor, 4imprint, J. J. Keller Foundation, Inc., United Healthcare, Bergstrom Automotive, Community First Credit Union, Great Northern Cares, Lockton, Werner Electric Supply, Alliance Laundry Systems, CDW Corporation, Fox Communities Credit Union, Menasha Corporation, Omni Glass and Paint, Valley Express, and NM Transfer Co, Inc.

For more information on ‘Feed the Body, Feed the Soul’, visit OshkoshCorp.com/Feed. 

To learn more about how we can all work together to solve hunger, visit FeedingAmericaWI.org.