Article written by Lynn Grooms, December22, 2021 for Agri-View
MONROE, Wis. – The holidays are a time to celebrate traditions. They’re also a time to share special meals. The Rolling Hills Dairy Producers Cooperative of Monroe has been contributing to both for the past decade by donating fruits of its labors to numerous food pantries.
“We wanted a way to give back to the communities of our members,” said Mark Vosberg, president of the cooperative’s board. “What better way than to donate cheese?”
The dairy cooperative has 154 producer members in about 15 southern-Wisconsin and northern-Illinois counties.
“This year we’re planning on donating to 38 food pantries,” said Bailey Fritsch, a field representative at Rolling Hills. “We’ll deliver 2,000 pounds of cheese.”
That cheese will be delivered by Rolling Hills staff and-or members. Each pantry will receive one or two boxes with 40 pieces each of 1-pound pieces of Cheddar. The cheese was made at Christmastime 2020 at Brunkow Cheese of Darlington, Wisconsin, in order to move some holiday milk without it being sold at depressed prices, Fritsch said.
Marge Harker is the director of the CUP Food Pantry, which is located at the Orfordville Lutheran Church in Wisconsin. The pantry serves families in need in the Parkview School District. In 2020 the food pantry served about 70 families at Christmas – more than 175 adults and children.
The pantry, established more than 30 years ago, is open Thursdays year-round. It relies on donations as well as food provided through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Commodity Supplemental Food Program. The USDA food is shipped to a warehouse in Janesville, Wisconsin. Volunteers from four area churches transport food from the warehouse to the food pantry, which serves about 400 people per year.
Harker said, “The cheese donations are wonderful. They’re not something our budget would allow us to add to our Christmas boxes.”
Those boxes feature several items for a traditional Christmas meal – turkey or chicken, stuffing, potatoes, cranberry sauce and more.
Among their many stops, the Rolling Hills team also planned to deliver cheese to Beginning Point Church Food Pantry in Benton, Wisconsin. The pantry relies on donations only; it doesn’t receive government subsidies, said Anita Mueller, who manages the pantry. She and her husband, Scott Mueller, and their sons Brad Mueller and Jeremy Mueller provide Christmas food boxes. They recently served about 17 area families.
With help from their local Lions and Lioness clubs and members of the Beginning Point Church, the Muellers also offer free meals every other Friday year-round to people in need. They serve between 60 and 80 people at each meal.
Of the recent delivery of cheese Anita Mueller said, “I can’t thank Rolling Hills enough for getting food to the people who need it.”
She said the cooperative also helped with a special food-box donation in summer 2020. The donation of dairy products was provided during June Dairy Month. Recipients of such food boxes have told her they like and appreciate fresh cheese, she said.
“I was raised on a farm and am a big believer in supporting the dairy industry,” Mueller said. “And the donations also support our dairy state.”
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Lynn Grooms writes about the diversity of agriculture, including the industry’s newest ideas, research and technologies as a staff reporter for Agri-View based in Wisconsin.
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