Children’s Museum hosts first 24-hour FORK Pantry location

Feed Our Rural Kids (FORK) was created to fill in gaps within the area’s current nutrition support programs.

With 12 FORK Pantry locations in place, the program provides free food support closer to most area residents’ homes than our area’s three traditional food pantry locations. It also provides a greatly expanded number of hours each week where food insecure families could take what they needed in terms of food for their kids.

Beginning Monday, Dec. 1, FORK will take its pantry program to another level by opening the first-ever 24/7 FORK Pantry location at the Northwoods Children’s Museum.

“Access will now be 24 hours a day, for 365 days a year,” explained FORK Pantry Chairperson Jean Arndt. “This is a project that, for 18 months, has been in the planning and construction phases.”

In May of 2024 Feed Our Rural Kids first began discussing the establishment of a FORK Pantry with the Northwoods Children’s Museum (NCM). As a result of those initial discussions, FORK opened its 12th pantry location a few months later in July. During that time, they continued to work through the issues around a potential 24/7 pantry with the NCM Board of Directors.

“From the Northwoods Children’s Museum perspective, there was never any “We can’t do this”, only “How can we make this happen?” said NCM Executive Director Danielle Larsen. “On behalf of the museum, we’re excited for this collaboration, creating a community filled with healthy and happy children.”

Now, through the shared vision of these two organizations, the FORK Pantry located at NCM is available to feed our area’s children any time of the day or night. It’s that kind of unlimited accessibility that will require the support of the entire community.

“Supporting families is part of the NCM mission,” continued Larsen. “So, positioning the museum both educationally and nutritionally, was never considered to be a reach by our board of directors.”

Arndt praised the expansion, saying, “It is this kind of out-of-the-box thinking that makes the Northwoods Children’s Museum such a powerful partner and important community resource.”

Families struggling with food insecurity should consider the FORK pantry at NCM as a resource they can look to for help, when they need it, Arndt added.

Individuals wishing to financially support the FORK Pantry at the Northwoods Children’s Museum can mail a contribution to: FORK Pantry, 4887 Echo Ridge Dr., Eagle River, WI 54521. Checks should include Fork Pantry in the memo line.

Those wishing to financially support NCM’s Power of Play campaign to help fund building expansion and renovation can mail a check to: Northwoods Children’s Museum, PO Box 216, Eagle River, WI 54521.

FORK and NCM are both registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations. To learn more about FORK’s efforts to support children from food insecure homes, go to feedourruralkids.org. To learn more about the Power of Play, go to northwoodschildrensmuseum.com.