Courtesy Badger Prairie Needs Network
A woman is pushing a cart full of apples.
A Badger Prairie Needs Network volunteer transports fresh local apples to the pantry.
Badger Prairie Needs Network’s Farm to Pantry initiative is a new way to keep fresh food on the table for vulnerable populations in the Madison area.
The Badger Prairie Needs Network food pantry served 87,000 people in 2024. “Healthy foods first” is a leading philosophy there — colorful local peppers and ripe tomatoes dot the pantry’s shelves beside onion varieties and sweet corn. Badger Prairie’s partnerships with farms support local agriculture and deliver high-quality food to pantry users. But the end of several federal programs, including COVID-era supplements, has left Badger Prairie and its partners with big funding holes, threatening the supply of fresh, local produce to the pantry.
Pantry director Tracy Burton says everybody, including people experiencing food insecurity, should have access to fresh, clean food in their homes. “What we know is, if we can provide healthy ingredients, people will cook, and if they cook, they will make much healthier food than if they pick up something that is pre-made or processed,” says Burton.
In 2024, Badger Prairie received approximately 10,000 pounds of local produce through the USDA’s Local Food Purchase Assistance program, and approximately 55,000 pounds through the Direct Drop and Farm to Foodbank programs supported by the COVID-era American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
As intended, ARPA funding ended at the close of 2024. Burton says she was hopeful that Dane County would create a similar food-access program to account for the loss of those funds, but that did not happen. “Bottom line is, food didn’t get put into the budget, so we lost that money,” says Burton.
Then, in March, a second blow: Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’ office released a statement announcing that the Trump administration was terminating the USDA’s Local Food Purchase Assistance program, which helped local farmers expand their reach into food-access networks with Direct to Farmer grants, and helped food-access organizations purchase Wisconsin-grown food with Community Partner grants. Nearly $4 million worth of food was distributed through the program in Wisconsin by the end of 2024 and with its termination, that support vanished.
Last year, the Local Food Purchase Assistance program helped Cassie Wyss at Crossroads Community Farm near Pine Bluff grow and donate high-quality vegetables to Badger Prairie as a part of the farm’s Purpose Grown Project. When the Local Food Purchase Assistance funding was cut in March, Wyss and Burton were shocked.
“There was no warning. No, ‘Oh, this is coming down the pipe and this could happen.’ It was like boom…all of the sudden, the funding was just gone,” says Burton.
For Badger Prairie, the end of ARPA funding and the termination of the Local Food Purchase Assistance program put 65,000 pounds of fresh food at risk.
Badger Prairie’s new Farm to Pantry initiative aims to address the funding gap through grants, crowdfunding and an increase in private donations, says Burton. On Sept. 13, Badger Prairie is hosting a Farm to Pantry fundraiser dinner at its Kasieta Center in Verona. Professional chefs volunteered to cook for the event.
Garden to Be, a local wholesaler that distributes Wisconsin-grown produce to Badger Prairie and other organizations, along with Crossroads Community Farm, is sponsoring the dinner by donating locally grown ingredients. Burton, along with the chefs, designed a special fall harvest menu to be served at the dinner. The event is already sold out.
The event will include a silent auction, as well as a speech from a pantry guest who will discuss the importance of accessing fresh produce. All sales from tickets and the silent auction will go directly to purchasing local produce for the pantry and bolstering local agriculture, says Burton.
“Everything that we do, we put through a filter of dignity, respect and kindness. We are trying to understand where people are coming from, where they are going, and how we can help them,” says Burton.
Wyss is dedicated to addressing food inequities and sees her partnership with Badger Prairie as one step closer to a solution.
“There are a lot of people working in food access, people who care very deeply,” says Wyss. “The more we sit down with each other and share our goals, the more powerful and sustainable we can make the food system over time.”
