Feeding Milwaukee’s Multicultural Community

The growing season is off and running at the Hunger Task Force Farm! 

The Hunger Task Force Farm is a unique 208-acre farm in the city of Franklin. During the growing season, The Hunger Task Force Farm infuses half a million pounds of fresh and culturally relevant fruits and vegetables into the food bank’s supply to provide low-income children, families and seniors, who usually rely on canned or nonperishable food, with fresh produce. Hunger Task Force Farmers, with the help of more than 5,000 community and corporate volunteers, cultivate more than 70 varieties of 28 different crops to ensure a well-rounded selection for those in need.  

When corporate groups and community members volunteer on the Hunger Task Force Farm, they enjoy a variety of tasks including weeding, seeding, transplanting, picking produce and washing produce. Typically, four unique crops are harvested and prepared for delivery to feed those in need each day. From peppers and tomatoes to watermelon and corn, a wide variety of produce is provided at food pantries, low-income senior centers, homeless shelters and meal sites in Milwaukee’s most vulnerable communities. 

The Hunger Task Force Farm is also a classroom for students during the growing season. More than 2,200 elementary students participate in the Farm to School Nutrition Education Program in which they’re taught nutrition basics, healthy eating, how to read a nutrition label, the principles of MyPlate and the variety of nutrients needed for proper growth and development. 

If you want to roll up your sleeves and help Hunger Task Force grow fresh produce for local families in need, contact Stephen Poqeutte, Farm Volunteer Coordinator at Hunger Task Force, at Stephen.Poquette@hungertaskforce.org.

The Adopt-A-Crop program is an opportunity to take your support of The Hunger Task Force Farm to the next level. The Hunger Task Force Farm relies on the generosity of the community to continue providing healthy, fresh and culturally relevant produce to hungry Milwaukee children, families and seniors.  

• $25: Supplies 45 lbs. of sweet corn to a local food pantry
• $50: Grows 100 heads of lettuce for local families in need
• $100: Provides 50 lbs. of green beans to local seniors
• $250: Sponsors an acre’s worth of pepper seed – that’s 10,000 pepper plants
• $300: Provides a row of apple trees which yields more than 1,000 lbs. of apples