Rhinelander Area Food Pantry receives truck donation

The Rhinelander Area Food Pantry (RAFP) was formally presented with a truck that the pantry’s executive director Courtney Smith said is very much appreciated.

“We received a refrigerated box truck through Feeding America and Walmart,” she said. “In partnership with Feeding America and our local Walmart store we practice food recovery five days a week. We go throughout the community and pickup food donations.”

In 2024, Smith said RAFP volunteers brought in over a million pounds of food that was donated and picked up. 

“About 420,000 pounds of that was through food recovery,” she said, explaining “food recovery” is the pickup by volunteers of donated food from five locations in Rhinelander; the two Kwik Trip convenience stores, Aldi, Walmart and Trig’s. 

“We also have some other locations in town volunteers pick up from as well but those are our main five that we pick up from,” Smith said. 

Those volunteers she mentioned have been using their personal vehicles “for the past 20 years.”

“In addition to their blood, sweat and tears to pick up all of our food,” Smith said. “It’s become more and more challenging to find people to do that and we got to a point where we needed a vehicle. So, I wrote a grant application for a vehicle. I had no idea it was going to be this amazing.”

She said she’s known about the award of the truck “for about a month” and the turnaround time from when she submitted the grant application to when she was notified  “was about three months at the most.”

“It was a really quick turnaround because, you know, it was a need,” Smith said.

The grant funding, she explained, is through a national donation to Feeding America. 

The chassis/cab of the truck the RAFP received is a single-axle, 2024 International MV with a 22-foot refrigerated box and a lift gate. 

“It’s beautiful,” Smith said. “It’s far more than I anticipated.”

The food pantry took delivery of the truck on Nov. 21. 

“It’s just really exciting,” Smith said. “We really want to highlight the support we received from our local stores. We were a contender for the grant because of partnerships that are larger than us.”

The Rhinelander Walmart, she said, donates “a lot of produce which is really important to our pantry.”

Smith said the RFP’s potential with the truck is increased because of the importance of “keeping perishable food safe.”

“We run kids programming that provides something like 39,000 meals to kids and teens and a big part of that is perishable food,” she said. “So, our ability to move it in a refrigerated truck ... that’s a game changer.”

Brian Jopek may be reached via email at [email protected].