Sunshine Place dedicates new expansion, food pantry and services grow

SUN PRAIRIE, Wis. (WMTV) - A food pantry and community support organization in Sun Prairie unveiled a major new expansion.

The Sunshine Place and Sun Prairie Emergency Food Pantry cut the ribbon for its newly renovated space Friday morning. This includes more accessible parking, additional storage for the food pantry, and more office and programming space.

“Today’s ceremony highlights our dedication to our mission to provide hope and help to those in need in our community, but we could never do that alone. We have only been able to accomplish this through countless volunteers throughout the years and also donors,” said Ann Maastrichy, the Executive Director of the Sunshine Place.

The expansion completed in 2020 was phase two of a three-phase capital campaign called #ActofKindnessSP, made possible by community donations and grants from the City of Sun Prairie and Dane County.

The center offers food, household items and clothes, along with other support services, to families that are in crisis. Maastrichy said this expansion is already helping them reach even more people in need.

“It has allowed the food pantry to increase their food recovery efforts to provide more fresh and nutritious food and enables us to expand our programming to better serve clients into the future,” said Maastrichy. The Sunshine Place can also help families dealing with loss of income, eviction, legal issues or overcoming language barriers.

Sun Prairie Mayor Paul Esser expressed his gratitude for these services at the ceremony.

“Day in and day out Sunshine Place exists to help those people with housing, food, access to rent support, help with utilities,” said Mayor Esser.

He also pledged the city’s continued support for the Sunshine Place in the future, noting the trust and confidence the city council has had in the organization’s work when money has been requested in the past.

“In fact there was one recently that the Sunshine Place approached the city council and the city council wanted to give them more money than they had requested. Believe me that never happens,” said Mayor Esser.

The Sunshine Place was established in Sun Prairie in 2007.

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