River Food Pantry assisting Meals on Wheels program after Little John’s temporary closure

MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) - A Dane County food pantry is stepping up to make sure seniors don’t go hungry after Little John’s announced a halt in its operations.

The River Food Pantry began assisting the Meals on Wheels program the week of Jan. 30. The pantry normally produces around 2,300 meals a week, and now it’s producing around 2,800.

River Food Pantry director of operations Helen Osborn-Senatus said her staff has welcomed the extra work with open arms.

“They all were very open to taking this on,” Osborn-Senatus said. “Grateful for our staff that they were willing to take on this additional way of service.”

When Little John’s announced it was temporarily closing, Osborn-Senatus said she immediately began receiving calls from other food agencies in Dane County.

“We were trying to realize what was happening and catching up with that news, and also then looking at our own operations and how we could step in to provide meals as they were needed,” Osborn-Senatus said.

Chris Tuttle, the meals manager for River Food Pantry, said their staff quickly felt the gravity of the situation.

“There’s a lot of patients all around, you know,” Tuttle said. “Everybody’s sort of driven by that thought that there’s people just literally not being fed that rely on meals.”

The thought of people desperately in need of meals is what motivated the pantry and others to make sure no one goes without a meal.

“Everybody that felt that understood immediately what kind of impact this would have,” Tuttle said. “Just started working together, it’s a pretty awesome thing.”

Several Fitchburg businesses also revealed earlier this week that they would be offering a helping hand to seniors who need meals after the operations issue with Little John’s.

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