FOND DU LAC (NBC 26) — At the Fondy Food Pantry people browse and pick out different foods to help feed themselves and their families.
Volunteer Cindy Taylor says for many families realizing they need assistance from a food pantry is not easy.
“Getting up in the morning and saying I need help, I need to go to a food pantry, that’s a hard decision,” Taylor said.
The number of families that have had to make that difficult decision to visit a pantry according to Taylor has changed over the years.
“When I started back in 2018 if we did 25 or 30 families in a session we thought we were busy,” Taylor said. “Then Covid-19 hit and our model changed dramatically, We went to seeing approximately a hundred families every time we are open.”
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Fondy Food Pantry sees steady increase in need from Fond du Lac County residents
Executive Director David Diaz says while the demand for assistance has increased over the last three to five years, it’s been steady year over year.
“We see about 1,500 new families,” Diaz said. “Which for a county of our size is fairly typical.”
And that new 1,500 families was just from 2025, in one year.
As for causes to the issue, Diaz says a lot of it boils down to variables on a national scale effecting not just Fond du Lac, but communities all across the country.
“I think it has to do with shoring up different factors of the economy, and policy driven factors that generally people have no control of,” Diaz said. “We go to the gas pump and pay whatever is there because we need to go to work and support our families.”
Taylor says that while times are hard, the pantry will continue to keep providing for people in need in Fond du Lac County.
“I wish that at some point people would feel more economically stable,” Taylor said. “But we are happy to serve them, and we are happy to be here.”
Diaz also says that in 2025 alone, the Fondy Food Pantry served around 17,500 households, which is roughly 42,000 people.
Dining and Cooking