Badger food boxes given away beg. 10 a.m. Wednesday at La Crosse’s Hunger Task Force

The Hunger Task Force of La Crosse will be distributing Wednesday what’s called Badger Boxes for those in need from the area.

La Crosse, Vernon, Monroe, Trempealeau and Crawford county residents who meet the income eligibility can come between 10 a.m. – noon Wednesday at the La Crosse food bank (map) to pick up the boxes.

Shelly Fortner, the Task Force executive director, said this isn’t all that dissimilar to what they did in the midst of a pandemic — both in how they distributed food and how many people are in need.

“We’re finding people are struggling and we’re going to be serving many with that program,” Fortner said on La Crosse Talk PM.

“If you remember back, when we had the farmer-to-family food boxes,” Fortner added, “with the surplus food the government was helping to help the farmers grow and pay them, and then donate the food to food banks across the nation and we came up with the farmer-to-family box.”

Inside, the boxes will contain milk, eggs, cheese, meat, potatoes and more — basically the staple of Wisconsin food life.

“Everything in that box is grown or produced in Wisconsin, so that is a terrific thing for our state,” Fornter said.