There’s been a longstanding relationship between Aspirus Langlade Hospital and the Antigo Community Food Pantry as the hospital owns and supports the building that the pantry utilizes for their distribution center.
 
A Weekend Backpack Program (WEB) integrated into the space a few years ago after child hunger data was identified in a previous Community Health Needs Assessment. Since then, the program has made a permanent home in the pantry building.
 
“This has been a great partnership that addresses hunger with various ways of distribution across all ages of the community,” said Meghan Mattek, Community Health Improvement Lead for Aspirus Health in Antigo.
 
In order to provide students food over the weekend, backpacks are prepared weekly and sent home through local schools. They contain easy-to-prepare food, nutritional information, recipes, and available community resources for children and families.
 
After continued growth presented volunteer challenges, WEB participated in a continuous process improvement project led by staff from Aspirus Langlade. Historically, approximately 300 volunteers annually were needed one night a week to pack approximately 250-350 backpacks.
 
The improvement project fostered a partnership with a special education class in the Antigo School district. The program is always looking for opportunities to expose their students to various skill sets and partnering with WEB allowed them to work on counting, sorting, and packing the inventory.
 
“Without this collaboration, WEB would have had to adjust their distribution schedule by reducing the number of weeks by more than one third of the previous schedule,” adds Mattek.  
 
WEB has a number of goals they continue to work toward. Without collaborations and community partnerships, it would not have the support and volunteers needed to continue to serve and improve the health of children and families in the Antigo area.