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Grodevant, 49, works part-time at the intake desk, welcoming and registering new clients who come to the nonprofit organization for food.
She is a client as well.
“Sometimes I feel a little guilty over being a client here also,” Grodevant said. “But it gives me an insight with my clients.
“I know what it’s like to need. I know what it’s like to be at the bottom of the food chain, and I know what it’s like to be shoved off as a non-entity,” Grodevant said.
She’s one of four part-time workers who follow WAFER’s mission to provide food for the hungry.
“I want them to feel safe here,” she said of her clients.
A mother once again
Grodevant is the mother of two, and 15 years ago her daughter, Tiffany, gave birth to Tyler.
She knew from the beginning it would be difficult for 17-year-old Tiffany to raise the child on her own.
When a judge awarded Grodevant custody of 4-month-old Tyler, she suddenly found herself a mother once again.
But, as Tyler grew up, she quickly realized he was different. As a 2-year-old, he sat on the kitchen floor and carved into his body with knives. He put his head through a window.
“I was just in tears,” Grodevant said. “The doctor said, ‘Well, it’s not him. It’s you — you are just too old to have a child.’”
Undaunted, the pair went through many physicians, and Tyler eventually was diagnosed with autism.
After living in Rock County for several years, Grodevant brought Tyler with her to La Crosse.
Family members helped Grodevant build a new life, and Tyler found support at the Chileda Institute.
But Grodevant was unemployed and out of money. That’s how she ended up at WAFER.
Working for WAFER
“I came in here originally just because we needed food, because I didn’t have food stamps at the time and living on about $650 a month on Social Security, and $400 of it was going to rent. I couldn’t afford anything,” she said.
Grodevant found she loved the program and the people.
“So, I come in on a Tuesday for food, and on Friday I’m volunteering, and a year later I’ve got a job here,” she said.
That was four years ago, and since that time, Grodevant has worked registering new clients.
It affords her the flexibility she needs to care for Tyler. She can only work certain hours, she said, and in August she has to be at home when Tyler doesn’t have summer school.
“There is no other job that I could take a month and then come back and walk right into it,” she said.
Volunteers are the key
WAFER Executive Director Heidi Blanke, who has been with the agency for two years, said it takes many people giving freely of their time to fulfill the food pantry’s mission.
“I don’t think our volunteers get enough credit for what they do,” Blanke said. “There are some who come every week, week after week.”
WAFER’s more than 150 volunteers do everything from unloading trucks to putting food on the shelves, Blanke said.
By end of the year, WAFER will have served 2,900 families, she said.
The best part of the job is experiencing the community’s generosity, Blanke said. But that comes with a sobering thought.
“To me the greatest challenge is knowing, in an ideal world, we wouldn’t exist,” she said. “So our donations may be up, and the number of people we serve are way up, but that means that there’s something else wrong.”
Need is year-round
Because it’s not a government entity, WAFER’s donations come from community members — churches, businesses and individuals.
“I tell people anything that they would want to eat bring on in, because somebody will want it,” she said.
WAFER also collects personal hygiene items, such as toilet paper and toothpaste.
The biggest single annual donation comes from the collection during the Rotary Lights display.
That will bring in 12,000 to 14,000 pounds of food — which will last WAFER clients about two months.
“We’re using, like, 3,500 cans of soup a month,” Blanke said.
Blanke always encourages variety in the nonperishable donations.
“The variety comes when someone donates cake mixes, and they donate something that’s not tomato soup or chicken noodle soup or vegetable soup,” she said.
Donations are holding steady, she said, but demand is increasing.
“We had a record month in June, we broke it in September, we broke it October,” Blanke said. “We’re about 150 families ahead this November of where we were a year ago at this time.”
That continual demand is what motivated Jim Omernik, 68, of La Crosse to volunteer at WAFER for the past three years.
A retired Trane Co. computer programmer and analyst, Omernik drives and unloads trucks during local food drives.
He liked the environment, he said, because he grew up in a grocery store his dad managed in central Wisconsin.
“You kind of feel good helping other people,” he said.
He volunteers three or four times a month, he said, and the people at WAFER always appreciate his help.
“It makes it worthwhile,” he said. “I don’t expect anything more than that. That’s what keeps me going.”
Demand is regional
The demand for food is increasing throughout the region, said Grace Jones, executive director at Couleecap Inc., a nonprofit organization that combats poverty through a number of services, including donations to area food pantries.
“We at Couleecap have seen the need for food double in the last three months in our food pantries,” Jones said.
Coming to a food pantry can be uncomfortable, Grodevant said.
“I tell people it’s a little swallow of your pride, but believe me, it’s better to swallow your pride and feed your family than to starve to death,” she said.
All new clients need when they come in is an identification card with a picture, name and birth date on it, Grodevant said.
Grodevant also needs the names and birth dates of everyone in the household, as well as the total household income.
They also have to provide proof of La Crosse County residency within three months, she said.
Grodevant said she sees college students, working poor and people who have just lost their jobs.
“It’s just all different situations. We have young girls that are new-time mothers that are under 18 who come in here for food, and we offer formula, so they can get formula for the babies,” she said.
She also has collected a batch of brochures on other sources of help for clients.
She waits until the last clients have gotten their food before she takes anything for herself and Tyler, she said.
While raising Tyler can be a challenge at times, she’ll go the extra mile for him.
“I want to prove that I am a good parent, that I’ve been able to handle it,” she said.
“The best thing, for me it has been a sense of accomplishment personally. I didn’t work for so long. I feel that I have value,” she said.
LOCAL RESOURCES
WAFER Food Pantry
Where: 403 Causeway Blvd.
Contact: (608) 782-6003
Hours: 10 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Monday through Friday and 4 to 7:45 p.m Tuesday and Thursday
Onalaska/Holmen Emergency Food Basket
Where: 735 Sand Lake Road, Onalaska
Contact: (608) 783-7722
Hours: 9 to 11 a.m. Monday through Friday and on the second Saturday of the month
La Crescent Food Share
Where: Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, 21 N. Hill St., La Crescent, Minn.
Contact: (507) 895-4440
Hours: 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday
Community Action Program
Where: 200 E. Blackhawk St., Prairie du Chien
Contact: (608) 326-2463
Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday
Couleecap Sparta office
Where: 777 North St., Sparta
Contact: (608) 269-5021
Hours: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday and Thursday
Living Faith Church
Where: 852 N. Main St., Viroqua
Contact: (608) 637-7470
Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday
Our Savior’s Lutheran Church
Where: 341 Black River Ave., Westby
Contact: (608) 634-3473
Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday
The Good Samaritan
Where: 128 Mill St., Hillsboro
Contact: (608) 489-2492
Hours: 1 to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 9 a.m. to noon Saturday
New Hope United Methodist Church
Where: E2290 Hwy. 82, De Soto
Contact: (608) 648-2644
Hours: 9 to 11 a.m. Thursday
Neighbor for Neighbor
Where: 1118 W. Veteran’s St., Tomah
Contact: (608) 372-6737
Hours: 1 to 3:30 p.m. Monday and Friday, and 3:30 to 6 p.m. on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month
Gays Mills Food Pantry
Where: 210 School St., Gays Mills
Contact: (608) 624-5754
Hours: 2 to 4 p.m. Wednesday
Salvation Army
Where: 223 N. Eighth St.
Contact: (608) 782-6126Hours: 10 a.m. to noon and
1 to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and until 7 p.m. Tuesday
