Supporting community initiatives is something Outpost Natural Foods Cooperative has been doing with its Community Partners give-back program for more than 20 years. For the program, Outpost annually partners with four locally based nonprofits to help the organizations build greater awareness. This year’s recipients are Outreach Community Health Centers (January-March), Groundwork Milwaukee (April-June), Great Lakes Community Conservation Corps (July-September) and Centro Hispano Milwaukee (October-December). Each organization receives a $3,000 donation from Outpost, opportunities for additional fundraising events with Outpost and one-fourth of the earned interest from Outpost’s Co-op Community Fund. Additionally, Outpost staff often take part in a payroll donation program to help raise additional money for the recipients.
Outreach Community Health Centers (ochc-milw.org; 414-374-2400) operates 62 units of transitional housing for homeless individuals and families, provides nutritious food through its food pantry and offers programming to help vulnerable individuals and families achieve the highest possible levels of health, wellness and self-sufficiency. Groundwork Milwaukee (groundworkmke.org; 414-763-9947) is a community gardening organization that seeks to empower people, businesses and organizations with its three signature programs: Milwaukee Urban Gardens, Green Team and Young Farmers. Great Lakes Community Conservation Corps (greatlakesccc.org; 262-880-4811) trains and educates disadvantaged young adults from high schools and colleges in environmental stewardship. Participants help maintain public lands and waterways in southeast Wisconsin and, by completing these projects, are able to earn scholarships for post-secondary education. Founded in 1964, Centro Hispano Milwaukee (centrohispanomke.org; 414-384-3700) was the first Latino community-based nonprofit in the city. Today it is a bilingual center that serves more than 15,000 individuals, providing social services, education and housing for the elderly and disabled.
To learn more about the nonprofits’ donation and volunteer needs, contact them directly. For more information about Outpost’s Community Partners Program, call 414-431-3377 or visit outpost.coop.
