‘MKE Grocery Buddy’ Builds Compassion and Dignity through Mutual Aid

Mister Rogers once said to “look for the helpers.” Now, Milwaukee Grocery Buddy coalition seeks to match the helpers with neighbors in need, creating mutual aid networks and friendships across the city.

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Through mid-November, communities across the country reeled from the chaos wrought by the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, from federal worker furloughs to air travel delays and cancellations. Chief among shutdown-related concerns was funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and what the over 40 million Americans who rely on the program would do in its absence.

Here in Milwaukee, social support networks including food pantries and meal programs were quickly overwhelmed, resources already stretched thin prior to the shutdown. Neighborhoods rallied around those in need, launching food drives and forming “grocery buddy” partnerships: simply put, connecting with a neighbor or friend who relies on food stamps and stepping up to cover their grocery trips. Despite a standoff between Governor Evers and President Trump, SNAP funds for the month of November were distributed to the great relief of many.

However, food insecurity is a crisis that exists whether or not SNAP is funded. MKE Grocery Buddy, a grassroots mutual aid network facilitating food aid and compassionate neighbor connections, emerged in response to the SNAP funding lapse—and isn’t going anywhere.

Meeting Immediate Need

“It seemed almost unfathomable to me that all of a sudden, this large group of people across the country and in my community would lose resources,” says Katie Goodwin, MKE Grocery Buddy’s marketing and media outreach liaison. “My life in a privileged way could carry on, but I am a deeply emotional and sensitive person, I couldn’t do that. By getting involved in this, I realized that even if I could help one person, that would be enough.”

The network is about as grassroots as it gets. Goodwin represents a small but dedicated central team of organizers under the leadership of food systems and community gardens professional, Meag Sargent. Sargent spearheaded the initiative to form the MKE Grocery Buddy coalition after being inspired by anecdotal grocery buddies’ stories across the country, turning a small-scale idea into a robust local network. She initially conducted outreach via social media, recruiting the core team of four volunteers including Goodwin and her colleagues Jenny Holmdohl and Michelle Croak. The team works on top of their full-time jobs out of passion and resolve to meet the urgent need created and/or worsened by SNAP cutoffs. “There’s a lot of terrible news coming out all the time, and it’s easy to feel helpless, so I was actually looking for ways to get involved,” Goodwin remarks. She emphasizes that frustration with bad news is a powerful fuel for the Grocery Buddy network, turning anger at failing systems into compassion for neighbors.

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MKE Grocery Buddy’s operations are simple—one Google Form collects requests for aid, while another tracks offers of support. The coalition is not a 501(c)(3) and therefore cannot handle donations. Rather, the program’s organizers review requests and match them with an offer of support, connecting neighbors directly to one another. This support can take the form of purchasing and delivering groceries for those in need, but more often than not the matched pairs opt to go shop together, building new friendships in the process.

Even in their naming system, the team aims to break down the stigma around asking for help; those seeking aid are called “neighbors in need,” while those offering are “grocery buddies.” Goodwin says that shame is often a roadblock for those in need and can be reinforced by the failing of systems like SNAP. “If someone is brave enough to ask for help, and the thing they are asking for is food support, it is not our job to decide who is ‘worthy’ of anything. All of us are so much closer to being in the situation of our neighbors in need than to being a millionaire or billionaire. As a grocery buddy, I try to remind my neighbor at every opportunity that they are a person trying to do their best in the world.”

The intensity of the immediate need for community support not only underscored the importance of the growing Grocery Buddies network but also exposed gaps in existing social supports. SNAP, even when funded, is a limited resource, and does not cover household essentials such as toilet paper, menstrual products, pet food or prepared food. Additionally, with strict income cut offs to qualify for SNAP, many households lay just on the cusp of and are ineligible despite their demonstrable need. Many pantries, on the other hand, must limit the number of visits an individual can make in a 30-day period to ensure equitable access for others. “If anything, now that we understand these structures better, and especially have seen what happens without them, we are more committed to this for as long as there are families in Milwaukee in need of support,” Goodwin affirms.

Connecting Neighbors and Building Compassion

To date, MKE Grocery Buddy has matched 147 buddies and neighbors. They have received ~$40,000 in requests compared to ~$10,000 in support. “Even with that big of a gap, this has restored a lot of my hope in humanity,” Goodwin says. She states that most of their support comes from small but regular contributions.  “It’s the groups of people giving $10 – 20 a week who make up the majority of our donations.”

This restoration of hope Goodwin speaks to is reflected in the grocery buddy matches the coalition has facilitated. Aside from shopping together, many have formed friendships after developing a cadence of direct communication with one another. “I’ve heard stories like, ‘Every Sunday my grocery buddy and I go in person to this grocery store, and we walk around and talk about our lives while we shop!’ We need more of those moments.” Many grocery buddies are thinking about their neighbors in need while approaching the holiday season, offering to provide meal contributions or have their neighbors in need over for Thanksgiving.

Sargent and her growing team of volunteers, including Goodwin, Holmdohl and Croak, are propelled by purpose. While MKE Grocery Buddy is facing a challenging gap between requests and offers, they have no plans to stop their efforts to end food insecurity in Milwaukee anytime soon. “Food is a human right, and it’s up to us to make that a truth in our communities.”

MKE Grocery Buddy urgently needs more grocery buddies to sign up to address a backlog in requests. They are also open to volunteers who would like to lend their time and skills to the core team. To become a grocery buddy or volunteer, visit MKE Grocery Buddy’s Volunteering Page.