Events
2011 Upcoming Events:
The Annual UW Madison Homecoming Food Drive
October 6-13, 2011 - UW Madison's Homecoming Committee is kicking off our fall food drive season in a big way!
Koats for Kids – Dane County
October 20-23, 2011 - CAC will be distributing coats and warm winter items to individuals and families in need through the 26th Annual Koats for Kids event. Coats are donated by the public, cleaned by Klinke Cleaners and distributed by CAC in early fall each year. In 2010, over 5,000 people in the Madison area received coats through Koats for Kids. The location is the former Northside True Value building at the Northside TownCenter, 2865 N. Sherman Avenue. Formerly called Sherman Plaza, Northside TownCenter is home to Pierce's grocery store and the Lakeview branch of the Madison Public Library. This location is accessible to Madison Metro Bus route numbers 2, 21 and 22. Distribution times will be 9 am – 7 pm on Thursday, 10/20 and Friday, 10/21; 9 am - 5 pm on Saturday, 10/22 and 10 am - 2 pm on Sunday, 10/23. Families are strongly encouraged to register in advance at CAC. Volunteers are still needed for both set-up and distribution days! For more information, please call CAC at (608) 246-4730 or email .
Koats for Kids - Jefferson County
October 27-29, 2011 - CAC will be distributing coats to families in need at the CAC Office, 114 East Main, Watertown on October 27 - 29. Thanks to Lake Mills Cleaners and Dyers for coordinating a community-wide coat drive and cleaning all donated coats! This year's drive is focusing on children's coats, snow pants, hats, mittens and boots. For more information, please call CAC at (920) 262-9667 or .
Past Events
9th Annual CAC Community Gardens Bike Tour - August 27, 2011. Join Community Action Coalition for South Central Wisconsin, Inc. and Madison Mayor Paul Soglin for a family-friendly bike tour of community gardens on Saturday, August 27, 9am-1pm. We will ride the 10-mile tour at a leisurely pace, with garden visits and kids activities between 20-30 minute bike rides. Accompany us to learn about Madison's unique and diverse community gardens and meet the gardeners who tend them. We will meet at Sheboygan Community Garden (Sheboygan Avenue and Segoe Road, at Hill Farms DOT) at 9am, with an optional downtown start at 8am, meeting at N. Carroll and W. Mifflin Streets. The tour will visit four west side gardens and include free breakfast, coffee, and lunch, along with kids' activities and music.
Food and Donation Drive - April 11 and 16, 2011. Food and Donation Drive at Dane County Copps and Pick'n Save markets - The Lions and Lioness Clubs and the Roundy's Foundation are hosting a food and donation drive for the Dane County Food Pantry Network at Copps and Pick'n Save supermarkets throughout Dane County. As the coordinator of the Dane County Food Pantry Network, CAC will be receiving and redistributing all foods collected during this drive. The goal is to collect $225,000 in food and money for the Dane County Food Pantry Network.
Fiskars Project Orange Thumb - May 26, 2011. Fiskars Project Orange Thumb will transform an empty field on the campus of Black Hawk Middle School in Madison's Northside neighborhood into a beautiful and productive school-community garden – in a single day. CAC will be there helping to create this garden.
National Association of Letter Carriers - Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive - May 14, 2011. Mail carriers across the U.S. will be collecting nonperishable foods on May 14th. In Dane County, CAC is coordinating the distribution of this food to food pantries, homeless shelters and meal sites throughout our area.
Grow Together Conference. On Saturday, February 19, the Gardens Program of Community Action Coalition for South Central Wisconsin, Inc. (CAC) hosted their annual Grow Together Conference at Globe University on Madison's east side. Over one hundred people representing four languages (English, Spanish, Hmong, and Nepali) turned out for the conference. The conference brought together community gardeners, food pantry gardeners, community leaders, and individuals interested in fostering connections between youth and gardens. Workshops at the event covered topics of leadership, food pantry gardening, youth gardening. CAC would like to recognize Globe University, UW Extension, and Madison Community Foundation for their support and thank Just Coffee and Cousins Subs for their contributions to this event.
2010 EVENTS
Turkey Distribution
Over 5,000 Thanksgiving Turkeys delivered to Dane County Food Pantries.
Red and White Hunger Fight
The largest food drive in UW history! You can contribute and make a difference in our community this Thanksgiving! Campus groups such as athletes, Greeks, student organizations, and individuals will all be pitching in to make this a campus wide success.
We will be collecting food from October 1st to November 15th. On November 17th all food will be compiled, sorted, and packed and delivered to the Community Action Coalition.
Koats for Kids 2010
The 8th Annual CAC Community Gardens Bike Tour with Mayor Dave Cieslewicz was held Saturday, July 24, 2010. Bike tour participants visited four lovely community and food pantry gardens in Madison and Monona – the East High Youth Farm, Glendale Elementary garden, Monona United Methodist Church garden, and St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church garden, where church members and gardeners provided riders with a delicious lunch. Thank you to all the participants and garden hosts for another great tour! Visit http://www.wkowtv.com to see a short story on the bike tour and check out Mayor Dave’s blog for his impressions of the bike tour: http://www.cityofmadison.com.
National Association of Letter Carriers - Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive - May 8, 2010. Dane County's 2010 total collect is 198,587 lbs! This equates to 158,870 meals. Special thanks to Pat Nee and all the mail carriers from NALC Capital City Merged Branch 507; the U.S. Postal Service, Ann McNeary from United Way, Two Men and a Truck, Oakleaf Properties, the Post Office Credit Union, and all the wonderful volunteers who came out to make the drive a success!
Informational Meeting and Volunteer Training for Affordable Housing in Waukesha County.
In an effort to gain public recognition and community support about
the impact that limited affordable housing is having on Waukesha County
citizens, CAC and The Waukesha County Affordable Housing Task Force
held an informational session and volunteer training opportunity on
March 18, 2010 at the Hope Center in Waukesha. The session was free.
Waukesha County volunteers are needed to help organize materials, make
phone calls, distribute petitions, and promote the work of this community
campaign.
2009 EVENTS
Thanksgiving Basket Program. CAC distributed
3,500 Thanksgiving baskets in partnership with United Way 2-1-1 and 19
food pantries in the Dane County Food Pantry Network.
Koats for Kids – Dane County. Thanks
to all of the wonderful volunteers who participated in Koats for Kids
this year. More
than 40 individuals and 13 groups gave their time to sort over 12,000 coats
and to help distribute the coats during our Public Distribution October
22-25, 2009. CAC sends a heartfelt thank you to all of them! A
special thank you to Klinke Cleaners
for collecting and washing all the coats.
Koats for Kids - Jefferson
County. Jefferson County Koats for Kids was held at
the Jefferson Public Library, 321 South Main, on October 29 - October 31, 2009, and
at the CAC Office, 114 East Main, on November 4 - November 7, 2009. Thanks
to Lake Mills Cleaners and Dyers.
Thanksgiving on the Mayflower.
CAC teamed up with 94.9 WOLX
for Thanksgiving on the Mayflower and collected 24,000 lbs of food as well
as over $1,500 in monetary donations. This event was sponsored by
QBE,
Meriter Home Health,
and Mayflower Transit LLC.
The Red & White Hunger Fight. Thanks to all the volunteers
and donors who made this a successful food drive. We collected 4,855 lbs
of food.
