Insurer helps food bank dreams come true

Workers at the Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin will benefit from extra storage, faster distribution and safer processing thanks in large part to the American Family Insurance Dreams Foundation, the insurer announced recently.

More importantly, though, needy families can now be assured of receiving much-needed food supplies, both fresh and frozen, as the Madison food bank completed the first phase of a $2 million expansion campaign that included a $500,000 lead gift from the insurance foundation.

The foundation acts as American Family Insurance’s philanthropic arm, investing in the surrounding community and creating relationships with non-profits to align business goals with community needs.

“We’re delighted to partner with Second Harvest Food Bank as it continues its work to end hunger in our Wisconsin communities, and to do so by providing more healthy, nutritious food to families in need,” Bill Westrate, chief operating officer of American Family Insurance, said. “We support the efforts of organizations like Second Harvest that provide vital services and support in the communities where we live, work and do business.”

The food bank now hopes to raise an additional $200,000 from the public to augment its year-round pantry supplies.

“For many years Second Harvest has placed an emphasis on providing nutritious food to our neighbors in southwestern Wisconsin who are struggling to put food on their tables,” Dan Stein, president and CEO of Second Harvest, said. “We knew we needed to make significant changes to our building to give us the ability to provide more fresh and frozen product. Thanks to many generous donors like American Family Insurance Dreams Foundation, Inc., we can now take advantage of opportunities we would have had to turn down previously because of space limitations.”