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Personal Essentials Pantry
Zion Church ELCA
Madison, WI
Having been blessed by God with an abundance of gifts.
we share God's love and God's kingdom,
Helping with the essentials of personal and household hygiene,
showing God's grace and love through these tangible gifts.
Pantry service hours Sunday 11:30-2:00 and Thursday 11:30-6:00
Upcoming Events & Other Quick Stuff
Now that our first (and hopefully our last) major blizzard has passed, we're back to pretty much regular schedule -- but please remember that WE WILL BE CLOSED on Thursday, December 24, Christmas Eve, and Thursday, December 31, New Year's Eve. Thursday schedules are back to normal beginning on January 7, 2010. Blessed holidays to all.
For more detailed information, see the full listing of upcoming events
The Personal Essentials Pantry is now listed with GoodSearch.com (look under Zion Church ELCA (Madison)) as a registered agency. Contributing to the Pantry is as easy as running a search or doing your on-line shopping; just go to GoodSearch.com and follow the directions. |
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A huge Thank you! to the Essentials Scrappin' group, which met on Saturday, September 26, at Zion Church.
They meet about every other month; for information on upcoming meetings,
contact joanchase@ymail.com or 608-347-8949.
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Information for Pantry Users
The Mission of the Pantry
Having been blessed by God with an abundance of gifts.
we share God's love and God's kingdom,
Helping with the essentials of personal and household hygiene,
showing God's grace and love through these tangible gifts.
Hours of Operation
Sundays 11:30-2:00
Thursdays 11:30-6:00
Who's eligible?
The Pantry's services are open to anyone in financial need.
We will ask for (but do not absolutely require) proof of identity and proof of address.
We try to support households whose primary language is not English, but we do not generally have translators at the Pantry. Pantry rules, shopping lists, and other guest support materials are provided in a variety of languages. Currently, these include French, Hmong, and Spanish.
Mailing/physical address:
2165 Linden Avenue
Madison, WI 53704
located on block north of Atwood Avenue, between Division and Dunning Streets
Phone 608-772-3146 (Pantry) or 608-244-1847 (Zion Church)
Emergency 608-628-3189
E-mail:
PantryCoordinator@zionmadison.org
PEP@zionmadison.org
Map/Directions
The Pantry is easily accessible by car, on foot or bicycle, or by bus.
- If you're coming by car, check out Mapquest's directions and
map.
- If you're coming by bus:
On weekdays, take the #3 bus to Atwood and Division. Walk north (uphill) one block to Linden, then turn right and walk to the church.. The #3 runs every half hour throughout the Pantry's hours of service.
On weekends, take the #7 bus to Atwood and Division. Walk north (uphill) one block to Linden, then turn right and walk to the church. The #7 runs every half hour throughout the Pantry's hours of service.
- If you're coming by foot or on bicycle, you can follow the Capitol City Trail
to where it intersects Dunning Street. Turn north (uphill) for one block, then
turn left onto Linden. Zion Church ELCA is just at the corner; go to the far end
to find the parking lot. On Pantry days, the Linden Avenue doors are
open; on non-Pantry days, use the doors off the parking lot.
Guest brochures are currently available in English and in Spanish.
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Brochures on the Pantry and its Services
These brochures provide information about PEP services and PEP sponsorship.
We encourage you to download and disseminate any of these brochures that are helpful to you.
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PEP Upcoming Events
Understanding and Overcoming Poverty in Wisconsin: 2009 Conference
August 6-7, 2009
Westwood Conference Center
Wausau, WI
Along with our colleagues from Wisconsin Rapids (St. John's Episcopal Church) and Rhinelander (Barb Oestreicher, Coordinator), we made a presentation at the Understanding and Overcoming Poverty in Wisconsin conference, sponsored by the Wisconsin Institute for Public Policy and Service, on August 7 in Wausau, Wisconsin.
Conference themes included Community Approaches to Ending Poverty; Education Matters; Food Insecurity; Housing and Shelter; the Unbanked and Underbandk; and Workforce Development and Workplace Justice. Our presentation, titled Working Between the Lines: the Personal Essentials Pantries in Wisconsin, gave us an opportunity to discuss the importance of personal and household hygiene products in helping to address poverty.
We still don't know whether conference proceedings will be made available, but if so, we'll post the link to information about the proceedings as soon as we know it. We will make the text of our presentation available once it's polished after the conference itself.
First Annual Madison Nonprofit Day
August 21, 2009
Goodman Community Center
Madison, WI
We had a second opportunity to make a presentation about this Pantry on August 21 at the Goodman Center in Madison, again discussing the importance of personal and household hygiene products in helping to address poverty and presenting the model we use for meeting this need.
We understand that at least some proceedings and reports from the conference will be made available on-line. As soon as we have that information, we'll publish the link. Again, we will make the text of our presentation available as soon as we've had a chance to polish it and put it into more stand-alone form.
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About the Pantry: Its Organization and Operation
These documents are the working procedures and policies that guide the Pantry in its day-to-day and long-term operation. We've provided them on this web site for anyone who's interested in knowing more about the "why" of what we do, and for reference and adaptation by other agencies who might be looking at how they might better do what they do.
The Mission of the Pantry
Having been blessed by God with an abundance of gifts,
we share God's love and God's kingdom:
helping with the essentials of personal and household hygiene,
showing God's grace and love through these tangible gifts.
History and Organization
The Personal Essentials Pantry began in June of 2006, as the result of a discussion at a Sunday morning adult Stepping Stones discussion. Within a week of that discussion, the church's library had been transformed with new shelves to hold Pantry products; within another two weeks, the first two households were registered. Since that time, the Pantry has been growing continuously in the number of guests registered, and in the area that it serves. As of January of 2009, well more than 2,000 households were registered with the Pantry.
The Personal Essentials Pantry is an ongoing ministry of Zion Church ELCA, and is supported by Zion Church and its members, area congregations, social ministry organizations, and the larger Madison community.
The Pantry's operations are guided by an Advisory Council composed of Zion members, collegial agencies, and Pantry guests.
PEP
Plan of Operation
This is the bare-bones description of who does what in running the Pantry —who makes the decisions,
who sets policy, who does what.
The
Reasons Behind the Plan
Every "thou shalt" should have a reason explaining why "shalt thou"? This
document outlines the reasons behind the "thou shalts" of our Plan of Operation.
PEP
Coordinator Job Description
What does the coordinator actually do? This is
the more detailed list of what the Coordinator's job responsibilities are,
based on the Plan of Operation.
PEP
Advisory Board Structure
Where does the Pantry get its advice and input? This document outlines the composition of the Pantry's Advisory Board.
All of these files are in PDF format. If you have need of the files in editable (Microsoft Word) format, please contact the Pantry Coordinator.
Our Partners in Ministry
We're not alone in this ministry; a lot of folks around the community are in partnership with us, in a variety of ways. Besides the folks at Zion Church ELCA, who founded this ministry, Pantry partners include:
- Dane County Dental Association
Dane County Food Pantry Network
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans
United Way of Dane County
Bread of Life Anglican Church
Dane County Dental Association
Immanuel Lutheran Church
Lake Edge Lutheran Church
Madison Urban Ministry
Options in Community Living
St. Paul's AME Church
Contact Us
2165 Linden Avenue
Madison, WI 53704
located on block north of Atwood Avenue, between Division and Dunning Streets
Phone 608-772-3146 (Pantry) or 608-244-1847 (Zion Church)
Emergency 608-628-3189
E-mail:
PantryCoordinator@zionmadison.org
PEP@zionmadison.org
Write-ups About the Pantry
These are articles that have appeared in local/regional newsletters and newspapers about the Pantry.
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Personal Essentials Pantry Resources
This Resources section includes software and protocols that were developed as we tried to make the Personal Essentials Pantry more responsive and effective (and keep our sanity!), demographic information from our ministry that other pantries and organizations may find helpful, and links to other information providers and agencies. We try to keep this updated, but if you notice a link that's broken, or a document that's out of date, please let us know.
PEP Brochures
Feel free to download and disseminate any of these brochures:
- PEP
Guest Brochure: English
PEP Guest Brochure: Spanish
Be a PEPSer(Personal Essentials Pantry Sponsor)
Frequently Asked Questions
PEP Software
These software programs were developed at the Personal Essentials Pantry for its use, but were specifically designed to be usable by and useful to other pantries. All programs listed here are written in open access, public domain software, and may be copied, used, and disseminated free of charge. (All right, we admit it; we won't argue if you want to send us a donation. It is not required, though.) If you make revisions to these packages to make them even more useful, we would be delighted if you would send us a copy of the new software.
PEPbase
This software package allows you to set up your own list of products and rules for their distribution, to track households, and analyze usage and distribution patterns. Basic household demographic information is pre-defined, but all other aspects of the software can be customized to fit your pantry or social ministry distribution and eligibility needs. If you're interested in exploring this software for your pantry, please download the PEPbase Software Release 1 Survey and return it to us at the address on the bottom of the form.
We expect to have this software as a downloadable package by the end of Summer 2009.
PEPbase User's Manual
While the PEPbase software cannot yet be downloaded, the PEPbase User Manual is available for review. Because some of the more advanced features of the program are still under development, each section of the User Manual is a separate file. Also, as noted in the How to Approach This Manual section, not all sections of the Manual may be needed by all staff within a given agency. By having the sections in separate files, an agency coordinator or director can more easily provide only those sections that may be needed. The files are listed in their order within the Manual below.
- Table of Contents
How to Approach This Manual
PEPbase: A general overview
Installation and Set-Up
Getting Started: Understanding the process
PEPbase in Routine Use: Guidelines, examples, rules
Coordinator Functions
Technical Specifications
Trouble-Shooting: Fixing and reporting bugs
Appendices
Demographics and Statistics
As noted below in the Topical Reports section, there's a whole lot that isn't known about this need area. What we do begin to know, we're sharing, so in this section you'll find reports on some of the demographic information that we can report on from our Pantry's experience. Reports without links are reports that are still in development but that we plan to have available in the next few months.
Product Availability Rules
While we wait for better information on actual need, we have developed at least preliminary guidelines as to product use — that is, how often we will provide what products to whom. Allotted Product Duration is the document we provide to our guests to help them understand our rules.
Product Demand Levels
These reports provide information as to how high the demand is for the various products that we provide.
The information in these reports are generated by the PEPbase software, and show the total number of households/individuals approved for each product, the total number of each product product requested, and the total number of each product provided. The percentage of requested-to-provided for each product is also shown. (The percentage fulfillment data is what the Pantry uses to help gauge its overall success rate.)
For further information on how to what these data do (and do not) tell us about the need, check out the document Fulfillment Studies: what they tell us, and what they don't tell us.
Of most interest to you in the field will probably be the information as to how many of what product were requested, as that is our best indicator of overall need. This need can be assessed across the number of households visiting each day/month, which is shown as the Total Guest Visits at the top of the chart.
Beginning in September, we changed the way that we generated guest shopping list, removing products that we ran out of that day. For that reason, the fulfillment studies from September 2009 on until further notice no longer provide reliable information as to the degree of the need, so we will not be publishing fullfilment studies until further notice. We will, however, be publishing our analyses of the data we have for January-August 2009.
Guest Demographics
This map shows the number of households by ZIP code as of June 2008. Counts for ZIP codes outside Dane County are shown around the edges of the map.
Note that this map shows the number of households per ZIP code only; it does not map location within each ZIP code area.
Also note that this map is now well out of date; at the time this map was assembled, we had about 1,200 households; as of July 2009, we're at well over 2,500 households.
Topical Reports
Our ministry area — personal and household hygiene products — is one that we as a community and nation really don't know enough about. How big is the need? What's the real lifetime of these products? What can we do about staying green while managing tight budgets?
We're beginning to find some of the answers to these questions. As we get information,we'll be posting it here, in downloadable reports.
If you have information or data concerning this area that you think would be helpful to the field, please e-mail them to the Pantry Coordinator.
Musings & Reflections
These musings and reflections are short, one-page think pieces that have been shared over the years with Pantry staff and/or Pantry guests. They are not published on any specific time schedule, but rather as events and readings combine to provide food for deep thought.
- September 2007: Beginnings
and endings
- September 2007: Hospitality
and grace
- December 2007:Individuals
and community
- October 2008: To
bring glad tidings
- December 2008: Pantry
versus treasurehouse
Reprint Permission
In general, if something is on this web site, you are welcome to make copies of it for your use, and to share it with others.
If you are disseminating something that you got from this web site, we ask that you do us the courtesy of including a note on the document citing the Personal Essentials Pantry and this URL as the source. Not only does this continue to give credit where credit is due, but it will help others who may wish to dig deeper for further information.
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Further Resources: Other Helpful Links
As noted above, there is a lot that we don't know about poverty and need, particularly in the area of personal and household hygiene. However, much more is known about poverty generally, and especially about poverty and hunger, poverty and childhood, poverty and health, poverty and education, poverty and employment, and poverty and community. Some places to begin include:
Demographics on Poverty: Useful Links
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Supporting the Pantry
Volunteering
We accept volunteers from all walks of life. There are volunteer opportunities on our Pantry service days — Thursdays from 11:30-6:00 and Sundays 11:30-2:00 — as well as "in the background," doing stocking and data entry. If you're interested in volunteering with the Pantry, please contact the Pantry Coordinator.
Become a PEPSer: A Personal Essentials Pantry Sponsor
If you are interested in long-term support for the Personal Essentials Pantry, the easiest and most effective way is to become a PEPSer —a sponsor of the Personal Essentials Pantry. The important thing in sponsoring is not so much the amountof the support as it is the fact that it is ongoing support. You may become a sponsor for as little as $50.00 per year; or, if your budget allows, several thousand dollars per year. The Join the PEP Community brochure gives information on levels of support. As little as $50.00 will provide product support for an average family for one month.
Donations
We are delighted to accept both in-kind and monetary donations. In general, monetary donations are actually of more assistance; not only we can usually obtain product more cheaply through Second Harvest Foodbank or wholesale suppliers, but in-kind donations rarely come in with enough of any one product that we can significantly reduce what we need to purchase. We also don't have any way to plan when in-kind donations are going to arrive.
However, if you're someone who loves to shop, or you're a coupon maven who loves getting x-tuple discounts, go for it! We'd hate to stand in the way of anybody enjoying themselves that way. You might want to check the Product Demand Levels reports for what we're currently weakest on; look for the products that have !!! after their name. In general, it's most helpful for us to have two or three dozen of one item rather than 2 or 3 each of several items. However, everything —and we do mean everything — will be put to good use and go out to the folks who need it.
In-kind donations — that is, donations of the products that we carry — can be dropped off at the Pantry itself. Although the Pantry is only open for customer service on Thursdays and Sundays, the office is generally open Mondays-Fridays, 8:00-3:30. To make sure someone's there, we encourage you to call ahead — 608-772-3146 (Pantry) or 608-244-1847 (Zion Church) or 608-628-3189.
Monetary donations can be mailed to:
Personal Essentials Pantry
Zion Church ELCA
2165 Linden Avenue
Madison, WI 53704
All donations, of whatever amount, are welcome.
Collection drives are another good way not only of supporting the Pantry with direct provision of products, but of spreading the word about the need for this ministry. If you'd like assistance with brochures, posters, information, etc., for setting up a collection point or organizing a collection drive, please contact the Pantry Coordinator.
GoodSearch.comThe Personal Essentials Pantry is now listed with GoodSearch.com — look under Zion Church ELCA (Madison) — as a registered agency. To quote from the GoodSearch site: In 2007, GoodSearch was expanded to include GoodShop, an online shopping mall of world-class merchants dedicated to helping fund worthy causes across the country. Each purchase made via the GoodShop mall results in a donation to the user's designated charity or school — averaging approximately 3% of the sale, but going up to 20% or even more." |
Raise money for Zion Church ELCA just by searching the web and shopping online!
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Spreading the Word
In a very real way, the biggest help that you can provide is to spread the word about this need. We're here because there wasn't anybody really tackling this need area. While food pantries both here and around the country have generally tried to help with this need, their major focus has been and should be on food. Trying to provide food and provide the sixty or so products that are needed to really address the area of personal and household hygiene is incredibly complex, and probably unrealistic.
The need exists, though, because when aid policies were
initially set up, nobody was thinking about this area; apparently folks
figured that the toilet paper fairy took care of it.
As a society, we need to be much better about realizing that folks in need are
If you can spread the word that food stamps don't in fact provide for all of a family's household needs, and that food pantries don't have the resources to provide everything from toilet paper to laundry soap to shampoo in their non-food sections, and that personal and household hygiene essentials are truly essentials — well, then, we may eventually be unnecessary. And that would be a very good thing.