The best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time, and one Dane County organization is hoping to dig its forks to the occasion Tuesday and make a sizeable dent in the elephant-size issue of local poverty.
On Tuesday afternoon, the United Way of Dane County will kick off what it hopes to be a $17.5 million season with its annual Day of Caring, a volunteer-driven event that sees participants compile things like food, school supplies and hygiene products to be given to those in need.
“It’s a chance to come together, get people more approximate to the issues and how we respond in the community,” United Way President and CEO Renee Moe said. “We need more than ever to come together as neighbors.”
From 1:30 to 3 p.m., hundreds of people will gather at Breese Stevens Field to pack food and health supplies, forming a sort of humanitarian assembly line. They’re tasked with putting together 250 backpacks, 4,000 paper products, 3,000 menstrual hygiene packages, 2,000 healthy snacks and 1,000 encouraging notes, which will go to Porchlight, the Community Action Coalition for South Central Wisconsin, the Road Home of Dane County, Second Harvest Food Bank of Southern Wisconsin and WayForward Resources.
Volunteers at the 2024 Day of Caring heft bags full of donated necessities, packed by around 500 volunteers. This year, more than 900 people have registered for the day.
“We’re really excited to see those numbers back up,” she said.
But just as the volunteer number has increased, so too has the need. More than 58,000 Dane County residents are living in poverty, 10.5% of the population. Calls to 211, United Way Dane County’s help line, are up 36%, with the highest volumes seeking food, rent and utility assistance.
Another issue United Way hopes to address is the racial disparities in Dane County, where Black people account 5% of the overall population but more than 40% of those who are homeless, according to the organization’s data. Black people in Dane County are also twice as likely as white people to be living in poverty, and the average life expectancy of a Black person here, 71 years, is more than a decade shorter than for white, Asian and Latino people in the county.
Fourteen cents of every dollar United Way raises toward its charitable efforts goes toward administrative costs. This year, though, another local organization is looking to bridge that 14-cent gap with its own contributions.
The Dan and Patti Rashke (TASC) Foundation will be underwriting each individual donation, making up for those administrative costs so that all of the money an individual donates goes directly to people in need.
“It takes that barrier out,” Moe said. “That’s a really big deal.”
Registration for the event is still open, so anyone who wants to attend the Day of Caring or otherwise contribute to the United Way can find information on the organization’s website, UnitedWayDaneCounty.org.