MADISON (WKOW) – The United Way of Dane County and the 211 Call Center are seeing a significant rise in calls, with demand continuing to grow.

The 211 hotline is an essential resource for many in the greater Madison area. When someone needs help, they can simply make a phone call, and a dedicated team member is ready to assist.

“Calls could be anything from assistance with finding housing, assistance with rent payment, utility payment…finding food,” said Ed Wall, Director of United Way of Dane County’s 211 Program. “Food and housing are always our top two issues people need help with.”

Last year, the United Way of Dane County reported that 211 helped 27,000 people connect with 47,000 resources. Since the pandemic, the need for assistance has increased. While based in Dane County, the service also supports seven surrounding counties.

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United Way of Dane County kicked off its community campaign at Breese Stevens Field with its United Carnival on Wednesday.

United Way held a carnival to kick off its newest community campaign. The carnival saw 550 attendees who had the opportunity to engage in family-friendly fun, volunteer and hear about rising community needs United Way aims to address in the campaign. The goal for the campaign is to raise $17.3 million, but United Way wanted to hear what the community wanted to see from its efforts.

The slogan for the community campaign is, “Be one of the ones.” Renee Moe, CEO of United Way of Dane County, wants to move the conversation on community giving back to be centered on how people can really make a difference.

“Be one of the ones to care. Be one of the ones to step up if you’re feeling isolated or if you’re feeling like you’re not being heard,” Moe said. “Let us help connect the dots, get people proximate to your story and to ways that we can make a difference. That’s the call to action.”

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MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) – Madison resident, Natasha Dieter, cherishes her job as a baker in-training which she did not have eight months ago. In January, she was unable to pay her bills and was sleeping in her car.

“I became homeless in January of this year, ended up at the Beacon a lot because I had nowhere to go, and I was tired of sleeping and sitting in my car,” said Dieter.

It was at the Beacon, a social services organization, that she said she saw a light at the end of the tunnel.

“While I was at the Beacon, I saw there was a sign and a representative from Just Bakery was there telling about the program and I already love to bake and I was like this is a sign from heaven that I need to go here,” she said.

That is exactly what she did. After applying, she said that they gave her a chance as a baker, but also another chance at life.

“They saved my life,” said Dieter.

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Hundreds of worthy charitable organizations help people in the Madison area with specific missions such as clean lakes, adult literacy, the arts and more.

So why give to the bigger, broader, century-old United Way of Dane County?

Larry Barton, who is leading this year’s fundraising campaign, offers a compelling reason — and life story — to encourage donations and volunteering.

Barton, CEO of Strang Inc., a Madison-based architecture, engineering, interior design and planning firm, was 7 years old when his father’s alcoholism broke up his family. He and his brother spent the next five years in deep poverty, bouncing from apartment to apartment with their father.

Sometimes Barton went to school, sometimes not. He was “hungry probably more often than not,” he told the State Journal editorial board recently.

At rock bottom, his father was living out of a car with Barton and his brother. Sometimes the boys slept in a park. When neighbors called police, Barton was taken to a juvenile facility for three months while his father sought treatment.

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MADISON (WKOW) — United Way of Dane County kicked-off its community campaign at Breese Stevens Field Wednesday and it was a full circle moment for some.

The event celebrates United Way and the work it does in the community. It’s also where people are able to learn how to get involved.

Renee Moe, the President and CEO of United Way of Dane County, said this years volunteer project was gathering paper products for those who need them.

“One of the things we love to do at United Way is educate the community and I don’t think a lot of people know that if you’re living in poverty and getting some assistance, you don’t necessarily have funds for paper products,” Moe said.

But Moe said the meaning of Wednesday’s event goes beyond just that.

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United Way of Dane County will host a “United Carnival” to kick off its 2024 community campaign at Breese Stevens Field on August 21.

The event will invite community members out to Breese Stevens Field, 917 E. Mifflin St., to engage in family fun and hear more about its campaign and mark its official launch. The campaign will work to address rising needs from data collected by United Way and raise funds for nonprofits to bolster programs to meet common problems cited.

Among the problems found by United Way, rising costs due to inflation — which include costs in food, rent and childcare — from around 44,000 Dane County callers to its “211” call service line.

“This year we’ve got about an 80% increase in rent and housing assistance calls, also 80% increase in food calls, and then a lot of utilities assistance,” said Renee Moe, CEO of United Way. “Just last month, we started seeing more requests for gas vouchers and transportation, so you can really see inflation and what’s going on in families’ pockets really showing up in people’s requests for help.”

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SUN PRAIRIE, Wis. — Food pantries across Dane County are warning that the community is facing a rising number of people facing food insecurity, while supply at food pantries is dropping.

“The options we have to keep our shelves stocked continue to shift, and we’re more limited than we were just a few years ago,” said Mark Thompson, president of Sun Prairie Food Pantry. “Buying food in bulk is, of course, more expensive now, and our traditional suppliers of free food can’t keep up with the demand.”

The demand for food pantries is increasing in line with rising costs across the board advocates said during a rally at the state Capitol. Rising housing prices in Dane County are leaving more people with fewer resources to spend on food.

“We are seeing record numbers of families using the pantry 2023 was an all time record for us,” Thompson said. “We’re probably going to break that record halfway through this year. We’re probably going to almost double what we did in 2023.”

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