Milwaukee correctional center helps stock shelves food pantries emptied by raging pandemic
La Risa R. Lynch
Everyday at dawn, Kurt Parks was up and out working in Felmers O. Chaney Correction Center’s garden.
He, along with other men at the minimum-security facility, weeded the soil and hoed the rows of squash, zucchini, cabbage, and cucumbers. Vegetables raised there help supplement the meals at the center.
“I was out faithfully every morning at 7:30 and I go back in about one or two,” said Parks, who’s serving the remaining months of a 4 1/2-year sentence at the northside work-release center. “It was hard work at first... but you would get a peace of mind out here though.
"Early in the morning, you don’t hear all that noise or nothing. It's almost like being by the lakefront where you can relax."
It was Parks' first time ever working in a garden. He was amazed at the sizable bounty the center’s 85-by 40-foot vegetable patch produced during the summer and fall growing seasons.
“The bell peppers were as big as my hand,” Parks said.
Good rains and plenty of sun yielded a bumper crop. They couldn’t use it all.
Still, the need was out there.
An increase in demand for food since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has left many Wisconsin food pantries struggling to keep their shelves.
So, when a suggestion was made to donate the excess produce to local pantries, Parks was glad his hard work in the garden would put fresh vegetables on someone’s plate.
“I felt good because I knew it was going to a church for their food pantry,” said Parks, 55. He has helped stock shelves and unload groceries at the pantry operated by the church his aunt attends. Parks understands a lot of people are struggling to put a meal on their table.
“We gave him so much food he had to find another church,” Parks said with a chuckle.
The he Parks referred to is the Rev. David Rebey, of Breaking the Chains Church. Rebey conducts bible study and worship services at the center twice weekly. The garden caught his eye early one August evening.
“I looked at the farm and it was just drooping with stuff,” said Rebey of the garden that brimmed with tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage and peppers. He started talking about it with the guards and the men as he prepared for service.
Their response sparked an ah-ha moment.
"They started telling, 'We have more than we can use and can you find a place for it?' " Rebey recalled. "They had picked what they could, and they had the refrigerators full inside."
That’s when he thought of Tosa Cares, at Mt. Zion Lutheran Church, 12012 W. North Ave., and Cross Lutheran Church Food Pantry, 1821 N. 16th St.
Rebey was already familiar with their work in the community. His church has done monthly food drives for Tosa Cares since the pandemic. Rebey knows the pastor at Cross Lutheran, where many of the men at the Chaney Center do part of their community service work. He reached out to the pantries, and officials there were ecstatic to accept the donations.
Nonperishable dry or canned goods are often staples at most pantries, he said. Fresh vegetables are a rarity. For families struggling economically from the pandemic, putting fresh vegetables on their grocery lists is rarer still.
It took little effort to convince the center's officials and those working in the garden about the idea of sharing the garden's bounty with others. The flatbed of Rebey's black Ford pickup truck was soon filled with milk crates and bags of zucchini, squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, greens and cabbages.
In all, Rebey picked up vegetables from the center three times this year.
“The last time they called, they had 50 pounds of cucumbers, 30 pounds of tomatoes and 50 pounds of greens,” Rebey said. “This stuff is like what you would buy at Sendik's. Really nice stuff. These men are very skilled gardeners and they know what they are doing.
“You kind of don’t think of people incarcerated as feeding the hungry. You kind of think the other way – people doing stuff for them,” he said. “I’m just in awe and amazement that they are able to do something to help others. I think knowing that, many people in the community would think differently if they know that these men even while incarcerated are contributing members of society.”
The Wisconsin Department of Corrections has about 30 prison gardens or farms operating throughout its system. Many use the produce in their in-house food services with a few donating their excess to local groups.
The Chaney Center’s superintendent said its garden instills a sense of responsibility for those who work it and allows them to become nurturers.
“It feels good knowing that we, staff and persons in our care, can provide and give something back to our neighbors,” Superintendent Tejuana King said.
The effort should be a source of pride for the men, said Nancy Beaumier, a Tosa Cares’ board member.
"The extras that they weren’t consuming are not going to waste,” Beaumier said. "They are going to feed hungry people in Milwaukee. I think that is just fabulous."
Before the COVID-19 pandemic evolved, the pantry’s usual produce staples were carrots, apples and oranges because they had a longer shelf life, Beaumier said. This year, the pantry has received an increase in donations of fresh fruits and vegetables. A second industrial-sized refrigerator was brought in to accommodate the influx.
Any donations of healthy food items are appreciated, especially since the pantry is serving more families this year, Beaumier said. Tosa Cares has had to increase food distribution from two days every six to seven weeks to two to three days almost every week.
“Everyone is so used to the same kind of canned fruits, vegetables, soups, boxes of cereal and macaroni and cheese ... , but to have the fresh vegetables in there is just such a treat,” she said.
Linda Radder, of Cross Lutheran, couldn't believe the quality of the produce. The church mostly received greens, like collards and mustards. Each is a favorite among Black clients.
“This felt much more thoughtful that this was probably grown with the African-American population in mind,” said Radder, the pantry's co-director.
It was serendipitous that Cross Lutheran would be a recipient of the Chaney Center's kindness. The church has had a working relationship with the Chaney center that extends nearly two decades. Many of the men have done their community service work there, even working in the food pantry.
The men haven’t been involved with the church since the pandemic. Radder was glad to see they still found a way to help.
“To think that this food came from perhaps some of the men we might have worked with, it’s another way to have a connection when we weren’t able to,” she said.
As a child, Parks remembers his grandparents having a garden. He never got a chance to root around in the garden since his grandmother was protective of it.
“She wouldn’t allow you to mess in her garden,” he said. “You know how those older people be about their garden. They don’t play.”
Now, Parks has a chance to put his new gardening skills to use once he's released in March.
“My girlfriend is supposed to get a house and I am going to get a garden in my backyard," he said. "I might have a row of squash."