As families across our community prepare for the holidays, we’re thinking about the families who are working hard just to keep food on the table. Our Reverse Advent Calendar is a simple, meaningful way to make the season brighter for neighbors in need.
Each day in December, we invite you to add one pantry staple to a box—items that will become a week of groceries for a local family. It’s a beautiful tradition of generosity, especially for children learning that giving is part of what makes this season shine.
Download the 2025 Reverse Advent Calendar to the right and join us in filling hearts, homes, and kitchen tables this holiday season.
Thank you for helping us feed families with dignity and love.
Feeding Body & Soul
Extended Hands Pantry is a place where individuals facing low income or homelessness, can come for free groceries and fresh produce. It's a welcoming space for immigrants and refugees, where children are offered wholesome foods like mangos and apples to support healthy growth. We rely on donations, and volunteers to continue our mission. Serving Dane County's most vulnerable populations since 2019, we are committed to making sure every person who walks through our doors is nourished and cared for.
Angi* arrived at Extended Hands Pantry on a sweltering summer afternoon, carrying a newborn so tiny that one of our volunteers gently asked, “How many weeks old?” With an exhausted but tender smile, Angi replied, “Weeks? She’s just eight days old.”
Seeing how freshly postpartum she was, our team rallied around her, making sure she didn’t lift anything heavy. Volunteers helped her navigate the pantry, carefully placing groceries into her cart while keeping an eye on the tiny baby nestled in her arms.
Once Angi had selected her groceries, we naturally offered to help her to her car. But with quiet hesitation, she admitted she didn’t have one. Instead, she methodically loaded two bags of food into the baby’s stroller—the only transportation she had—and, with a deep breath, began the long walk home in the blistering heat.
Her determination was palpable, and it was hard to watch as she pushed her newborn in the stroller, weighed down by the groceries that would help feed her family for the next week. The resilience and quiet strength of mothers like Angi remind us why we do this work.
Angi, Young Mother
We're Growing
Our growth continues to astound us. In the 5 years the pantry has been operating, we've seen a staggering 550% increase in visitors. Each month, we provide groceries to so many area families, and with this rapid pace, we need the community’s support now more than ever. Whether through donations, volunteering, leaving a legacy, or hosting a food drive, your help is essential to sustaining our efforts. As food costs have risen dramatically, your contribution can make a critical difference in ensuring no one in our community goes hungry.
