Last week, on Tuesday, October 20, Kohler Hospitality & Sargento foods sponsored the fourth annual Harvest for the Hungry fundraiser in the big tent at the Shops at Wood Lake. Delicious meal items were prepared by the Kitchens of Kohler: Whistling Straits, The American Club Banquet Kitchen, The Immigrant Restaurant, The Horse & Plow, Cucina, The Wisconsin Room, Blackwolf Run Restaurant, Woodlake Market and The American Club Bakery & Pastry Kitchen. Additional sponsors included: Reinhart Foods, Testa Produce, BakeMark, Dominion Valley, Midwest Imports, Pepsi, D’artagan, AJ Produce, Fortune Fish, The Garden, Torke Coffee, Boelter, Wolf’s Linen and Cintas. We wish to thank all of these generous sponsors and also thank all of the Kohler Hospitality managers that helped plan and organize the event, as well as all of the Kohler associates who volunteered for the event.

Attendees enjoyed live music performed by Cary Weineman and the SECAP Sargento singers over lunch and the Grey Beards over dinner. In addition, the United Way of Sheboygan County Business Champions, which include Kohler Company, Sargento Foods, Vollrath Company, Johnsonville Sausage, Rockline Industries and Plastic Engineering Company, made multiple appearances throughout the event.

While we have yet to finalize the amount raised from this event, last year’s event raised more than $17,000 and we hope to have that number beat! All proceeds from this event benefit United Way of Sheboygan County’s Food for Tomorrow Focus Area. Focusing on healthy food for all, Food for Tomorrow began in 2010. This project outlined building blocks that could be implemented separately or sequentially and/or individually or collaboratively to begin addressing food hardship (food security) issues faced by low income, working individuals and families. Funds have supported:

• Summer Nourishment: a free summer meal program for children in Sheboygan, which served more than 33,000 meals in 2015.
• Farmer’s Market: funding provided by United Way was used to obtain an Electronic Benefit Transaction (EBT) machine, which allows individuals and families to use their FoodShare card to purchase fresh produce at the farmers market.
• Sheboygan County Food Bank: United Way funding supports a coordinator staff position, who facilitates food drives, works with the annual Sheboygan Area Rotary Clubs Making Spirits Bright event, assists with the annual Meat Animal Sale, coordinates food donations from local companies and provides other support services to the member food pantries.

Thank you to all who had a part of Harvest for the Hungry, whether involved with the planning, execution or attendance of the event.