Each Friday, students unload thousands of pounds of food and quickly stock shelves at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s pantry, just in time for shoppers to arrive.
The Open Seat Food Pantry serves an average of 1,500 visitors a month. Last fall, the number of visits nearly doubled from the previous year.
“We’ve seen a huge, huge, huge increase in demand” for food help on campus in recent years, said Chloe Shomo, an incoming UW-Madison senior who works at the pantry…