Second Harvest began working with local hunger-relief agencies in 1986. Since our doors opened we have helped provide over 200 million meals to those facing hunger. Here’s how we’ve grown over the years:

1980’s
- 1986 Doors of Southern Wisconsin Regional Foodbank, Inc. opened March 17
- 1986 75 member agencies
- 1986 Our first refrigerated truck is donated by Oscar Mayer
- 1988 We become a United Way participating agency

1990’s
- 1994 Our name changed to Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin
- 1995 1.5 million pounds of food is distributed to over 150 member agencies
- 1996 Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin begins operations at the new warehouse at our current location, 2802 Dairy Drive in Madison
- 1996 In partnership with News Anchor Mike McKinney, the first NBC15 Share Your Holidays campaign takes place
- 1999 Second Harvest launches our first Kid’s Cafe

2000’s
- 2004 Our first Mobile Pantry is held at Lincoln School in Madison
- 2005 The BackPack Program is started in the Evansville School District in partnership with the Community Action Aware program
- 2007 Warehouse addition completed
- 2009 FoodShare Outreach launches

2010’s
- 2012 Field to Foodbank launches
- 2014 HungerCare & School Pantry Program launches
- 2016 Diabetes wellness program launches
- 2017 Second expansion of warehouse

2020’s
- 2020 The Food 4 Thought Initiative and other MMSD school pantries merge with Second Harvest, nearly doubling our number of school pantries
- 2020 COVID pandemic response requires significant operational changes