WAUPUN — The Waupun Food Pantry moved into their new location last week at the new Waupun Community, holding their official open house Tuesday afternoon, December 10.
The open house was held from 4PM to 7PM, with the dedication ceremony at 6PM prior to the night’s City Council meeting. Mayor of Waupun Rohn Bishop introduced the event, followed by Pastor Barry Lang, who led the group in prayer.
Manager of the Food Pantry, Terri Respalje, was then asked to give some remarks.
The Waupun Food Pantry was originally run out of a small office in City Hall and was open only on Saturdays to those who called ahead. At the time, they helped between five and seven families a week—but according to Respalje they now help just as many every single day.
Respalje became the manager of the Food Pantry in 2001, and has run the Food Pantry out of its previous location at 12 S Mill St until today, which the organization has long since outgrown.
“The old pantry had such an ambiance about it, it was very homey,” Respalje said. “People came in and felt safe. It wasn’t shiny and spiffy, so all of us are adjusting now to something different. When people come from something that’s familiar to them to a place that’s unfamiliar but better for them in the long run, I’m hoping that inspires everyone to do better for their own lives.”
Following Respalje’s remarks, board president Joel Sterk spoke about the process of coming into the new building, which began about two years ago when the City received the nearly $5 million Neighborhood Investment Fund grant and announced the new Senior/Community Center project in early 2022.
“Roughly a year and a half ago, the board had to make a final decision on whether to go into this facility,” Sterk said. “There was hesitation on the board level, we couldn’t quite make a decision. Robert Sullivan never said a whole lot at our meetings, but he was the wise man in the room. I was talking, and they were getting sick of me, and he said, ‘We are missing a generational opportunity if we do not go into the new building.’ It was amazing, and the board unanimously voted to do this. I wish Robert was here to see this today, he passed about six months after that.”
Sterk then went on to describe the fundraising process, which took about ten months to collect the necessary funding to move in. He thanked their generous corporate sponsors, Werner-Harmsen, Piggly Wiggly, Homan Auto Sales, Michels Corp, Municipal Well and Pump, and two anonymous donors. They also had over one hundred individual donors along with the assistance of several community churches.
He also talked about the process of moving all the Food Pantry’s stock to the new facility, to which so many members of the community stepped up to help. In particular, D Olsen LLC helped move the commercial refrigerator and chest freezer out of the old building and into the new location.
Respalje came back up to the front and talked about how she became the manager of the Food Pantry.
“Robby Schram directed the Food Pantry, but he had to move away and found another woman to oversee it,” Respalje said. “I went to church with her—and I had actually started a food pantry in this church in a little closet. She had called me and said, ‘My mom and dad are getting sick and I have to go and take care of them, and God put you on my heart and I think you’d be the perfect person.’”
“And I had just stopped drinking, I had just stopped partying, and I was like, ‘Okay God, you need to fill me with something to give me purpose so I don’t go backwards,’” she said. “It was within a couple weeks that she had called. And I’m a ninth grade drop-out—I was a very troubled individual, so when she called and said God put me on her heart, I said, ‘I’m not schooled, I can be a waitress or at a cash register but I can’t do anything like that.’ She told me to pray on it.”
“So I’m like, ‘Okay God, you’re funny’ and all this. She called me about a week later and said, ‘You know Terri, I think that God is giving you an opportunity and if you take it, it’s going to change your life,’” she recalled. “‘If you don’t take it, you’ll be fine, but this is something more than you.’ And when she said that, I said I’d do it. I didn’t know what I was doing. I struggled so bad in the beginning but God just put that wind beneath me and I kept going and people were very responsive. I just look back on it and I think, wow—if He can do it for me, He can do it for anybody.”
Sterk then asked the members of the Food Pantry board to come to the front.
“Terri, this last year was nerve-wracking to say the least,” Sterk said. “Going from a facility that was like old, comfortable, worn fluff, to a brand new facility feels overwhelming. It may seem overwhelming, but we’re settling in, I think, very well. You’ve dedicated your life to the community and the Food Pantry. You are very unselfish in what you do. You’ve served hundreds, even thousands of families. I watch the people come in, I watch how you deal with them. It’s amazing how much you’ve learned over the last twenty-some years. You handle each situation with grace, everyone has dignity, you treat them so well.”
Sterk then presented her with a Lifetime Achievement award—though the actual award was delayed in the mail.
“We would like to award you with a Lifetime Achievement award, for giving up yourself so unselfishly to the community,” Sterk said. “We truly appreciate everything you do. You can hollar at me all you want, but keep on doing what you do.”
The Food Pantry Board and family of Terri Respalje then gathered for a group picture.
Notably at the event were City Aldermen Dan Siebers, Pete Kaczmarski, Bobbi Jo Kunz, Mike Matoushek, and Jason Westphal. Fond du Lac County Executive Sam Kaufman, Waupun City Administrator Kathy Schlieve, Police Chief Jeremy Rasch, and Recreation Director Rachel Kaminski were also in attendance.
On top of providing nonperishable food, the Waupun Food Pantry also offers secondhand clothing and meals at the Community Table, which will now be held in the multipurpose dining room in the Community Center. CWC’s girls basketball team served the first meal in the new location last Friday.
