Community leaders and elected officials gathered on Saturday, Dec. 20, to call attention to what they described as food apartheid in Metcalfe Park and welcome residents to the new community-led food pantry aiming to improve food access following the closure of the neighborhood’s only grocery store.
The press conference, hosted by Metcalfe Park Community Bridges, marks five months since the closure of the 35th Street Pick ‘n Save.
Officials who spoke framed the grocery store closure as part of a broader pattern of grocery and pharmacy redlining and called for coordinated action at the city, county and state levels to prevent future closures and invest in community-driven food access.
“It’s a public failure,” said 15th District Ald. Russell Stamper II, whose district includes Metcalfe Park.
“And it’s not the fault of the community … despite what people have heard.”
State Rep. Margaret Arney said she is drafting a bill modeled after the federal WARN Act that would require advance notice when grocery stores or pharmacies plan to close.
“Our desire isn’t to warn people about when [retailers] leave,” Arney said. “The desire is to have [a] stable infrastructure for pharmacy and grocery that serves the needs of the people.”
Elected officials in attendance included Ald. Stamper II, Milwaukee County Board Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson, County Supervisor Anne O’Connor and several state representatives, including Arney, Rep. Kalan Haywood, and Rep. Supreme Moore Omokunde. David Muhammad, director of the Milwaukee County Department of Health & Human Services, also addressed the room.
Following the press conference, Community Bridges welcomed more than 100 residents to the People’s Pantry, which first opened on Dec. 7 and has since served as a short-term solution for emergency food distribution.
Danell Cross, the organization’s executive director, highlighted the collaboration between public, private and community resources to make the pantry possible.
“This is not a replacement,” Cross said. “We know that this community needs and deserves a full-service grocery store.”
Much of the food distributed at the People’s Pantry on Saturday was provided by Northwestern Mutual. Other food items distributed were purchased by Community Bridges using a portion of the $150,000 in contingency funds recently approved by the Milwaukee County Board to support federal Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients.
Community Bridges’ deputy director, Melody McCurtis, closed the event by reflecting on the past five months. Residents began organizing after learning of the grocery store closure on social media, she said, convening an emergency town hall and shifting quickly from frustration to action.
“Our priority was that we weren’t going to let them leave quietly,” McCurtis said.
Today, those community efforts led to the establishment of a community fridge network, the People’s Pantry and plans to explore additional solutions in 2026.
April Quevedo covers Metcalfe Park for the Journal Sentinel’s Neighborhood Dispatch. Contact: [email protected].
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