Feeding Madison Families - Lee Cole

After applying four times, Lee finally got an interview for an open position to become the Director of Operations for The River Food Pantry.

We’re highlighting another individual who has had a positive influence on the Madison community for Black History Month. We sat down with Lee Cole to learn more about the incredible work he has done to feed food-insecure people in our area, and what led him to finding his calling at The River.

Can you introduce yourself and explain your role at The River?

My name is Lee Cole and I am the Director of Operations at The River Food Pantry. My role consists of coordinating everything that comes in and goes out of The River: ordering, sourcing, directing volunteers, [I’m] pretty much a jack of all trades there.

What got you involved in The River in the first place?

I’ve managed grocery stores for most of my life with Cub Foods here in Madison and then I got promoted up to Minnesota and managed a bunch of grocery stores there. When I came back from Minnesota, a friend was having a fundraiser at The River. They needed a band and one of my best friends, a coworker now - he came to work for us, was in a band so we did a fundraiser there. I had never heard of The River and it was so interesting, the things that I was learning about it. So every time I would see a posting for a job on Indeed for The River, I applied. I applied four times before I got an interview. When I got my position, I told my director, “I’m made for The River,” and the rest has been history.

You mentioned that you had a background in grocery store management. Was giving back something that was always important to you, or was there a specific moment that drew you to it?

Working with Cub Foods and the different communities in Minnesota, they gave back. And that was something that was big for me. I loved being able to give back to the community that I was in. One day, I was walking around downtown Madison with my girlfriend and I noticed all the homelessness, and I was like, “this is so sad seeing all these homeless people in Madison. We have this beautiful capitol and right outside we have homeless individuals who are struggling just to find something to eat.” And she challenged me. She said “why don’t you do something about it?” So that was one of the biggest things [that made me want to give back more]. I knew about The River at that time and I said “I want to work for The River.” Like I said, I applied 4 times to try to get this job. I just wanted to get my foot into it and be a part of it and see where it goes from there.

In 2020 alone, The River distributed over 3.7 million pounds of food, which is a staggering number to think about. Can you talk a little bit about the state of food insecurity in Madison and how The River is able to address that?

I think Madison is very food rich. There shouldn’t be anybody going hungry in Madison. There’s a ton of food within our system. Being part of The River with my grocery background, knowing the right people to talk to to do a little bit of sourcing, and getting donations in from other organizations that I’ve worked with in the past helped with a lot of that poundage of food. 

I never want The River to be a place where you just hand somebody food. I want people to have grocery store-quality food. So when we started doing everything in 2020, especially with the pandemic, we wanted to make sure that we were handing out fresh produce: quality, firm, fresh produce, and then nudge people into healthier eating, healthier living. 

With that came the boxes; we make dry boxes and cooler boxes with perishable and non-perishable foods [to give to people], making sure that we make our boxes with love and care. We don’t want to just hand people canned goods, we want to make it make sense. If you’re gonna put Tuna Helper in there, make sure there’s tuna. If you’re gonna put spaghetti noodles in there, make sure there’s spaghetti sauce or some kind of canned tomatoes so people can actually make a meal out of the food they receive. When they open up those boxes, I want our clients to know that The River cares.

When it comes to our produce, we do a lot of food recovery within the system. We pick up from almost every major grocery store here in Madison. I always use the motto “if you wouldn't feed that to your grandma, then don’t feed that to our clients.” When we put that box together, we look at the food and make sure that it’s good, quality food for our clients.

The Flock has been partnering with The River for almost our entire existence. The thing that is the coolest aspect to a lot of people in our organization is The MUNCH Program. Would you be able to expand on that in case some people aren’t familiar with it? 

I’ve always said that the MUNCH (Madison Unites to Nourish Children at Home) Program is my favorite program that we have because it involves kids. We have a MUNCH mobile that goes to nine different stops in our community, and it’s like driving an ice cream truck. In the summertime especially, kids are just waiting in line for the MUNCH truck to pull up! 

We provide meat and cheese or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a grain, fresh fruit, something to drink, and a sweet snack. We drive up to the nine stops, and the kids know exactly what times the MUNCH van is going to be there. We stop there for 15 minutes and we distribute the food to the kids. 

The program was put into place for when kids aren’t in school to provide lunches for them. As you know, for some of those kids in those communities, the only times they get to eat is in school or when they’re parents are home late at night. When kids aren’t in school, like right now because they’re doing virtual learning, the MUNCH van operates 6 times a week and provides meals for those kids.

I didn’t know that it was akin to an ice cream truck, but that’s a very fun detail to have.

It is! Driving it this summer, kids across the street would just wave at us.  One of the stories that touched me and made it so great was I had a young man run up to the van and said, “I’m sorry I’m late! I didn’t know what time it was! I haven’t eaten all day.” And I stopped the van, got out, and gave him one of the meals. There were several cars behind us, I think about 5 or 6, and none of those cars honked their horns once. They knew what the MUNCH van meant to these kids. I was holding up traffic a bit, but nobody complained about it, because they know what the MUNCH van means to their community.

When you look back at everything you’ve done and everyone you’ve been able to help, is there a specific moment that you’re most proud of that reminds you why you do what you do?

I guess every day is a reminder. I love my job - it’s the most rewarding job that I’ve ever had in my life. Our clients are like an extended portion of our family. Going in there and walking the line of cars now that everything is curbside service, [and hearing the clients say] “Hey! I haven’t seen you in so long, I miss coming in there!” You ask them how everything is going and they [say] “Everything is great! We love everything that you are providing for us, keep up the great work.”

I don’t do what I do for the kudos or anything like that. I once told my boss if I could do this for free, I would do it. I guess that’s one of those things that you say, but truly it’s something that I mean. Every day is a reminder of how blessed I am to have this opportunity to be the Director of Operations at this wonderful organization.