Pastor Dennis Harmon of Mission of Christ Lutheran Church always wanted to open a grocery store in his north side community. 

He wanted to pattern it after a neighborhood store his family patronized back in the late 1950s. 

“Mr. Barnes owned a corner store on 10th and Locust, and he would always take care of our family — most of the families in that neighborhood until payday. If we didn’t have bread or milk, he would supply that,” Harmon, 64, said. 

Harmon wanted the store to be more than a place where residents could buy fresh fruits and vegetables. He wanted it to be a resource where the community can find information on jobs and other social services.  

But circumstances never aligned for the store to happen. 

“For years, I was just spinning my wheels,” Harmon said. “I couldn’t get it off the ground. I really knew nothing about the grocery store business.” 

The idea sat on the back burner until a chance introduction to Michael Haas of Ebenezer Stone Ministries, a nonprofit serving Milwaukee’s south side. Both shared a mission to serve the community and address food insecurity. Instead of the grocery store, the two partnered to start a food pantry on a vacant lot Harmon owns on North 20th and West Center streets.  

In Milwaukee County, 1 in 8 residents face food insecurity, according to Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin. Among Blacks, 1 in 4 or 27%  are food insecure, and for Hispanics, 1 in 5 or 20% are food insecure. The food insecurity rate for children under 18 increased to 25.5%, up from 21.1%.

Until the pantry is built, Harmon and Haas will host a series of pop-up food pantries at the location. Harmon sees the pop-ups as a placeholder until they secure funding to erect a physical building, known as Ebenezer North, on the site.

But their mission is broader than just the pantry. They are eyeing a house adjacent to the lot to be a community resource center offering the support services Harmon wanted inside his store.  

Until then, residents can utilize Mission of Christ Lutheran Church’s pantry on Mondays and Fridays. Harmon and Haas hope to operate the pop-up pantry at least twice a month. It had an initial roll out in early August. Another is slated for September.

The pop-up pantry will be different, Harmon said. It will offer fresh fruits, produce and meats like chicken, beef or even steak when available.

Harmon said the area is not lacking food pantries.  From 27th to 9th streets along Center Street, there are about 18 churches, many of which give out food on certain days, he said. Most of it is canned and dry goods like beans and cereal. 

“It’s going to be a great blessing for that neighborhood, especially with the fresh fruits and fresh meats,” Harmon said. “It is going to be eye-opening for those folks in that community once they realize all we have in store for them.”

The partnership marks the expansion for Ebenezer Stone Ministries, which primarily serves the city’s south side. The faith-based organization already operates Ebenezer South, a pantry at 1127 S. 35th Street. And Ebenezer East — its warehouse location on Bruce Street — is a Feeding America food redistribution outlet supplying smaller pantries with food surpluses. 

The warehouse is equipped with a walk-in cooler and freezer allowing it to receive and store fresh fruits, produce, meats, eggs and dairy products including milk. It services 22 pantries or organizations from the Milwaukee River to the Illinois border. Since opening last year, Ebenezer East has provided 234,000 pounds of food. 

Ebenezer Stone Ministries’ Executive Director Haas is excited about the partnership. 

The north side, he said, is a food desert. Access to fresh fruits and vegetables in this community is almost nonexistent, he said. The produce sections in some local grocery stores are not as robust as those in affluent white suburbs or even certain areas in the city, Haas noted.  

“We really wanted to make sure that the north side has access to fresh fruits and fresh vegetables and protein. That’s our main goal,” Haas said. 

The partnership seemed ordained to Harmon. Some of Ebenezer Stone’s programming aligned with what Harmon hopes to offer. In addition to the food pantry, Ebenezer Stone provides several meal programs including a bag lunch, hot meals and a Saturday breakfast. They also provide youth programming and supportive services such as ESL and job training classes. 

“They are doing everything I had the desire to do right there on 20th and Center,” Harmon said. 

Harmon and Haas hope to use the house to provide similar services. They have reached out to the homeowner about acquiring or renting the property. They are leasing for $1 two city vacant lots to create a community garden. 

Harmon wants to provide financial literacy, mental health, and dental services. He also wants to offer cooking demonstrations to prepare healthy dishes using food from the pantry.  

If they achieve their vision for Ebenezer North — the resource house, the pantry and the community garden, Haas said that would be "huge” for that community. The concept is to provide wrap-around services for area residents where they will have access to mental health, addiction services and could apply for FoodShare or enroll in the state’s health insurance program.

 “We want to be an informational center and a guidance to those folks in that community,” Harmon said. “It is all about taking care of the total person, mind, body and soul. That’s my drive.” 

Whatever the reason for the pop-up pantry, Peterson Saurel, 41, of Milwaukee, is glad it's here. Saurel has been unable to work. He said his girlfriend is the only income earner, which makes it tough to provide for their four children.  

“This is a blessing,” said Saurel, who had a box piled high with chicken, brats, bacon, sausage, bologna, croissants and cereal. “This is pretty much the hardest thing to come by.” 

Saurel said he only gets about $300 in food stamps and that’s only a couple of days’ worth of groceries. Food, he said, is already high and inflation doesn’t help. 

“By the time you put six things in your cart, you’re at $100,” he said. “You can’t even walk out of Walmart with a whole bunch of bags of groceries. You’re literally walking out with six or seven bags in your hands from shopping with $300. 

“I like to drive around to see if I can find stuff like this to make sure my family is good. This really does help a lot,” he said. 

For more information on upcoming dates for the pop-up pantries call Mission of Christ Lutheran Church at 414-264-4050.

La Risa Lynch is a community affairs reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Email her at llynch@gannett.com