River Food Pantry to Build New Facility! Ramaker Leads Design Charge Behind the Scenes

[May 23, 2024; Madison, WI] — After years of programming, planning, re-programming, designing, and coordination of variables both foreseen and unforeseen, The River Food Pantry of Madison, WI, announced that over $11 million has been raised to build a new facility for the organization, located on Madison’s North side.  The new facility will be within eyesight of their existing warehouse, in part of a redevelopment of the 9-acre farm field northeast of the intersection of Packers Ave and Darwin Rd. At over 31,000 square feet, the new facility will triple the size of the River’s currently available space.

The River is South Central Wisconsin’s busiest food pantry, providing free groceries and freshly prepared meals for over 2,500 people every week. Joe Gallagher, Ramaker’s Architectural Service Group Leader, began this design journey with The River and its team prior to joining the firm in 2019. Over the years, The River’s operational needs grew, shifted, and evolved, especially while the COVID-19 pandemic was at its peak. The daily routine of The River drastically changed during this time, which prompted a complete revamping of the programmatic elements for the new facility. Operational needs increased, decreased, relocated in the building plan, and some even completely disappeared or were replaced by new methods of food distribution. Throughout all of this, The River never slowed down its daily services and availability to the communities in which it serves—and in fact saw increased, record-high numbers during the height of COVID.

As operations were frequently pivoting to provide allowable public-facing services while adhering to COVID guidelines, Joe and the Ramaker team continued to discuss and review the needs and wants of this new facility, while navigating pandemic-influenced operational changes. The relationship between spaces for public and private use became increasingly more important, driving the design decisions. Adding further complications, construction costs were increasing, product lead times were growing, and construction methods and labor availability were beginning to dictate project timelines.

“There were so many variables in play, but there was no indication of anything changing to our advantage and time was of the utmost importance given the increased food insecurities we were seeing in the Madison area,” explains Gallagher, “There was a heightened level of care towards putting forth the best layout to encompass the greatest needs while also continuously pivoting based on timing. It made for a truly unique and genuinely necessary collaborative atmosphere which brought with it its own level of tensions, because you want to put forth the best option, but the need is so dire in the moment.”

The River’s Executive Director Rhonda Adams echoed a similar sentiment, “This new facility is really, truly necessary for us. The need for more space has been apparent since day one, and I’ve been here for 11 years!”

Ramaker provided programming, planning and design efforts which led to a hybrid design-build partnership with Advanced Building Corporation at a much-needed time where material costs and availability were on a weekly roller coaster ride. The final building design is the culmination of years of discussions and planning and will ensure that The River is able to continue its mission to nourish Dane County for many years to come.

For Gallagher, the process has been rewarding. “Ultimately, when I see that shovel in the dirt, it will trigger such a sense of relief and reward, but not for me: for The River. The River deserves every square foot of this new building and then some and I am just honored to have been there for the journey thus far. But now, let’s actually get the thing built!”

To see more imagery of the new facility’s design, visit our portfolio page here: https://www.ramaker.com/portfolio-posts/the-river-food-pantry/

If you would like to learn more about The River’s mission and/or contribute to their continued success, please visit: https://www.riverfoodpantry.org/

For direct link to the Recipe for Hope Campaign supporting the new facility, please visit: https://www.riverfoodpantry.org/recipe-for-hope/

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ABOUT RAMAKER

Ramaker is a full-service architecture, engineering, and interior design firm based in Sauk City, Wisconsin. Multidisciplinary by design, the firm prides itself on being a one-stop shop for architecture and engineering projects across the country.

Since 1992, Ramaker has served municipalities, cities, and community institutions, as well as clients in the aquatics and recreation, cemetery, commercial development, hospitality, multifamily development, renewable energy, restaurant and retail, and telecommunications industries.

For more information about Ramaker’s recent work, visit https://www.ramaker.com/and stay connected with the firm on social media through Facebook and LinkedIn.