Natalie's Everyday Heroes: Billie Burton makes sure no one goes hungry

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- CBS 58 and the Hunger Task Force are teaming up once again for our annual Drive-Thru Food Drive. It's an event that always shows the amazing generosity of our community. So, we thought it was important to show you how that generosity impacts our community by introducing you to Billie Burton. She's been making sure people are fed for decades.

"It's been an adventure," laughed Burton, as she bustled around the Helping Community Food Pantry.

Volunteers spend hours on Thursdays packing boxes.

"Our clients are probably lining up as we speak," she said with a smile.

Burton is buzzing around making sure everything is ready.

"We try to do as much as we can. What we have, we give," she said.

The Helping Community Food Pantry is small but mighty.

"We do family sizes of one and two. Three, four and five. And six, seven, eight, nine and 10," she rattled off. 

It's set up inside a conference room at the Solomon Community Temple United Methodist Church in Milwaukee's Harambee neighborhood.

"Potatoes, cabbage," she said, listing off produce. "Sweet potatoes from the farm."

There's fresh produce, bread, meat and cheese.

So today we're giving them shrimp and taco filling," she said with pride.

Burton is the manager and heart of the operation.

"Someone like Billie, she has so much love in her heart and so much care for her community," said Hunger Task Force CEO Matt King.

And King would know. Hunger Task Force is the pantry's biggest resource.

"We keep it going - as long as those guys can keep us going, we can keep going," Burton said, filling boxes.

Burton's efforts go a long way, too. She's been involved since the 1990s.

Her reasons are personal.

"Initially, it was just knowing that my family had received help," she recalled.

She remembers watching her own mother make ends meet.

"Some of her face, facial images when she was trying to pay bills and everything else. And she had six kids she needed to feed," she said.

Yasmin Johnson is a client who's felt Burton's care first-hand.

"She's a very caring person. Very loving person as well. I can probably call her my aunt as much as I talk to them," Johnson said.

Burton offers cooking tips.

"You can peel it if you want, or just leave it whole," she said of some squash. 

She also checks in to make sure everyone has what they need.

"How you doing? You want to grab a box for your mom?" she asked a client.

Under Burton's careful watch, no one is leaving hungry.

And I think that that, that feeds my soul," she said.

"It's the type of hero that, in our community, we need to really lift up and celebrate so that our kids have great examples of what it looks like to love your community and love people and to give back," King said of Burton.

The Helping Community Food Pantry is open from 1-3 p.m. on Thursdays. For more information, click here.

Last month, they made sure more than 200 people were fed, and they're already planning for the holidays.

You can make a donation to Hunger Task Force at Hunger Task Force, Milwaukee's Free & Local food bank, or visit the CBS 58 Drive Thru Food Drive on Friday, Nov. 22 from 5 a.m. until 6 p.m. at American Family Field.

If you'd like to nominate an Everyday Hero, send Natalie a message at [email protected].