Lakeland wrestlers lead weighty food bank donation
Lakeland University men’s wrestling donated more than 1.5 tons of food to the Sheboygan County Food Bank thanks to the inaugural Headlocking Hunger event held at the January 31 men’s wrestling meet.
Lakeland athletic teams were encouraged to collect food in a competition to claim the Headlocking Hunger championship belt, which this year was won by the women’s soccer team. Softball placed second, women’s basketball was third and numerous other programs participated.
Lakeland men’s wrestling delivered 3,492 pounds of food to the Sheboygan County Food Bank.
“Your donation is timely and especially appreciated as our neighbors continue to struggle with inflation,” said Lizabeth Kroll, Food Bank senior director of program and community impact.
“While the number of families we serve in all our programs, pantries and other agencies continues to increase, the rise in food prices also causes us to spend a big portion of our annual budget on food purchases.”
The food bank said it is tracking an increasing average of nearly 6,000 family visits each month at partner food pantries and other organizations they work with. More guests are visiting the food bank’s Community Café, where nearly 1,500 warm meals are served each month.
Headlocking Hunger was created by Lakeland Head Men’s Wrestling Coach Mike DeRoehn, who initially introduced the event when he served as wrestling coach at UW-Platteville. His wife, Nicole, overheard a conversation between two brothers on a school bus ride home and learned that the boys typically only ate when they were at school due to a lack of food in their home.
“It feels good to make a positive impact on our community,” DeRoehn said. “While we are trying to win wrestling matches, we’re also giving our Muskies opportunities to grow as people and learn how important it is to help others. We are grateful to everyone who helped us make this contribution.”
Lakeland employees and other fans were encouraged to bring two non-perishable food items for admission into the dual meet against Aurora. They chose which team they want to receive credit for the items being donated.
