MILWAUKEE — More than a week after storms rocked Milwaukee and left thousands of people without power, people are still trying to pick up the pieces.
Thousands of gift cards were distributed among three local Pick 'N Save stores to help people alleviate some of the financial burden.
We Energies crews worked around the clock last week to restore power as they dealt with what they called 'the largest power restoration project in history.'
They estimated that more than 225,0000 customers had power cut off due to severe storms.
For families, no power meant spoiled food in the fridge. Some said they threw out hundreds of dollars worth of goods.
Now, a partnership between Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin, the city of Milwaukee and Pick 'N Save is trying to help with gift cards.
"We're passing out gift cards to individuals and families that lost their power due to the recent summer storms," Martha Collins, Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin Advocacy Director, said. "We hope that a little bit of this is able to help them replenish some of the food that they lost."
A total of 3,000 gift cards were on hand, and each card has enough money to help a family for a week.
With the need there, cars were in line as early as 5 a.m. Friday morning.
Collins said the turnout was amazing, and people like Lavern Lee were very grateful.
"It means a lot to me, because my food spoiled while the lights and stuff were out," Lee said.
In order to qualify, Collins said you need to live in Milwaukee and show proof that the storms knocked out your power.
"If you don't have proof of outage, we are able to verify that here," Collins said. "We just need your current address."
Not all of the gift cards were handed out Friday morning, and if you were not able to make it in time for the gift card distribution, you can email Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin at info@feedingamericawi.org or visit theirwebsite.
