23/01/2026
Hartland - Lake Country Rotary’s 35th annual Yule Feed Families beats 2024 giving by 28%!
Lake Country Rotary Club’s 35th annual Yule Feed Families drive shattered its goals and raised 28% more than the 2024 mark, yielding $65,290 for five local food pantries.
The 2025 total was the fourth highest since the drive began in 1991 and eclipsed not only the 2024 tally of $50,859, but the 2025 goal of $55,000 and even the stretch goal of $60,000.
“If there is one thing I have learned since we started Yule Feed is that Lake County residents are amazingly generous, especially when they know they are helping their neighbors,” said Gary Jasiek,
who, along with fellow-Rotarian Scott Peterson, is co-chairman of the drive.
Since Jasiek and Peterson founded the effort in 1991, Yule Feed Families had raised $1.14 million for the Hartland, Pewaukee, Kettle Moraine, North Lake and St. Vincent de Paul (Hartland) food
pantries. In addition, in 2025, Hartland-Lakeside School District, which has long been a partner with the Rotary Club on Yule Feed, more than doubled the amount of nonperishable items students and staff collected over the previous year, rounding up 6,638 groceries, and bringing total nonperishable giving to 54,912 for the life of the Lake Country drive.
“This is such a good news story at a time when we could all use it. There are many hungry families who won’t have to worry about the next meals thanks to such generous giving,” said Peterson. “We
are indeed so blessed!”
This year’s giving included Delafield Brewhaus and Culver’s in Hartland, which shared profits on special nights to benefit Yule Feed, resulting in $420 and $410, respectively, for this year’s drive. A total of nearly 85 people and organizations contributed to this year’s effort with gifts ranging from$10 to $10,000. In addition, Fox Bros. Piggly Wiggly contributed $500 due to the receipt roundup
program in December.
The 2025 campaign was dedicated to the late John Dorau, a Rotarian who was particularly generous to Yule Feed in the years preceding his unexpected death on Pewaukee Lake in 2025.
Yule Feed Families was started when Jasiek, publisher, and Peterson, editor, of the now-defunct Lake Country Reporter wanted to strengthen the connection between the newspaper and the community.
Two years later, their Rotary club joined the drive as a partner and the club took sole responsibility for the drive in about 2018.
Although the highest level of giving was in 2011 at $95,510, the 2025 Yule Feed totals were the highest since 2016.
The drive begins about Thanksgiving and ends on Dec. 31. The 36 th annual Yule Feed Families is already being planned for November.
