BLAINE, Minn. – (March 10, 2016) – “Last year we were able to bring in $8 million in cash and then also almost 5 million pounds of food,” said Minnesota FoodShare Director Suzanne Shatila. It started more than 30 years ago when a few local churches decided they wanted to do something to help those who were going hungry. It quickly grew and now Minnesota FoodShare’s March campaign is the largest food and fund drive in the state. “We work with about 300 food shelves statewide who really rely on this one month to help bring in at least 50% of what will be distributed the rest of the year,” said Shatila. By March many food shelves are struggling to meet demand as holiday donations are used up and many people are not focused on charitable giving at this time of the year. But, the need remains steady all year long and the need is growing. RELATED LINKS: “Currently about 1 in 10 Minnesotans experience food insecurity and last year alone we saw 3.2 million food shelf visits,” said Shatila. Anoka County has five full time community food shelves. Some of them have evolved into more than just a food shelf adding thrift stores and food delivery programs. For all of them March is a very important month. “March is a really good month because it’s food share month,” said Dave Rudolph of Southern Anoka Community Assistance. “It’s an awareness building month for people that maybe just don’t really realize how big of a need their is for food,” said Rudolph. “We have singles, we have families that are old, we have families that are younger, we have refugees, we have a few homeless people that come in. I mean their is just a wide variety, elderly folks, veterans, you name it,” said CEAP family service manager Holli Rolfe. “We’re seeing just a tremendous increase. Last year we went from about 6,000 households to 9,000 households. 16,000 people to about 24,000. We gave almost 450,000 pounds in 2014. Last year it was just under 566,000 pounds of food that went out the door so we see a lot of need,” said Rudolph. There are many different ways for you to join the March campaign, but for food shelves cash is still king. “Dollars go the farthest, to be honest,” said Rolfe. Many food shelves also hold fundraisers during the month of March. CEAP has the Feed the Need food drives while Southern Anoka Community Assistance has a Hops for Hunger fundraiser. If you want to donate food it is best to check with your local food shelf to find out their specific needs. “Make sure it’s not expired, that it’s something you would actually eat. A lot of times people clean out their cabinets and donate the things that they wouldn’t serve to their families so make sure that if you’re donating something it’s something you would actually serve to your own family,” said Shatila. Other needs include proteins, diapers, nutritious food, and breakfast foods. The need is great and can be overwhelming but there are also many stories of success. “There was a single mom with a toddling baby and she was so cute and so sweet and she was almost to tears because she had no food for him that night so we were able to pull together not only food but we had some diapers and other baby items that we were able to give her for special circumstance. She didn’t have a place to love so she didn’t have a permanent address but that’s where we step in and say okay yeah you’re not a resident of Anoka County today but you’re here at the Anoka County building and we’re going to help you and we’re going to figure things out for you tonight. I think we provide hope that they can make it through this month or make it through their year if that’s what they need,” said Rolfe.
