Star Tribune
Minnesota boosts funding for prepared meals that nonprofits dish out to people in need
A new state-funded grant program will help pay for prepared meals that Minnesota nonprofits and tribes provide for people in need who are unable to visit a food shelf or cook their own meals.
The $3.3 million in state grants, included in the recently passed budget, will pay for tens of thousands of culturally specific meals over the next two years. The state Department of Human Services will start making the first grants later this year.
“It’s important to serve local communities in ways we haven’t done before,” Deputy Human Services Commissioner Nikki Farago said.
The new program was part of a broader effort this year by the DFL-controlled Legislature to bolster support for food programs. Lawmakers approved free school breakfasts and lunches for students, and earmarked an additional $3 million annually for Minnesota’s 470 food shelves over the next two years.
The allocation to food shelves, nearly triple the previous biennium’s funding, is on top of $5 million in emergency aid that Gov. Tim Walz signed off on earlier this year for food shelves. The Legislature also approved $7 million in one-time funding to expand or renovate food shelves statewide.
“It’s a great increase, and it’s a real show of support,” said Colleen Moriarty, executive director of Hunger Solutions Minnesota, an advocacy group. What likely made the difference for legislators, she said, is that “everybody has a food shelf in their town. … You just have to look around to know that there are people who really need help.”
Food shelves served a record number of state residents in need during the COVID-19 pandemic. More Minnesotans visited food shelves in 2022 than in any previous year, smashing the previous record set in 2020.
This year’s food shelf traffic is on pace to top last year’s numbers, with about 30% more visitors in the first quarter than last year, according to Hunger Solutions.
Food shelf leaders say the higher cost of living, coupled with the end of special financial support — from pandemic-related stimulus checks to eviction moratoriums — is forcing more people to seek help, some for the first time. Extra food stamp benefits during the pandemic have also ended, sending more people to food shelves.
Nonprofit leaders estimate that 15% of people seeking food assistance have mobility issues or no access to a kitchen, including older adults, people with disabilities, or adults who are either homeless or in a mental health crisis.
“It’s essential that we have programs that break down all the barriers to food insecurity,” Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan said Tuesday. “And for so many people who are facing hunger, receiving food only solves part of the problem.”
That’s why a growing number of local nonprofits are offering prepared meals as well as food shelf groceries.
Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota, which has served prepared meals as part of its Meals on Wheels Program for decades, started a shipped meals program in 2019 called LSS Meals to Go. The demand for the to-go meals increased from 3,000 meals in 2019 to about 2,000 meals in one week alone this year.
About 80% of Lutheran Social Service’s prepared meals go to communities outside the Twin Cities, helping fill the void of healthy food in rural regions that often lack a grocery store, LSS Meals director Kristin Quenzer said.
“What COVID did is bring food insecurity to light,” she said.
Quenzer said Lutheran Social Service will apply for the new state grants, which she said would help the Twin Cities-based nonprofit provide more prepared meals. So will Second Harvest Heartland, the Brooklyn Park-based food bank.
State funding would help support Second Harvest’s Kitchen Coalition program, which started as Minnesota Central Kitchen at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, inspired by the work of humanitarian and chef José Andrés. When kitchens closed because of COVID, the program put restaurant workers and caterers back to work and paid them to prepare meals for people in need.
The program now works with 18 restaurant kitchens, most of which are owned by people of color, as well as 75 nonprofits and other distributors that provide more than 1 million culturally specific meals a year.
It costs Second Harvest $8.5 million a year to run the program, funded mostly with donations and private grants, said Robin Manthie, the program’s managing director. Similar programs across the country are scaling back or closing because they can’t get the necessary funding, she said.
“We need to find sustainable, diversified ways to fund this,” she said. “We know this is an ongoing need, and the government can play a role.”
As October surprises go, the most surprising thing about this one was that anyone saw it.
But someone, somehow, at some point, climbed on top of the unoccupied worksite that is the Minnesota governor’s residence with some paint. There, the timid tagger scribbled a political hot take that only birds, HVAC repair technicians and drone operators could see.
Minneapolis photojournalist Chad Davis spotted the partisan graffiti on the taxpayer-owned building on Wednesday and shared the images — possibly spoiling the vandal’s plans for an Election Day or post-election reveal of “Walz failed” scrawled across a rooftop that belongs to the people of Minnesota, who are now going to have to foot the bill to clean up the mess.
If you’re the tagger in question, remember: This entire rooftop could have been a tweet.
The Minnesota State Patrol has not yet provided an update on the investigation. The state patrol is responsible for the governor’s safety and the security of the governor’s residence — or residences, in this case. The Walz family moved out last year when the $6.3 million renovation project began and into a $330,000-per-year rental. The big brick governor’s mansion on St. Paul’s Summit Avenue has been a work site ever since, complete with scaffolding that might explain how someone could make their way onto the roof.
It wouldn’t be the first time scaffolding on a public building in Minnesota tempted someone into a petty misdemeanor. In 2013, when the Minnesota Legislature had just begun its massive renovation project, an unidentified climber scaled the Capitol dome and led security officers on a nerve-wracking low-speed chase, 223 feet above street level. Eventually, the hooded intruder clambered back down and fled into the night.
Star Tribune
One man shot dead, another wounded near Willmar soon after gunman opened fire from Lyndale Av. balcony
Bystanders observing the scene in Minneapolis recalled hearing the female police negotiator pleading with Matariyeh to surrender. When shots rang out over the phone, the negotiator dropped to her knees and cried. Colleagues could be seen comforting her.
O’Hara said the shots in Minneapolis were fired shortly after an altercation involving Matariyeh’s ex-girlfriend and her current boyfriend, who arrived to the apartment to retrieve some items. Matariyeh and the woman share a child, who was at day care at the time. Police went there to ensure the child’s safety shortly after the suspect fled. The ex-girlfriend and the boyfriend were also not harmed.
The chief said that when police initially responded, it was unclear whether the suspect was still inside the apartment. There is no indication of a domestic violence history between the pair.
At one point after Mayerchak was shot, an officer or dispatcher radioed that the suspect was the man from Minneapolis: “He did say he was willing to shoot cops. Proceed cautiously.”
A short time later, the suspect was leading police on a chase of speeds of more than 100 mph while on the phone with the Minneapolis negotiator, threatening “suicide by cop.”
At about 2:29 p.m., Matariyeh was arrested, and a gun was recovered in the ditch.
He said he would continue to support economic development projects, including one aimed at stabilizing the riverfront and preserving cultural sites that were significant to both the Dakota people and European settlers.
“We want to have good things,” Whiting said. “I’m pretty fiscally conservative for being called the liberal that I am. But, if it makes sense, we’re going to do it.”
Yttreness, who has lived in Shakopee since 1998, spent years with the Fire Department, serving first as a volunteer. He worked most recently as assistant fire chief, a role he left earlier this year.
Yttreness declined to speak in detail about his management of the department, saying, “I’m no longer with them, so that’s the past.”
He said he is running to “get involved in trying to manage the city’s expenses more” and “give some guidance and support to our city employees, public works, police.” He said he believes his knowledge of city operations could be helpful and he wants to “try to do zero tax increases, if possible.”
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