Star Tribune
Minnesota food shelves push for donations
Minnesota nonprofits are looking to restock food shelves as hunger increases in the state.
Food supplies often dwindle the first few months of the year after a surge in giving during the holidays. But after a record-breaking 7.5 million visits to Minnesota food shelves last year, nonprofit leaders say the need has increased this year. Organizations distributing to food-insecure Minnesotans need not only goods but also volunteers.
Dawn Wambeke, executive director of Neighbors Inc., a food shelf based in St. Paul, said that starting before the pandemic, food shelf visits were steadily increasing. Organizations have been struggling to keep up with the ongoing high numbers of people in need.
“We have never reached the demand,” Wambeke said. “Our capacity is limited by funding and resources.”
Some nonprofit leaders want state lawmakers to beef up funding to combat food insecurity around the state.
“We’re hoping that good public policy wins this session, being led by great partners in the anti-hunger community,” said Sophia Lenarz-Coy, executive director of The Food Group, a food bank in New Hope.
Last year, legislators and state leaders approved significant increases in funding for food shelves, including $5 million to the state’s seven food banks to buy extra food to distribute to food shelves, an extra $3 million a year to food shelves over the next two years and, for the first time, a $7 million fund to expand or renovate food shelves. Legislators also passed universal school meals.
Lenarz-Coy said these were “big wins” for advocates fighting to improve food insecurity. “Last session will really start to have an impact on families,” she said.
This year, nonprofit leaders are pushing for changes including expanding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit amounts for seniors and allowing more low-income college students to access SNAP.
Another important factor is volunteerism, said Dan Furry, communications director for The Salvation Army’s Northern Division. More volunteers and donations means less money spent to keep food banks operating and food shelves full.
“Whether people are volunteering or giving a financial gift, it’s that work that allows us to do our work and help families in need,” Furry said.
At Greater Twin Cities United Way, organizers are also making a pitch for more people to give with more intention by reaching out to local food shelves and asking what types of foods they are looking for at any given time.
“A lot of people in our community want to do good and want to help,” United Way’s Director of Engagement Melissa Caldwell said. “With a little bit of intentionality and focusing on the disparities in gaps that exist, not only are we putting support forth for people who need it, we’re also changing mindsets and behaviors across our community.”
United Way started Flavors of Our Community, a culturally specific food drive to collect food for Minnesota refugees, immigrants and Native communities to be available at food shelves.
Flavors of Our Community offers 11 pantry packs for six cultures — Afghan, East African, Indigenous, Karen, Latinx and Southeast Asian. Some of the packs are staple foods represented in those respective cultures while others are popular spices and sauces.
Culturally specific food has always been in high demand, Lenarz-Coy said, but food shelves have seen more of a push in recent years due to the many diverse cultures that call Minnesota home.
And that’s what Flavors of Our Community intends to do, Caldwell said — offer foods to people that make them feel at home.
Madison Roth is a University of Minnesota student reporter on assignment for the Star Tribune.
“This is an area that swings back and forth depending on the election cycle, and it’s an area that really can deliver those decisive votes for candidates in a statewide election,” said Anthony Chergosky, a University of Wisconsin-La Crosse political science professor. “If the Harris-Walz ticket can develop a brand that helps them stop the party’s slide in rural Wisconsin, then that will massively help their path to victory.”
Both presidential campaigns have spent considerable time in Wisconsin. Trump recently visited the state four times in a span of eight days. Harris held rallies in La Crosse and Green Bay earlier this month, and Walz made stops in Eau Claire, Green Bay and Madison. Walz told a crowd gathered at a “Students for Harris-Walz” event in Eau Claire that “it’s very realistic to believe that this race will be won going through Wisconsin.”
Though both campaigns have made frequent visits to the Badger State, their stops appear to be geared toward shoring up their respective bases, retired GOP strategist Brandon Scholz said.
“I think Tim Walz’s job right now in Wisconsin, from what he’s saying and where he’s going and what he’s doing, is, ‘let’s make sure 99 percent of our voters turn out, because we need every single one of them because of how close Wisconsin is,’” Scholz said. “To date, neither he nor Harris have communicated a message to bring in those undecideds, ticket splitters.”
Ryan O’Gara is one of those undecideds. The 47-year-old Christian conservative lives in the village of Downing, some 20 miles northwest of Menomonie and home to about 230 people. O’Gara said he sees mostly Trump signs around his town, but he isn’t a fan of either nominee and likely will sit out this election.
Asked what he thought of Walz, O’Gara referred to him as “far-left.” He said he disagrees with allowing gender-affirming health care services for minors. Walz signed a bill into law last year making Minnesota a refuge for people seeking gender-affirming care.
But then, they were Lutherans.
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“It’s time for a hostage deal and cease-fire that ensures Israel is secure, all hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, freedom, and self-determination,” Walz said on this year’s anniversary of Hamas’ 2023 attacks on Israel.
Polls indicate Minnesota will likely break for Harris, but in states where margins will be much tighter, some protest voters are choosing to vote for Harris despite their reservations.
Roman Fritz of Oconomowoc, Wis., voted early for Harris on Wednesday, he said, even though he remains deeply frustrated with her stance on the war.
Neither he nor Engelhart want to see Trump win. The Uncommitted National Movement has been trying to carve out a middle ground between opposing Trump and supporting Harris, with leaders saying a Trump presidency would be worse for Palestinians, and warning that votes for third-party candidates could result in a win for Trump. But the group declined to offer its endorsement to Harris.
Similarly, Fritz said, he did not feel he should talk his friends into voting for Harris, especially Palestinian American friends who have lost loved ones in Gaza.
“I do want her to win,” Fritz said, but, “I’m not going to campaign for her.”
