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.”
“Reaching 100,000 passengers in less than six months is a testament to the good things that can happen when we provide a service that is needed,” said MnDOT Commissioner Nancy Daubenberger. “We are very excited to reach this milestone and look forward to strengthening our partnerships with communities, as well as federal, state and local governments, and Amtrak to continue providing a safe, reliable, and sustainable transportation option.”
“Both are discovering who they are,” said stage manager and Armstrong senior Katie Spickelmier. The play reflects the “struggle of growing up in a society you don’t really fit into.”
Cast members are challenged with embodying beloved iconic characters while creating their own personal versions of them — while speaking their lines in British accents.
“Trying to put yourself in a whole different dialect is definitely a fun challenge for all of us — and trying to keep it appropriate and not silly,” Smallacombe said.
And then, of course, as with everything Harry Potter-related, there’s all the magic the production’s tech team has had to figure out how to depict without the benefit of Hollywood’s computer-generated special effects. They include the machinations of the time machine, a character shooting out of a fireplace, characters flying above the stage.
Lovitt and other staffers traveled to New York to see how Broadway pulled it off. It debuted there in 2018 as a five-hour play performed in two parts (and remains that length in the London production). It was later edited to a one-part version at three and a half hours, and in November will be presented on Broadway in under three hours (which is the version playing in Chicago). The high school version is even shorter, closer to two hours.
Actors from “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” rehearse a scene at Armstrong High School in Plymouth. The 40-scene play has a cast of more than 30 students. (Renée Jones Schneider)
Of course, Broadway, like Hogwarts, has access to magical elements not generally available to Midwestern high schools. For example, she said, there was a whole swimming pool directly under the stage, which cast members reached via a tunnel, wearing scuba gear and emerging soaking wet.
A St. Paul woman faces a felony charge for allegedly stealing a sheep from a local farm in Bloomington, according to court documents.
Mandy Kay Bower, 42, was arrested at Old Shakopee Road E. in Bloomington Saturday evening after officers saw her and a male walking with a dog and a sheep on a leash.
According to police, Bower told officers that she purchased the sheep for $200. However, one of the officers noticed burs, a prickly plant found in fields, all over Bower and the sheep.
The male with Bower told officers she stepped over the fence of a farm, put a leash on one of the sheep and pulled it through the fence, according to the charging document. Bower pulled so hard that the sheep was choking, the male told officers, according to the document.
The officers eventually spoke to an employee and owner of the nearby farm and confirmed that the sheep, a breeding hair ram worth approximately $500, had not been sold to Bower, according to court documents.
Bower is charged with rustling and livestock theft. In a booking photo, Bower appears to have a tattoo of a sheep covering her left cheek.
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