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Millions in funding on the way for Minnesota food shelves

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The additional funding comes at a critical time, with the demand for food assistance still breaking records.

MINNEAPOLIS — Days before families gather for their Thanksgiving feasts, Minnesota’s food shelves received a needed boost in funding.

On Monday, Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan announced $5 million in new funding for Minnesota’s food shelves. The additional funding — allocated from the American Rescue Plan Act — comes with perfect timing, as food insecurity continues to be a prevalent challenge with a corresponding unprecedented need for help.

“Every single month is a record,” said Matthew Ayres, executive director of Joyce Uptown Food Shelf.

He added, “A year ago, we were doing 55,000 pounds of food. This year, we’re doing 70,000 pounds of food every month.”

That trend is reflected in a statewide reality: According to Minnesota Department of Human Services Commissioner Jodi Harpstead, about 5.5 million people visited the state’s food shelves in 2022; this year, that number is expected to be closer to 7 million.

“This is powerful, life-changing work, and we cannot take keeping peoples’ bellies full for granted,” Lt. Gov. Flanagan said on Monday during a press conference announcing the additional funding.

The funds will be allocated to Minnesota’s seven regional food banks, which will then, “support the purchase and distribution of in-demand foods at food shelves.”

“This money is $5 million for food banks across the state to buy food, which will help,” said Second Harvest Heartland CEO Allison O’Toole.

The funding also comes in addition to $5 million in emergency food shelf funding the Governor signed into law in February.

Despite the state boost, individual food shelves say they’re still desperately struggling to make ends meet, while dealing with inflation, the end of pandemic support programs and unprecedented demand.

“We’re still in the red. And we’re struggling to make budget this year,” Ayers said, as he stood near shelves stocked with stuffing, gravy and corn.

Ayers encouraged everyone to still consider donating to their local food shelf, but he also cautioned generous donors to first reach out to their nearest food shelf to confirm what they really need.

“Finding out what your local food shelf needs and then creating a relationship with them — it could be donations, it could be volunteering, it could be financial support,” he said.

For their part, Ayers said the Joyce Uptown Food Shelf especially welcomes non-expired canned foods, ramen noodles, pasta, tampons, pads and baby wipes, but said monetary donations are “the most important.” 

To learn what food shelf is located closest to you – and how you can support them during the holiday season – just go to Hunger Solutions Minnesota.

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Aitkin County crash leaves 2 dead, others hurt

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The crash happened when a Suburban pulling a trailer failed to stop at a stop sign, Minnesota State Patrol said.

WAUKENABO, Minn. — Two people from Minnetonka died in a crash Friday in Aitkin County while others, including children, were hurt. 

According to Minnesota State Patrol, it happened at the intersection of Highway 169 and Grove Street/County Road 3 in Waukenabo Township at approximately 5:15 p.m. 

A Suburban pulling a trailer was driving east on County Road 3 but did not stop at the stop sign at Highway 169, authorities said. The vehicle was struck by a northbound GMC Yukon. Two other vehicles were struck in the crash, but the people in those two cars were not injured. 

In the Suburban, the driver sustained life-threatening injuries, according to State Patrol. Elizabeth Jane Baldwin, 61, of Minnetonka, and Marlo Dean Baldwin, 92, of Minnetonka, both died. Officials said the driver of the vehicle, a 61-year-old from Minnetonka, has life-threatening injuries. 

There were six people in the Yukon when the crash occurred. The 44-year-old driver, as well as passengers ages 18, 14, and 11, sustained what officials described as life-threatening injuries. The other two passengers have non-life-threatening injuries. 

Alcohol is not believed to be a factor in the crash, but officials said Elizabeth Jane Baldwin had not been wearing a seatbelt. 



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Runner shares his journey with addiction ahead of Twin Cities Marathon

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Among those at the start line this year will be Alex Vigil.



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Minnesotan behind ‘Inside Out 2’ helps kids name ‘hard emotions’

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Pixar’s second installment of the movie features characters we’ve already met — Joy, Sadness and Anger — and gives them a new roommate named Anxiety.

MINNEAPOLIS — Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” universe plays out inside the mind of the movie’s adolescent protagonist, Riley.

She plays a kid from Minnesota whose family uproots her life by moving to San Francisco. But did you know that what plays out in Riley’s mind actually comes from the mind of a real-life Minnesotan?

“You are one of us!” said Breaking the News anchor Jana Shortal. 

“Yes, I am!” said Burnsville native and the movie’s creator and director, Kelsey Mann. 

Mann was chosen for the role by ANOTHER Minnesotan — Pete Docter, the man behind the original movie, “Inside Out.”

“I don’t know if Pete asked me to do this movie because I was from Minnesota and he was from Minnesota … I just think it worked out that way,” Mann said.

How two guys from the south metro made a pair of Pixar movies that would change the game is a hell of a story that began with Docter in 2015.

“He [Docter] was just trying to tell a fun story — an emotional, fun story — and didn’t realize how much it would help give kids a vocabulary to talk about things they were feeling because they are feeling those emotions, but they’re really hard to talk about,” Mann said.

Some parents, counselors and teachers might even tell you it did more good for kids than just entertain them. It unlocked their emotions and begged for what Mann set out to create at the beginning of 2020.

“That part was fun, particularly fun,” he said. “I think the daunting part was following up a film that everyone really loved.”

But Mann knew what he wanted to do with the movie’s follow-up, “Inside Out 2.”

“Diving into Riley’s adolescence … that was just fun,” he said.

This time around, Riley is 13, hitting puberty and facing all of what, and who, comes with it. The franchise’s second installment features characters we’ve already met — Joy, Sadness and Anger — and gives them a new roommate named Anxiety.

“I think that’s what’s fun about the ‘Inside Out’ world: You can take something we all know and give it a face,” Mann said. “We can give anxiety a name and a face.”

The film follows Riley’s emotions fighting it out for control of her life. Joy wants Riley to stay young and hold on only to joy, while anxiety is hell-bent on taking over Riley over at the age of 13 because as a lot of us know, that’s when anxiety often moves in.

“I always pitched it as a takeover movie, like an emotional takeover,” Mann said. “Anxiety can kind of feel like that; it can take over and kind of shove your other emotions to the side and repress them.”

For a kids’ movie, it’s hard to watch this animation play out, even when an adult has the keys to decide.

“I’m making a movie about anxiety and I still have to remind myself to have my anxiety take a seat,” Mann said.

All of our individual anxieties have a place in this world.

“The whole movie honestly is about acceptance. Both acceptance of anxiety being there and also of your own flaws,” said Mann.

Even for our kids, we have to remember that this is life.

Anxiety will come for them; it does for us all.

The “Inside Out” world just shows them it’s so.



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