Second Harvest Heartland

We’re making progress on a bold goal: cutting hunger in half for all Minnesotans by 2030. Partnerships and food streams allowed us to bring in more food to help meet the increasing needs of our neighbors. Significant adjustments to Second Harvest Heartland’s operations and sourcing methods are already in place, but there are many more pieces to the puzzle. Keep following along with us! #MakeHungerHistory #FoodStreams #FoodBanking #Hunger

“As we work to Make Hunger History, a big piece of my role is to transform our supply chain to ensure that we can continue to deliver against the growing need in Minnesota,” says Senior Director of Supply Chain Toni Scott We hit the ground running this spring on our first pillar of Make Hunger History—getting more of the right food, right where it’s needed. We’re improving our food sourcing and operations in various ways to make that happen. “There's a lot of different partnerships and a lot of different ways that food makes its way here,” explains Director of Sourcing and Demand Planning Lindsey Ochmanek. “We need to be really thoughtful about making sure that we are meeting the needs of our neighbors.” https://bit.ly/4c9zJs2 #FoodSourcing #FoodBanking #SupplyChain #MakeHungerHistory

“It’s a lot of anticipating the things that are challenging to anticipate.” - Andrea Johnson, Purchasing Specialist Second Harvest Heartland’s Sourcing and Demand Planning Team works closely with addressing the rising need for food, bringing in more and more pounds each year—but it does not prevent Andrea from continuing to examine the root causes of hunger and encouraging others to examine the models outside of the traditional hunger relief system. “In my dream world, [Second Harvest Heartland] wouldn’t exist. There wouldn’t need to be an emergency hunger relief system. But things are always going to happen. There are so many people in this country who are doing everything they can, working full time hours, multiple jobs, struggling to take care of their own health, the health of their families, and their loved ones, and they can’t get access to the food they need,” says Andrea. “When I started learning about food it all clicked—after water it’s the thing we all literally need to survive.”

We hit the ground running this spring on our first pillar of Make Hunger History—getting more of the right food, right where it’s needed. We’re improving our food sourcing and operations in various ways to make that happen. #FoodBank #MakeHungerHistory #FoodInsecurity #Nonprofit

Working together, we achieved some big wins for hunger relief this year–and we’re already looking ahead to what’s next. We successfully advocated for new funding totaling more than $10 million for the hunger relief system. Included in that total is $5 million for the six food banks serving Minnesota to source and distribute food at no cost to our food shelf partners statewide. We also advocated for additional funding for struggling food shelves, ultimately securing $3.4 million in emergency funds. And $2 million for Tribal food sovereignty efforts. In addition to direct investments in the hunger relief network, the legislature also provided the funding necessary to implement Summer EBT, which will help families who struggle with food when the school year is out. We also worked with anti-hunger allies to expand access to SNAP for college students and put Minnesota on the path to a Medicaid waiver to address health-related social needs like housing and nutrition. Taken together, this represents significant progress towards addressing record-high (and still rising) hunger in Minnesota – but we know that it will not be enough to reverse the trend. That is why we are already hard at work engaging with neighbors, food shelves, anti-hunger allies, and our root cause partners about priorities for 2025. Thank you to all who called or emailed their lawmakers, attended Hunger Day on the Hill or otherwise used your voice to encourage policymakers to make hunger a priority this year!

We’re calling on the community to end food insecurity and to make hunger history with us. We’ll reduce hunger today by increasing access to emergency food and prevent hunger tomorrow through policy and partnerships, tracking our shared progress along the way. Get involved! #MakeHungerHistory #FoodBank

A space is getting new life with the community leading the way. “You can see the vision,” says Char Graff, Second Harvest Heartland’s Rural Investments Manager. “Having this much space will make a massive difference.” Walking through the doors of Oxford Bowl in Worthington, Minnesota is like stepping back in time. Despite Oxford Bowl being closed for nearly a decade, it remains perfectly preserved. Neon signs advertising burgers and coneys light the countertop where racks of bowling shoes are still stacked and sorted by size. An array of speckled bowling balls sit neatly arranged on their shelves. Trophies and plaques celebrating perfect games from decades ago are mounted on the walls around the lobby. Soon, this bowling alley’s doors will be open to the Worthington community once again, though not to bowl a few frames. It will be the site of the Global Market in Worthington, providing much needed food to a growing community. https://bit.ly/3Ri9NC0

Second Harvest Heartland has a passionate group of student volunteers who work with our Volunteer Engagement Team over a semester. One of these volunteers is Lauren, a student at the University of St. Thomas majoring in marketing. “I’ve participated in several of the Brooklyn Park packing shifts, but I’ve also been a part of a remote project. … It’s been really cool to see a community come together with the specific big goal of ending hunger together.”

🤝 It all adds ➕ up! In 2023, 16,009 volunteers donated 55,008 hours of their time. 🤝

Chrissy is the Lead Volunteer Experience Ambassador at Second Harvest Heartland. During the packing shift, Chrissy and other VEAs do everything possible to make sure that volunteers are comfortable and engaged. Furthermore, they do a lot of setup and logistical and physical tasks, including setting up packing and sorting stations, and making sure volunteers have all the materials that they need. “We adapt projects as needed to folks of different ages and ability levels to make an accessible space for everyone who comes in. It’s a lot of moving parts.” Part of making volunteers feel comfortable is providing a welcoming space where people feel confident in their tasks as well as the impact of their work. “Volunteers are also very curious about the food itself and where it’s coming from. Usually, we can tell them right down to the farm—so that’s pretty cool to show how much food is produced right here in Minnesota, so we can give back to people in our community.” It’s also important for Chrissy and the VEA Team to express that volunteering in the Volunteer Center is just one facet of making hunger history and creating a hunger-free Minnesota. “It’s envisioning a future where no one in our community has to wonder how they’re eating their next meal or how they’re feeding their kids—just taking away that mental burden and the physical burden of hunger. The food is there. The help is there. It’s about getting it to where it is needed.” “We’re here to educate as well as build up that emergency food supply.”