South Minneapolis food shelves banding together to meet need
Around 48,000 pounds of potatoes were sent to Harvest from the Heart food shelf in south Minneapolis, who then shared that delivery to five other food shelves in the area.
Courtesy Harvest from the Heart
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A network of food shelves in south Minneapolis are coming together to save money and feed more people amid a surge in need.
Sabathani Community Center, Joyce Uptown Foodshelf, Community Emergency Service, Calvary Food Shelf and Harvest from the Heart get some of their food from bigger food shelves, like Second Harvest. But that is becoming more expensive and difficult.
To explain the changing landscape and the impact it has on the people they serve is Chris Pangle, who works at Harvest from the Heart. He joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
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Audio transcript
CATHY WURZER: A network of food shelves in South Minneapolis are banding together to save some money and feed more people amid a surge in need. Sabathani Community Center, Joyce Uptown Foodshelf, Community Emergency Service, Calvary Food Shelf, and Harvest from the Heart get some of their food from larger food shelves, like Second Harvest. But that's becoming more expensive and difficult. To explain this changing landscape and the impact it has on the people they serve is Chris Pangle, who works at Harvest from the Heart. Hi, Chris.
CHRIS PANGLE: Hello.
CATHY WURZER: See, I think it might be confusing to folks, to explain for them how smaller food shelves are working with the big ones, like Second Harvest.
CHRIS PANGLE: Yeah, our small food shelves order food from their local food banks. So you think of Second Harvest or The Food Group or Channel One down in Rochester. And all of the food shelves in those areas order food from those food banks and purchase a decent amount of it, and it gets delivered to them.
CATHY WURZER: OK. So how much does it cost your organization?
CHRIS PANGLE: For us, we are exclusively a food rescue organization, so we rescue food that would otherwise be thrown away. Our purchasing costs are pretty minimal. But for Joyce Uptown, which orders a significant amount of their food, it's about $100,000 a year that they spend on their food bank food. And their operating budget is $300,000 a year, so it's a significant portion.
CATHY WURZER: So when people make a contribution to one of your food shelves in this coalition that I talked about in the introduction, it goes right to you, right? It doesn't go to another organization, like, say, Second Harvest.
CHRIS PANGLE: Correct, yeah, which is an important distinction because I do think that a lot of the food shelves that are servicing people right now may not be here in five years. It's a difficult time for food shelves to bring food in. For us, we served 30% more poor people over the past three months, the beginning three months of this year, than we did of 2023. But we only brought in 20% more food, so it's a greater increase of people leaving with less food, and I think that's pretty noticeable on shelves in the Cities.
CATHY WURZER: So let me ask you this. Are you coming together with other food shelves then, banding together to share money and food? Is that working for you?
CHRIS PANGLE: It is working well so far, yeah. We're trying to tap into any nonprofit we can that is willing to bring food our way. FarmLink, which is a nonprofit based in Texas, works with different farms around the country. And those farms, when they overproduce, look for local food shelves to drop it off to.
So we were able to get 48,000 pounds of potatoes delivered to us here at Harvest from the Heart. And we distributed them amongst everybody in our network, which it took about two weeks to get them all out into the community. And we're receiving another load tomorrow.
CATHY WURZER: OK. That sounds really positive.
CHRIS PANGLE: It is.
CATHY WURZER: I'm wondering, getting back to Second Harvest because I think, again, there might be some folks who maybe do not understand this, remember when Second Harvest talked about having a "moonshot for hunger" in Minnesota, and they were talking about an awful lot of money?
CHRIS PANGLE: Yeah.
CATHY WURZER: Will that "moonshot goal" help smaller food shelves or is it strictly helping Second Harvest?
CHRIS PANGLE: A lot of-- I think they're working out the kinks on the "moonshot." Ask them what their plans are and that, but I think they're looking for a lot of lobbying, trying to get the state to solve a lot of hunger and working with the state to do that. And they have a lot of resources devoted to that, which is wonderful.
Food shelves can't be solving all of these problems ourselves. But in that same way, I do think that is taking up a lot of energy in the room, looking forward to those really big solutions to the big "moonshot solution," which is what we need in this state. But in the meantime, small food shelves also need to stick around and make sure that the people here for the next five years, before hunger gets solved, still have a place to get food.
CATHY WURZER: Right, exactly. So you mentioned that you're getting varying sources of food. If you had a magic wand and you could wave it, what would be the biggest help for you right now?
CHRIS PANGLE: For us, the fresh fruits, fresh vegetables are the highest demand items, the increase of immigrant populations that come in, we talk a lot about culturally specific foods and what it is that people are used to in their home countries. And, overwhelmingly, that's just fresh food. It's not canned items.
It's not stuff that sits on your shelf. And it's very different from what you think of when you think of ordering food from large food banks or what you think of when you go to your food shelf, and you just see cheese that's labeled cheese or milk that's labeled milk. We're really looking forward to those fresh items that we can provide people.
CATHY WURZER: Can you maybe hook up with a CSA perhaps or several CSAs around the state to help with the fresh food, the fresh food help that you need?
CHRIS PANGLE: Yeah, we actually do work with local farms, Untiedt's being one of them. They help us out with greater produced food so that it doesn't go to waste. They did contribute 40% of the food that we had last year, so it was almost 800,000 pounds of food that we had from them. Also, The Food Group, which is another large food bank, they are working with volunteers to do what they call gleaning, coming in and cleaning up farms after they've produced and taking whatever is left over out in the field and getting that to food shelves, which is a wonderful process.
CATHY WURZER: That is. That sounds like that's a really great resource. Before you go, Chris, can folks make contributions to each? How do you want to handle financial contributions so you can buy food? Is it easier to just write out one check for everybody in your coalition? Or is it one check for everybody else?
CHRIS PANGLE: I would encourage people out there to look for their food shelf closest to them. I mean, even if it's not in our network, google what's closest to them and consider giving to the people in their neighborhood and their location. Small food shelves that have these tight, tight budgets, if you are able to write $100 check, it is amazing how far $100 can go in a small food shelf, as opposed to where that money might get lost in larger organizations. So it's whatever is closest, whatever your community needs, that's where you should donate.
CATHY WURZER: All right. Chris, thank you so much. We appreciate your time here today. Good luck.
CHRIS PANGLE: Thank you.
CATHY WURZER: Chris Pangle has been with us. He works at Harvest from the Heart in South Minneapolis.
CHRIS PANGLE: Hello.
CATHY WURZER: See, I think it might be confusing to folks, to explain for them how smaller food shelves are working with the big ones, like Second Harvest.
CHRIS PANGLE: Yeah, our small food shelves order food from their local food banks. So you think of Second Harvest or The Food Group or Channel One down in Rochester. And all of the food shelves in those areas order food from those food banks and purchase a decent amount of it, and it gets delivered to them.
CATHY WURZER: OK. So how much does it cost your organization?
CHRIS PANGLE: For us, we are exclusively a food rescue organization, so we rescue food that would otherwise be thrown away. Our purchasing costs are pretty minimal. But for Joyce Uptown, which orders a significant amount of their food, it's about $100,000 a year that they spend on their food bank food. And their operating budget is $300,000 a year, so it's a significant portion.
CATHY WURZER: So when people make a contribution to one of your food shelves in this coalition that I talked about in the introduction, it goes right to you, right? It doesn't go to another organization, like, say, Second Harvest.
CHRIS PANGLE: Correct, yeah, which is an important distinction because I do think that a lot of the food shelves that are servicing people right now may not be here in five years. It's a difficult time for food shelves to bring food in. For us, we served 30% more poor people over the past three months, the beginning three months of this year, than we did of 2023. But we only brought in 20% more food, so it's a greater increase of people leaving with less food, and I think that's pretty noticeable on shelves in the Cities.
CATHY WURZER: So let me ask you this. Are you coming together with other food shelves then, banding together to share money and food? Is that working for you?
CHRIS PANGLE: It is working well so far, yeah. We're trying to tap into any nonprofit we can that is willing to bring food our way. FarmLink, which is a nonprofit based in Texas, works with different farms around the country. And those farms, when they overproduce, look for local food shelves to drop it off to.
So we were able to get 48,000 pounds of potatoes delivered to us here at Harvest from the Heart. And we distributed them amongst everybody in our network, which it took about two weeks to get them all out into the community. And we're receiving another load tomorrow.
CATHY WURZER: OK. That sounds really positive.
CHRIS PANGLE: It is.
CATHY WURZER: I'm wondering, getting back to Second Harvest because I think, again, there might be some folks who maybe do not understand this, remember when Second Harvest talked about having a "moonshot for hunger" in Minnesota, and they were talking about an awful lot of money?
CHRIS PANGLE: Yeah.
CATHY WURZER: Will that "moonshot goal" help smaller food shelves or is it strictly helping Second Harvest?
CHRIS PANGLE: A lot of-- I think they're working out the kinks on the "moonshot." Ask them what their plans are and that, but I think they're looking for a lot of lobbying, trying to get the state to solve a lot of hunger and working with the state to do that. And they have a lot of resources devoted to that, which is wonderful.
Food shelves can't be solving all of these problems ourselves. But in that same way, I do think that is taking up a lot of energy in the room, looking forward to those really big solutions to the big "moonshot solution," which is what we need in this state. But in the meantime, small food shelves also need to stick around and make sure that the people here for the next five years, before hunger gets solved, still have a place to get food.
CATHY WURZER: Right, exactly. So you mentioned that you're getting varying sources of food. If you had a magic wand and you could wave it, what would be the biggest help for you right now?
CHRIS PANGLE: For us, the fresh fruits, fresh vegetables are the highest demand items, the increase of immigrant populations that come in, we talk a lot about culturally specific foods and what it is that people are used to in their home countries. And, overwhelmingly, that's just fresh food. It's not canned items.
It's not stuff that sits on your shelf. And it's very different from what you think of when you think of ordering food from large food banks or what you think of when you go to your food shelf, and you just see cheese that's labeled cheese or milk that's labeled milk. We're really looking forward to those fresh items that we can provide people.
CATHY WURZER: Can you maybe hook up with a CSA perhaps or several CSAs around the state to help with the fresh food, the fresh food help that you need?
CHRIS PANGLE: Yeah, we actually do work with local farms, Untiedt's being one of them. They help us out with greater produced food so that it doesn't go to waste. They did contribute 40% of the food that we had last year, so it was almost 800,000 pounds of food that we had from them. Also, The Food Group, which is another large food bank, they are working with volunteers to do what they call gleaning, coming in and cleaning up farms after they've produced and taking whatever is left over out in the field and getting that to food shelves, which is a wonderful process.
CATHY WURZER: That is. That sounds like that's a really great resource. Before you go, Chris, can folks make contributions to each? How do you want to handle financial contributions so you can buy food? Is it easier to just write out one check for everybody in your coalition? Or is it one check for everybody else?
CHRIS PANGLE: I would encourage people out there to look for their food shelf closest to them. I mean, even if it's not in our network, google what's closest to them and consider giving to the people in their neighborhood and their location. Small food shelves that have these tight, tight budgets, if you are able to write $100 check, it is amazing how far $100 can go in a small food shelf, as opposed to where that money might get lost in larger organizations. So it's whatever is closest, whatever your community needs, that's where you should donate.
CATHY WURZER: All right. Chris, thank you so much. We appreciate your time here today. Good luck.
CHRIS PANGLE: Thank you.
CATHY WURZER: Chris Pangle has been with us. He works at Harvest from the Heart in South Minneapolis.
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