Statewide food drive reports success

Mustafa Sundiata runs the NorthPoint Community Food Shelf, which relies on the Minnesota FoodShare March Campaign.

The Minnesota FoodShare March Campaign met its goal.

The 29th annual campaign collected nearly 4.3 million pounds of food and raised more than $7.8 million, organizers said. That's an all-time high for monetary donations.

The statewide food drive comes at an important time for the state's food shelves, which usually see donations decline after the holidays. Most shelves raise more money and food during the March drive than at any other time of the year except the winter holidays.

The money and food will help some 300 food shelves statewide.

"We were white-knuckling it until last week, because we were getting messages from food shelves prior to that, saying they were really worried," said Sue Kainz, who organizes the drive. "It came down to the last minute more than any other year that I have done this."

Kainz has been running the campaign for more than a decade.

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