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Julie Siple
St. Paul, Minn.

Food bank expands to meet greater needs

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A Twin Cities food bank is expanding to accommodate growing need and a greater supply of food.

Second Harvest Heartland is opening a new facility in Golden Valley. The building is part of an effort to provide more fresh food to Minnesotans in need.

Historically, food banks have relied on nonperishable donations, but those donations are leveling off as manufactures become more efficient at managing their inventories.

Rob Zeaske leads Second Harvest Heartland. He said the organization needs to tap into new sources of food.

"We have had just dramatic growth to last year, over 20 million pounds of fresh food, mostly from grocery stores," Zeaske said. "Our next source of food, kind of our next frontier, is how we harvest this huge surplus of locally grown vegetables. And we're mostly talking about things like potatoes, sweet corn, and peas."

Zeaske says millions of pounds go unharvested in Minnesota fields every year. The new building will provide space for up to 400 volunteers to sort and pack donated food each day.