‘Food is often the second choice’: Nonprofit says food insecurity in Minnesota is getting worse

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Hunger on the rise in Minnesota

Hunger on the rise in Minnesota

At the VEAP food shelf in Bloomington, there are hard truths and difficult choices about hunger in Minnesota — and the bills to be paid.

“The demand is going up steadily, we’re up year over year, every year,” says Paul Jacobson, VEAP’s Basic Needs Director. “It’s hard choices, you need a place to live. So, food is often the second choice. It’s a hard choice.”

VEAP, short for Volunteers Enlisted to Assist People, provides food for about 215 clients a day and delivers to 25 more people.

Nearly half of the clientele is from working families.

“I think people are being left behind generally,” Jacobson notes. “Since the pandemic, a lot of folks haven’t gotten back into the workforce. There are demographic changes with all the people on fixed incomes.”

Experts say with the new year; Minnesota’s hunger problem is getting worse.  

“One in five Minnesota families face food insecurity,” said Allison O’Toole, the CEO of Second Harvest Heartland, a Brooklyn Park-based hunger relief organization. “Unacceptable.”

In a new report, the non-profit says roughly a quarter of Minnesota households can’t afford the food they need.

18% rely on the emergency food system, the report says, and 40% of households of color are food insecure, it notes.

“Families can’t afford their lives right now,” O’Toole says. “The energy costs have gone up 30%. Food costs have gone up almost 30%. Rent is going up.”

At Jerry’s Foods in Edina, food donation bags go directly to the VEAP food shelf or Second Harvest Heartland.

The store says it sells about 50 to 60 of the bags a week.

“Now it’s starting to be the beginning of the year; we haven’t seen a huge uptick,” says Darrell Link, the store manager. “I hope they continue to shop and buy more. There are definitely people out there in need.”

Link says sales of the bags surge during the holidays and fall off a bit in January.

Customer Nicholas Taylor, from Edina, says he understands that people who want to give may also be struggling.

“The giving spirit goes down a little bit after the holidays, right?” he notes. “It would be my hope at least, that people would keep donating and keep buying the bags or finding other ways to give back.”

On Thursday, Hy-Vee donated a more than $805,000 check to Second Harvest Heartland.

“They’ve exceeded their goal of funding more than 100 million meals across the country, and we’re so proud to be their partner,” O’Toole says.

But the non-profit is also concerned that under the new administration, some government relief programs may be frozen.

“So, anything that impacts SNAP benefits for instance, food stamps, the ability for families to afford the groceries they need to feed their families,” O’Toole explains. “We are really going to be concerned about that.”

The group says it partners with 1,000 food shelves and hunger relief programs in Minnesota and Wisconsin, providing 145 million meals to people in need last year.

On Friday, Second Harvest Heartland is hosting its first “make hunger history” summit in Brooklyn Center.

The hope is to eliminate hunger in Minnesota by 2030.

“We always know that the food budget is the first to get compromised,” O’Toole notes. “When things get tight, people pay the car payment or the electric bill, and then struggle to put food on the table.”