The Good Newsletter March 2023

 

• A record-breaking 5.5 million visits were made to food shelves during 2022 in Minnesota, up nearly 50% from 2021. 47% of food shelf visitors in 2022 were seeking food assistance for the first time.

• Seniors are the fastest-growing groups of food pantry visitors.

• Most people seeking food support are working and just can’t make a livable wage to support themselves and their families.

• A "hunger cliff" is looming for millions of Americans, with 32 states set to slash food-stamp benefits beginning in March. There are over 400,000 Minnesotans whose benefits will expire immediately.

• Good in the ‘Hood’s food costs have increased by a record-breaking 200% in the past year, and inflation, the supply chain, and worker shortage continues to drive up food costs. Experts agree that costs will continue to rise throughout 2023. 

GITH has 30 food distribution sites in the metro area. We host traditional food shelves, food pantries for college students, pop-up food sites, and distributions at encampments for the unsheltered. We work with our partners to meet their community needs, therefore, we will soon be expanding with new food program host sites to increase our service capacity to meet the needs of residents living in North Minneapolis where one of the only grocery stores has announced it will close, creating an even greater food desert in that area. You can learn more in about this from the recent WCCO story.
 
Many of our participants learn about our services through our Food Shelf-In-A-Box host site partners. To best accomplish our mission, we place an emphasis on establishing healthy partnerships. GITH’s unique collaborative model allows us to maximize and leverage our resources to replicate and provide services in multiple locations while enabling the hosting partner site to retain some autonomy and ownership in coordinating the food distribution to help foster an environment of trust with the client participants. GITH provides support to the site leaders to empower them to engage and serve their own communities.
 
As the needs continue to increase, we are excited to welcome three new sites this Spring! A huge welcome and thank you to our new Volunteer Site Leaders too!

We have also expanded our school-based Food Shelf In-A-Box programming through a Second Harvest Heartland Child Hunger grant that supports our school-based grocery programs, as well as efforts to increase SNAP awareness and access to the food programs.  Marie, one of the site volunteers who is also a staff at one of our partner sites, had this to say about our food programs:

“We have a lot of families in this area who are in poverty and usually are on food stamps, so it is needed especially right now with the prices of groceries increasing. Groceries are so expensive so even our staff are in need of help sometimes too. We are very grateful for our partnership with Good in the ‘Hood!”

 

Sadly, nearly 1 in 6 Minnesotans experience some measure of food insecurity in Minnesota. Each year in March, we participate in the MN FoodShare Campaign. The Minnesota FoodShare Campaign brings together organizations, businesses, faith communities, and individuals to help keep over 300 food shelves statewide stocked throughout the year.
 
Your generous contribution can make a BIG difference in helping us to provide much needed food support for our neighbors in need.  Each financial gift and food donation given to Good in the ‘Hood through April 9^th will be partially matched by MN FoodShare, an annual grassroots effort to restock food MN food shelves.
   
In honor of our 20^th Anniversary, will you help us meet our goal to raise $20,000 and 20,000 lbs. of in-kind food donations?  Your kind support during this campaign will enable us to feed an extra 8,000 individuals and families in our local community! 

 There are two ways you can Bring Help and Inspire Hope in our community!

1.The easiest and most effective way to restock our food programs is by donating cash. That’s because each dollar used by Good in the ‘Hood goes further than your own dollar does in the retail grocery store.

You can support this effort by donating cash or food through April 9th and your gift will be partially matched by MN FoodShare.

2.If you’d like to donate food, donations of food or household goods can be dropped off at: 
 
Cedar Valley Church (8600 Bloomington Ave. S., Bloomington, MN, 55425) food drop dates: 

• 1-7 pm on Tuesday, March 7 and 21
• 1-7 pm on Tuesday, April 4

 Good in the ‘Hood warehouse (8063 Ranchers Road NE Fridley MN 55432) food drop dates:

• 8 am – 2 pm Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday through April 9

 If you wish to donate food or household products, our most needed items are:
 
Proteins – canned meat (tuna, chicken, salmon), cereals, soups, easy-to-prepare dinner mixes (Hamburger Helper), mixed nuts, granola bars, single-serving nonperishable items for children, canned fruit/vegetables, and other shelf stable items.
 
Please contact Jamie Morrison at jamie@goodinthehood.org with additional questions.
 
Thank you for making a difference! Together we are better!