Food Shelf gears up for March FoodShare Campaign

With food prices being increased by 5.8% nationally in 2023, food shelves across the state are raising donations for the Minnesota FoodShare March Campaign.

The Waseca Area Food Shelf is participating in the campaign’s 43rd year. The campaign helps keep 300 food shelves in Minnesota stocked throughout the year. Many individuals and businesses in Waseca County are participating and donating to the campaign already.

‘In March statewide they try to raise as much as they can, it just helps us tremendously,” Waseca Area Food Shelf board member Jim Britton said about the Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches (GMCC).

Minnesota FoodShare is a program of GMCC and every March they help out food shelves statewide by distributing money to them. The more food and monetary donations food shelves raise during the campaign, the more money GMCC and the FoodShare program distributes to food shelves to help them out throughout the year.

Minnesota FoodShare has distributed over $18.5 million to food shelves participating in the March campaign over the 43 years. FoodFund allocations to food shelves are determined by the total dollars and pounds they raise during the March campaign and the number of individuals they serve annually.

Food insecurity is happening all around Minnesota, as it is present in all 87 counties. Annual visits to food shelves are now more than double what they were before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It isn’t just us, but it’s across the state,” said Waseca Area Food Shelf Executive Director Cindy Kolander about food insecurity in Waseca County and Minnesota.

The Waseca Area Food Shelf served 7,669 clients in 2023. Receiving donations in the month of March is crucial for the food shelf because the more food and money they raise in march, the bigger donation they get from GMCC for participating in the campaign.

To keep track of what they receive in, the food shelf keeps logs of what people bring in. For food donations, they weigh everything that is brought in, so people who donate don’t have to weigh their donations before they arrive.

“They don’t have to worry about anything other than giving us food donations or giving us monetary donations during the campaign,” Kolander said.

The food shelf also weighs and tabulates everything that goes out too. When people arrive at the food shelf and pick out their food items, it goes on the scale at the food shelf.

The campaign runs through Apr. 6 to make sure the food shelves have all the donations logged and tracked. If a business is doing a food drive for the food shelf, they have to get the food to the facility. The extra week allows them to do so and not rush getting items there.

The Waseca Area Food Shelf is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday during the week. If people are unable to make it during the hours to drop off their donations, a boy scout troop will be collecting food from peoples doorsteps on Saturday Mar. 16. Specific details about it will be posted on Facebook.

“You don’t even have to leave your home, the boy scouts can pick it up if you leave it outside,” said Kolander.

Many businesses and clubs in Waseca are participating in the campaign, with the Waseca Lions Club challenging other organizations to join the campaign to raise money and donations for the food shelf.

The Waseca Area Food Shelf is taking donations of any kind, but cash and monetary donations go further for them due to their access to food banks and discount purchasing. This also allows them to purchase items that are most needed in the community.

The most needed food to help stock the food shelf is flour, sugar, ramen noodles, cereal, and condiments such as ketchup and mustard. They are also looking for better or reasonable access to more milk.

To make giving donations to the food shelf easier, they are working on creating a website for people to donate on. While the website won’t be available for the March FoodShare Campaign, you can mail cash donations or bring them to the food shelf or bring non perishable items to businesses around the community that are doing their own food drives for the food shelf such as Keen Bank.