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Minnesotans Are Missing 100 Million Meals Every Year

Hunger hurts us all. Fight hunger where you live.

Hunger in Minnesota has doubled in five years. One in ten Minnesotans runs out of resources before the end of every month, missing a meal every other day. That's 100 million meals missed every year, with devastating effects.

From hungry expectant mothers who deliver low birth-weight babies to hungry adults who become diabetic, hunger costs Minnesota at least $1.2 billion in direct and indirect healthcare and education expenses.

Hunger-Free Minnesota has a strategic, three-year action plan to close the gap in missing meals. It has the support of many corporate sponsors, nonprofit agencies, food banks, food shelves and Minnesotans statewide. You can show your support by joining the movement on this website. Then, join the movement in your community. Help close the gap in missing meals.

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Who is Hungry in Minnesota? It might not be who you think it is. To see the real faces of hunger in our state, and to hear their stories, as they volunteered to tell them, click here.

Hunger campaign targets new poor and the elderly

By Cynthia Boyd

Monday, February 13, 2012

One poster in a new campaign to end hunger in Minnesota features a smiling Caucasian man dressed in t-shirt and sweatshirt. It reads, in part: "Drew Age: 42, Currently Unemployed. He uses SNAP. So can you."

More than 500,000 Minnesotans receive benefits through the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as Food Stamps, with disproportionate numbers of African-Americans and Indians.

But the need, buoyed in part by the economic recession, is significantly greater and broader. Only 65 percent of eligible Minnesotans and 41 percent of eligible seniors age 60 and older receive food assistance, according to the folks at the Minnesota Department of Human Services

Going hungry is a regular occurrence for one in 10 Minnesotans. Count among them the elderly, the recently unemployed, families with children and the working poor.

The problem is not that there isn't enough financial help available or a lack of food, but that a sizeable number of people plain aren't signing up for the Food Support benefits they are eligible for and that would help them put food on the table.

To help remedy that, this month Hunger-Free Minnesota, General Mills, the state Department of Human Services and Hunger Solutions Minnesota will launch a public information and marketing campaign aimed at informing Minnesotans of all races and ethnicities just who is eligible to apply for supplemental food assistance.

The campaign, translated into four languages, also hopes to help overcome social stigmas. Food Support benefits are federal, not state, dollars.

A $200,000... Continue Reading

Food Rescue Feeds Hungry People

Shaye Moris, Executive Director
Second Harvest Northern Lakes Food Bank

The USDA’s Economic Research Service at one time estimated that 27 percent of the food produced in the United States never even makes it to our dinner tables, but instead is thrown away as waste. This is a powerful statistic and one that begs the question, “Are we doing enough to rescue usable food before...Read More