Today there were 40 students from the ICC Nursing Program volunteering at Second Harvest. After a brief overview about how Second Harvest operates, the students spent the morning re-packing frozen vegetables and stacking canned food for the Itasca Holiday Program food boxes.
It takes the work of many hands to provide for our neighbors in need. Thanks to the ICC Nursing Students for helping Feed the Need this holiday season.
KQ 105.5 Grand Rapids and the Iron Range brought the Trainwreck to Grand Rapids yesterday. The goal was a Ride to Feed the Need and support Second Harvest North Central Food Bank this holiday season. Thanks to all the businesses that participated:
· Wildwoods Trail Rides provided the draft horses and wagon
· Jerry’s Warehouse Liquor
· Tom Clusiau’s Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and GMC
· Ogle’s Marketplace Foods
· Lakes Area Credit Union
· Something Original
· Wings and Willows
· Mississippi Diamond Jewelers
· The Wardrobe
· Itasca Trail Sports
· River’s Italian
· Cell Phone Stuff
· Timberlake Lodge
· Rafferty’s Pizza
Thanks to the customers of these fine establishments for helping out the cause with donations of food or cash. Over $200 and almost 1,000 pounds of food was collected!
Thanks especially to KQ for holding this event!
Mr. Lyman Loveland, a new friend of the food bank from Nebraska, with ties to our area, has offered the Itasca Holiday Program a match to generate new donations. Donations up to $2,000 between now and Friday, December 4th will be matched and all donations given through the GiveMN.org option on our website will also have no fees charged!
Please help Feed the Need!
Food stamp use has soared in many areas as more people are affected by the economic recession. Check out county by county information in this interactive map from The New York Times.
Forest Lake Elementary School held a food drive and the classroom collecting the most food won a Pizza Party paid for by Ogle’s. Todd Peart’s Third Grade Classroom was the winner. The school brought in a total of 743 pounds. All of the food collected will be donated to the Grand Rapids Food Shelf. The Stuff –a -Truck store promotion also provided Ogles customers a way to help the food shelf by providing bags pre-packed with staple food items for customers to buy at check out. The effort resulted in 8 pallets of filled bags or 3,572 pounds of food for the Grand Rapids Food Shelf.
“It was a great collaboration between the store and the school and according to Kurt Ogle, Store Director, and we hope to get more schools involved next year. “ He added, “ The customers have been very supportive and he attributes that to the fact that so many people we all know are living through some pretty tough times and most people who are able to give want to help.”
Ogles employees pictured are: Kurt Ogle, Jim Davis, Rick Chambers, Dave Hill, Jeremy Mackey
Support for Second Harvest North Central Food Bank went through the roof on Tuesday’s Give to the Max Day. According to GiveMN.org, in 24 hours, $14 million in charitable donations went to over 3,400 Minnesota non-profit organizations, including over $20,000 to Second Harvest North Central Food Bank. This additional support could not have come at a better time, since the need for hunger relief grows every day due to the recession.
We are so grateful for the outpouring of support from this promotion. People were calling to ask if Second Harvest was part of the campaign and how to access it. We even had several people come in to the food bank and use our computers to make their donations. Donors were spurred on by the match that was offered and by the good coverage by the media.
According to a story in the today’s Star Tribune, the $500,000 match will only be .04 cents on the dollar, but that still adds up to feeding extra people here at Second Harvest. The match encouraged more people to give at a time of great need.
Many people throughout the state supported hunger relief organizations and Second Harvest Food Banks in particular. Second Harvest Heartland in St. Paul received the most donations overall and Second Harvest Northern Lakes Food Bank in Duluth was ninth. These two food banks, along with Second Harvest North Central in Grand Rapids and three other food banks in Minnesota are part of the Feeding America network, the nation’s largest hunger relief organization.
The need is great this year. There is no sign of the recession lifting in the communities served by the food bank. In addition to large numbers of the poor and working poor, many newly unemployed people are exhausting their resources and coming to Second Harvest and their partner agencies for help.
Food shelf use in the region continues to increase as the recession continues (despite reports otherwise) and unemployment stays high. Compared to the first three quarters of 2008, household visits to food shelves in the region served by Second Harvest North Central Food Bank are up 13%. People who were able to get by on their own before, are now finding they need help meeting basic needs. As we enter the winter home heating season, we expect even more people will have to turn to food shelves to put food on the table and keep the house warm.
It is clear that in tough times like these, Minnesotans respond to help their neighbors in need.
Confirmation students and leaders from St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church in Grand Rapids volunteered at Second Harvest on Wednesday, Nov. 18th and have the distinction of being the first volunteer group to help “Feed the Need” this holiday season.
Students cleaned and labeled cans, repacked some nutritional products and un-cased and stacked several food items for the Itasca Holiday Program food boxes.
It takes the work of many hands to provide for thousands of people in need in our area. Thanks to groups like St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church Confirmation Students, Second Harvest is able to “Feed the Need” during the holidays and all year long.
