The Dassel City Council gave a $300-monthly contribution at last night’s council meeting for the rental space that would house a Meeker County Emergency Food Shelf branch pending approval by its board of directors.

“There is an incredible need,” said Mayor Mike Scanlon, who has been in strong favor of the idea from the beginning stages and would like to see the food shelf operating for Ch

Moved by tragedy, veteran gives turkeys, potatoes

By Mollee Francisco

With a trunk full of frozen turkeys and a back seat stacked high with bags of russet potatoes, John McGinnis pulls up in front of the CAP Agency on Village Road in Chaska.

The 75-year-old Chanhassen resident, accompanied by a broad smile and dressed in a respectable pair of gray slacks and a red-striped sweater, slowly

More local families are seeking aid from a Winona food shelf in 2009.

Demand has spiked at the Winona Volunteer Services food shelf, spurred largely by high unemployment, an agency spokeswoman said.

The shelf saw a 21 percent increase in the number of families it served from 2008 to 2009, and has distributed 40 percent more food so far in 2009 than at this time last year.

“We’re pleased that Minnesota Farmers are working to help combat hunger,” said Colleen Moriarty, Executive Director of Hunger Solutions Minnesota. “As Minnesota families are increasingly struggling to make ends meet, programs such as this are vitally important.”

Pine Journal

When Jason Houle started the Mobile Food Shelf of Minnesota in Jordan a few years ago, he wanted to bring food to people who couldn’t get it.

As unemployment and underemployment rates remain high, West Central MN Communities Action Family Self-Sufficiency Director Kate Ouverson said there is a new group of people who are being forced to turn to alternative options like food shelves to get their basic cooking needs.

The increase in demand, as well as a desire to help people who do not have easy access in their community to food shelve

Twin Cities businesses are shunning manicured lawns on their corporate grounds in favor of ‘giving gardens,’ where employees and other volunteers raise produce for food shelves.
By Bob Shaw
bshaw@pioneerpress.com

If lawns had legs, they would be running scared.

This summer, volunteers are tearing up the manicured lawns of corporations, replacing them with “giving gardens” to raise produce

Hunger hurts every day, and summertime can be especially painful for children.

When school’s out, kids who get free or reduced-cost meals in the lunchroom are often left hungry during what should be the lazy, crazy days of summer.

Well, the folks at ABC Newspapers wanted to do something about that.

In an effort to ease those hunger pangs and quiet growling stomachs, ABC Newspapers launc

FOX 21 News

More Minnesotans are having trouble feeding their families – food shelves across the state are serving record numbers of people.

Hunger Solutions Minnesota reports more people visited food shelves in 2008 than ever before.

That number continues to rise, with a 28 percent increase in the first three months of this year.

The CHUM Food Shelf in Duluth reports a 15 percent incr