It’s not just the poor who are suffering from the global food crisis. More middle-class people are having trouble feeding themselves. Sean Cole visits a family in Minnesota.

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Last summer, Tammy Jensen-Boehne became a statistic.

Sidelined from her nursing-assistant job for eight weeks because of surgery, the Woodbury woman joined the growing number of Minnesotans who get help from a food shelf.

The demand is evident in the amount of food given out at the five Washington County shelves that Hunger Solutions tracks: 176,000 pounds more in 2007 than the previous year, for a total of nearly 1.3 million pounds of food distributed.

“Budgets are definitely being strained,” said Hiebert, describing “food inflation” and escalating gas prices.

Benson says it’s the responsibility of public officials to meet critical needs, and providing food to those who need it is a critical need.

“I’ve seen numbers as high as a 45 percent increase in the numbers of people who are coming to the food shelves. Some cities are running out of food by midweek, and they have to turn people away with nothing at all. So, we really do have a crisis.”

Robert Hass, left, packs groceries as fellow volunteer Dorothy King gathers items to fill an order at the Friends in Need Food Shelf in St. Paul Park. (Photo by Tom Olmscheid)
By Patty Ostberg , Session Weekly
April 19, 2008

Of the 28 bills Rep. John Benson (DFL-Minnetonka) sponsors, he said HF1233 is the most important because it has “the most essential need.”

The bill would appropriate $1.15 million for food shelf programs above the base appropriation for the current biennium. It would become part of the base for the Fiscal Year 2010-11 biennium.

“We are dealing here with basic human rights, the right to nutrition,” he told the House Housing Policy and Finance and Public Health Finance Division March 5.

Friends in Need Food Shelf director Michelle Rageth said health problems and job loss are the two most common reasons people end up needing the help of the food shelf. She said they’re seeing a lot more middle-class families coming due to those issues.

“Right now the biggest change we’re seeing is the people who were doing fine up until now,” she said.

In addition to those facing a catastrophic change, there are seniors, disabled and low-income people who are regulars at the food shelf.

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State lawmakers are faced with the challenge of plugging a $935 million budget deficit.

That’s nearly three times greater than the deficit projected in November. It’s also the deepest projected shortfall since 2003, when a $4.5 billion deficit forced massive budget cuts.

Governor Pawlenty is ruling out tax increases to fill in the budget gap. Instead, he’s considering the use of current reserves, dedicated accounts and spending cuts.

Scott and Carver counties tower over all other metropolitan counties in the rate of growth in the amount of free food being handed out, according to the latest statistics from Hunger Solutions Minnesota, an advocacy group. Dakota ranks third.

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Colleen Moriarty with the group Hunger Solutions Minnesota says funding for public food aid hasn’t gone up since the funding was established, but that demand for food from the program is up 50 percent in the past six years, and double-digit increases, just in the past eight months.

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