Minnesota Food Shelf Donations and Volunteerism Are Down and They Need Our Help

Food shelves are struggling to get enough donations and enough volunteers this year more than ever because of COVID-19. And this is a major problem because the number of families who are stopping at food shelves has gone up. So food shelves in our area could really use our help!

John Lauritsen with WCCO spoke with Michelle Ness is PRISM Marketplace Food Shelf's executive director. PRISM is located in Golden Valley. Michelle said typically they serve 800 families per month and now it's about 1,200. And the donations have not grown with the growing need. Actually, it's gone down.

WCCO reports that PRISM's donations have gone down about 50% and the number of volunteers has gone down about 90%. Many of the volunteers that used to help out are retirees so they are the age group that's at high-risk.

So if you are able to volunteer your time, local food shelves would greatly appreciate it! And if you're able to donate to a local food shelf, that would also be very helpful for them.

Here are a few food shelves around Southern Minnesota that you can help out:

Faribault Food Shelf
Channel One Food Shelf - Rochester
Echo Food Shelf - Mankato
Lonsdale Area Food Shelf
Semcac - Kasson
Community Pathways of Steele County - Owatonna
United Way of Faribault

I know there are many others! It just takes a quick Google search to see what food shelves are in your area and then you can get in contact with them to see how you can help, what kind of donations they need.