Challenge Yourself to End Hunger
Accept the 2016 Food Shelf Challenge from Open Your Heart to the Hungry and Homeless and Semcac this July.
You can make a difference for hungry families in our community.
Minnesota summers were made for trips to the cabin, boat rides on the lake, and farmers market outings, not food shelf visits. But that’s the reality for thousands of Minnesotans. Children are home from school and the family budget is tight. Food Shelf helps provide nutritious fruits and vegetables to these families and needs your help this summer.
We see an increase in child visits during the summer. When school is out for summer vacation, many children miss out on free school meals and their families turn to us for support.
Make a bigger impact on hunger in our community this July
Every day, Minnesotans make over 9,000 visits to food shelves statewide – that is six visits to a food shelf every minute. In 2015, 8,387 visits were made to the 4 Semcac food shelves including 172 emergency visits. Semcac’s food shelves are located in Kasson, Rushford, Preston and Caledonia. In 2015, 1,388 households were assisted by our food shelves.
You can make a difference this year by donating throughout the month of July. The more you donate, the larger our food shelf’s grant from Open Your Heart to the Hungry and Homeless will be. The challenge funds will proportionally match your donation. Your financial donation will go further due to our buying power. We can purchase food from our food bank for pennies on the pound.
Thank you Open Your Heart to the Hungry and Homeless and Hunger Solutions Minnesota.
Since 1986, Open Your Heart to the Hungry and Homeless has targeted millions of dollars to strategically fight hunger in Minnesota. Open Your Heart to the Hungry and Homeless funds the purchase and transfer of more than one million pounds of fresh produce, meat, and dairy products to food shelves every year. Open Your Heart to the Hungry and Homeless also provides grants for food shelves and food banks to get the equipment they need—like freezers, shelving and trucks—to be able to serve the growing number of Minnesotans who can’t afford enough food for their families.
Hunger Solutions Minnesota is the statewide organization that coordinates this challenge grant opportunity. Hunger Solutions works to end hunger via the Minnesota Food HelpLine and by advancing fair public nutrition policies on behalf of hungry Minnesotans. Hunger Solutions also connects Minnesota’s food shelves with funding and technical assistance to support the 9,000 daily food shelf visits.
Learn how you can donate, this July. Note Open Your Heart on check memo line or via the SurveyMonkey link noted on GiveMN when you give online. Thank you for your generosity.