With one in twelve Minnesotans now relying on food shelves for groceries, Congresswoman Betty McCollum met with representatives from area food shelves, food banks and other food support programs Friday to hear about the challenges Minnesotans face in getting enough food on the table and how Congress can help ease their burden.
“This is very personal to me in many ways,” said McCollum, who said she grew up watching her mother carefully ration food to fit within their tight budget.McCollum expressed a particular concern for growing food insecurity among children, especially during the summer months when they are home from school, and among seniors who are not supporting their health needs by eating properly and taking their medications.
Food shelf usage in Minnesota has nearly tripled in the past decade, reaching nearly 3 million visits in 2009, according to Sue Kainz of Minnesota FoodShare. And it seems that it will continue to grow for the foreseeable future.
“Each month there will be another all-time high,” said Mary Pieck of the St. Paul-Ramsey County WIC program.
The listening session provided an opportunity to not only learn the facts and figures of hunger in Minnesota but also to gain a glimpse into the lives of the people it affects. One client from the Friends in Need Food Shelf in Cottage Grove, a construction worker unemployed since the new I35-W bridge was completed in 2008, came to share how important his monthly visits to the food shelf are in helping his family get by on their budget of about $350 per week.
Other representatives shared stories of the people they see at the food shelf, including senior citizens accustomed to putting their children and grandchildren first, former food shelf volunteers and donors now in need of the same services they once helped provide and a seven-year-old girl, her family regular food shelf visitors, who collected over 2,000 pounds of food by posting flyers and going door-to-door with her father in their neighborhood.
It is this spirit of selflessness and “giving back” that motivates many of the staff members at these agencies to continue the essential work they do when faced with such limited resources and increased demands. Several of the panelists made the same observation that we have also made here at Open Your Heart: that although the need is greater than ever and still increasing, the response of community members donating their time, money and food has been incredible.
We are so grateful for this outpouring of generosity and optimistic that people will continue to give as long as there are others who need it. As Rep. McCollum concluded, “People in our community will rally to help their neighbor.”
