State helping to fund prepared meals that nonprofits provide to people in need

A new state-funded grant program will help pay for prepared meals that Minnesota nonprofits and tribes provide for people in need who are unable to visit a food shelf or cook their own meals.

The $3.3 million in state grants, included in the recently passed budget, will pay for tens of thousands of culturally specific meals over the next two years. The state Department of Human Services will start making the first grants later this year.

"It's important to serve local communities in ways we haven't done before," Deputy Human Services Commissioner Nikki Farago said.

The new program was part of a broader effort this year by the DFL-controlled Legislature to bolster support for food programs. Lawmakers approved free school breakfasts and lunches for students, and earmarked an additional $3 million annually for Minnesota's 470 food shelves over the next two years.

The allocation to food shelves, nearly triple the previous biennium's funding, is on top of $5 million in emergency aid that Gov. Tim Walz signed off on earlier this year for food shelves. The Legislature also approved $7 million in one-time funding to expand or renovate food shelves statewide.

"It's a great increase, and it's a real show of support," said Colleen Moriarty, executive director of Hunger Solutions Minnesota, an advocacy group. What likely made the difference for legislators, she said, is that "everybody has a food shelf in their town. ... You just have to look around to know that there are people who really need help."

Food shelves served a record number of state residents in need during the COVID-19 pandemic. More Minnesotans visited food shelves in 2022 than in any previous year, smashing the previous record set in 2020.

This year's food shelf traffic is on pace to top last year's numbers, with about 30% more visitors in the first quarter than last year, according to Hunger Solutions.

Food shelf leaders say the higher cost of living, coupled with the end of special financial support — from pandemic-related stimulus checks to eviction moratoriums — is forcing more people to seek help, some for the first time. Extra food stamp benefits during the pandemic have also ended, sending more people to food shelves.

Nonprofit leaders estimate that 15% of people seeking food assistance have mobility issues or no access to a kitchen, including older adults, people with disabilities, or adults who are either homeless or in a mental health crisis.

"It's essential that we have programs that break down all the barriers to food insecurity," Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan said Tuesday. "And for so many people who are facing hunger, receiving food only solves part of the problem."

That's why a growing number of local nonprofits are offering prepared meals as well as food shelf groceries.

Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota, which has served prepared meals as part of its Meals on Wheels Program for decades, started a shipped meals program in 2019 called LSS Meals to Go. The demand for the to-go meals increased from 3,000 meals in 2019 to about 2,000 meals in one week alone this year.

About 80% of Lutheran Social Service's prepared meals go to communities outside the Twin Cities, helping fill the void of healthy food in rural regions that often lack a grocery store, LSS Meals director Kristin Quenzer said.

"What COVID did is bring food insecurity to light," she said.

Quenzer said Lutheran Social Service will apply for the new state grants, which she said would help the Twin Cities-based nonprofit provide more prepared meals. So will Second Harvest Heartland, the Brooklyn Park-based food bank.

State funding would help support Second Harvest's Kitchen Coalition program, which started as Minnesota Central Kitchen at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, inspired by the work of humanitarian and chef José Andrés. When kitchens closed because of COVID, the program put restaurant workers and caterers back to work and paid them to prepare meals for people in need.

The program now works with 18 restaurant kitchens, most of which are owned by people of color, as well as 75 nonprofits and other distributors that provide more than 1 million culturally specific meals a year.

It costs Second Harvest $8.5 million a year to run the program, funded mostly with donations and private grants, said Robin Manthie, the program's managing director. Similar programs across the country are scaling back or closing because they can't get the necessary funding, she said.

"We need to find sustainable, diversified ways to fund this," she said. "We know this is an ongoing need, and the government can play a role."