From the desk of the Executive Director

Inside the HeartlandA Publication of Second Harvest Heartland

Summer 2006

1Inside the Heartland

As I sit down to write this letter, Minnesota is in the midstof seemingly endless natural bounty - farmer’s marketsare full of fresh fruits and vegetables, families are gather-

ing for backyard barbeques and picnics by the lake. Communitiesare staying up a little later than usual fueled by the warmth and longlight of the summer sun.

This abundance is starkly contrasted with another reality. Every dayhundreds of thousands of Minnesotans face uncertainty about the

availability of their next meal, or worse – they go to bed hungry, night after night.

We know from our hunger-relief work and participation in the national Hunger inAmerica study that hunger and food insecurity continue to increase among working fam-ilies, children and seniors.

What choices would you make to stretch a limited budget - eliminate fresh produce, dis-connect your phone or skip filling a medical prescription? Too many must make these dif-ficult decisions, everyday. CCoonnttiinnuueedd oonn ppaaggee 22......

Summer Kids Campaign

Second Harvest Heartlandhas again met all standards

of the Charities ReviewCouncil. Since 1946,the Council has been empowering

Minnesota donors to make informed givingdecisions and fostering trust in the charitablesector. For more information on the CharityReview Council’s Accountability Standards,please visit www.smartgivers.org.

Cupboard Doors Hide Empty Shelves

If mortgage, rent, utilities or medical billsaren’t paid, there are public consequences– eviction, cessation of services or bad

credit reports follow. However, who reallyknows if family members or neighbors are reg-ularly or occasionally forced to skip meals?

There are signs, and communities must payattention. We all know children who are strug-gling to perform well in school, seniors who areno longer able to drive to the grocery store andaren’t accessing public transportation, and fami-lies who own homes and experience unexpectedjob loss or medical expenses. These indicatorsmay or may not mean that a person is hungry, butexperience tells us that many of them are.

Please consider a gift to our Summer Kids Campaign. We know that during the summer - when seasonal contributions drop - thousands offamilies rely even more on food assistance programs to help feed their children. HHUUNNGGEERR TTAAKKEESS NNOO SSUUMMMMEERR VVAACCAATTIIOONN. In thesummer, low-income families must access enough food to make breakfast, dinner and lunch – a meal that from September to June their chil-dren receive free or at a reduced price at school. In response, Second Harvest Heartland is working to surpass last year’s summer food distri-bution of 7.5 million pounds of food. Remember: It’s your dollars that will make this possible

CCoonnttiinnuueedd oonn ppaaggee 22......

Brian Armstrong filling a food order for one of our 800member agencies. Second Harvest Heartland distributes

about 30 million pounds of food annually.

Forty-seven percent of the households thataccess emergency food have one or more

employed adult, and half of the households that use food shelves have children.

Empty Shelves… CCoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm PPaaggee 11

Forty-seven percent of the households that access emergencyfood have one or more employed adult, and half of the house-holds that use food shelves have children. Study after study indi-cates that hunger is detrimental to the physical, emotional andmental development of our children. Minnesota’s future, quiteliterally, depends on providing more than 200,000 children andtheir families with adequate access to nutritious food year-round.

Second Harvest Heartland’s mission has been to fight hungerthrough community partnerships. We were guided by this mission toassist hundreds of organizations to feed the most vulnerable mem-bers of our communities. However, we believe it is no longer enoughin this land of plenty, where the USDA estimates that up to one-fifthof America’s food is wasted, for Second Harvest Heartland to “fight”hunger. We are asking you to join us, in partnership, to end hunger.

Our Board of Directors unanimously voted to change SecondHarvest Heartland’s mission to reflect our commitment to endhunger in the Heartland. This is an ambitious undertaking, butan essential one. In this land of plenty it is unconscionable thatpeople are hungry.

We want to be very clear about our commitment. Endinghunger means providing adequate access to food so that no onegoes to bed hungry or goes to school or work without necessarynutrition. You will begin to hear more about what this commit-ment will take as plans are developed in the months ahead.

Hunger limits and humbles everyone whose lives are touched byits presence. Thank you for your commitment to SecondHarvest Heartland.

R. Jane BrownExecutive Director

Executive Director CCoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm PPaaggee 11

2 Inside the Heartland

Kate Krisik, Executive Director of the Valley Outreach Food Shelf inStillwater, MN, says they have seen a 27% increase in the number offamilies using their food shelf in the last year. Food and financial dona-tions are up, she explained, but they are not keeping pace with demand.

“We serve a lot of people with medical needs. We serve people thathave lost employment and those who are underemployed,” saidKrisik. “For these individuals and families, their income is so tenu-ous that if they have one unexpected expense they end up cominghere. They just don’t have anything extra.”

The food shelf depends on strong support from the local communi-ty and Second Harvest Heartland. “If we didn’t have Second HarvestHeartland, we wouldn’t be able to provide most of the food we havehere,” Krisik said.

With your support, Second Harvest Heartland will continue workingin partnership with member agencies, such as the Valley OutreachFood Shelf. Your contributions help fill empty cupboard shelves.

Bremer Hunger Awareness Campaign

Raises over $100,000

Bremer clients, community members and employeesthroughout Minnesota raised $66,518 during Bremer’s firstannual Hunger Awareness Campaign this June. With a

$50,000 challenge grant from the Otto Bremer Foundation, thetotal amount of money raised was $113,518.

The funds will be used by the six America’s Second Harvest food banksin Minnesota to distribute food to more than 1,500 emergency foodproviders in Minnesota, North Dakota and western Wisconsin.

The Bremer campaign delivered messages about the rising number ofhungry people in the Mid-west, focusing particularly on low-incomechildren. Bremer employees asked community members to think aboutthe concept of nothing – having nothing to wear, nothing to watch onT.V., nothing to eat in a fridge full of food. They then asked us all tothink about the number of children, 465,054, in Minnesota, NorthDakota and western Wisconsin who rely on free and reduced priceschool lunches. If school lunches are not provided in the summer, manyof these children may have nothing to eat.

“We thank and commend Bremer, their partners and the wider commu-nity for making a difference,” said R. Jane Brown, Executive Director of

Second HarvestHeartland. “Themoney they’veraised will helpdistribute mil-lions of poundsof food this sum-mer to hunger-relief organiza-tions servinghundreds ofthousands ofchildren andtheir families.”

Bremer branches across Minnesota hosted Hikes forHunger in support of the Bremer Hunger Awareness

Campaign. Their combined efforts raised more than $6,100

Summer’s Bounty Shared

Second Harvest Heartland is proud to deliver over three millionpounds of donated and surplus produce to metro area neighbor-hoods and food shelves each year. Produce is highly nutritious, frag-ile and expensive. Without this program, many low-income, metro-area families could not afford to serve fresh fruits and vegetables attheir dinner tables.

Mike Conroy, a Second Harvest Heartland driver, delivering freshvegetables to Merrick Food Shelf in St. Paul.

3Inside the Heartland

Volunteer Highlight:

Second Harvest Heartland andour member agencies work close-ly together to feed vulnerablemembers of the community, andthat is how we got to knowMichael Farnham. We met himthrough our agency door, so tospeak. Farnham serves on theBoard of Directors at Bill’s Pantry, a St. Paul-based member foodshelf that provides food and support to individuals and familiesaffected by HIV/AIDS. When one of their volunteers was unableto pick-up their weekly food order at our Maplewood DistributionCenter, Farnham stepped in; and we are grateful he did.

In addition to being active in the community, Farnham is alsoa Senior Partner and founding member of Blue PenguinConsulting Partners, a firm specializing in providing business-es with data management solutions and applications.Volunteer Manager, Dennie Scott, was thrilled to receive a callfrom Farnham. Together they developed a project to best uti-lize Farnham’s technical skills and provide Second HarvestHeartland with an improved volunteer resource database.

“Non-profits don’t often have resources to hire consultants, but theyhave the same business requirements that for-profits do,” said Farnham.“I also really enjoy volunteering at Second Harvest Heartland.”

Thank you, Michael, for your time and your expertise.

If you are interested in volunteering your professional servic-es, or would like to schedule your family or business to assem-ble food boxes, please call Dennie Scott at 651-209-7939 oremail volunteer@2harvest.org.

Giving Comes in Many Different Forms

May - July Events and Fundraisers:

National Association of Letter Carriers Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive

ASID Showcase Home TourOtto Bremer Foundation Challenge Grant

Bremer’s Hunger Awareness CampaignNational Hunger Awareness Day

Minnesota Hunger Awareness WeekSwenson Anderson Ice Cream Social

Cub Foods on Nicollet Mall and Community Cupboard MatchThe Rake Twin Cities Restaurant Week

WCCO Midday in the ParkBruce Springsteen Concert

Sodexho Chef ’s Association Hunger Relief ClassicBubba Gump Shrimp Co. Shrimp Happens Contest

Food and Fund Drives

Between April and June, food andfund drives held in support ofSecond Harvest Heartland raised

$20,304 and donated 306,230 pounds of food. Member agenciesthroughout our 59-county service area thank you, and so do we.

Hunger Matters

The Minnesota State Legislature appropriated $200,000 for the sixAmerica’s Second Harvest Food Banks in Minnesota to purchase milkduring the 2007 fiscal year. This is the second fund appropriation. Lastyear, in an initiative that was also led by Second Harvest Heartland, thesix food banks received $150,000. The money will be used to purchasemilk for distribution to hunger-relief agencies serving the entire stateof Minnesota. We are thankful for the funding, as milk is not oftendonated in sufficient quantities to meet the demand.

Help us end hunger in the Heartland by including Second Harvest Heartland in your will or estate plans. For more information, please call Janene Connelly at 651-209-7932.

YYoouu ccaann hheellpp::Every dollar you contribute distributes up to $9 worth of food.

Find out how by visiting www. 2harvest.org

National Association of Letter Carriersrepresenting Minneapolis Branch 9 and St.Paul Branch 28 collected 290,067 pounds of

food on May 13. SSttaammpp OOuutt HHuunnggeerr,which is in its 14th year, is the largest one-day food drive in the nation. Thanks to the

letter carriers and everyone in thecommunity who contributed.

Second Harvest Heartland would like to thank the DISH attendees and our sponsors: Target, Mpls St Paul Magazine, Gallo Family Vineyards,

Coca Cola, College Press, Crystal Farms, Cub Foods, Ecolab, HeadquarterMarketing, Kemps, Minneapolis Floral, Mutual of America, St. Croix

Marketing, Pepsi, Turnkey Direct Marketing,Vertis. Your collective efforts raised nearly $70,000 for hunger relief.

NonprofitOrganization

US Postage PaidSecond Harvest

Heartland

Inside the HeartlandSummer 2006

Second Harvest Heartland1140 Gervais Avenue

St. Paul, MN 55109-2042Phone: 651.484.5117

Toll Free: 888.339.3663Fax: 651.484.1064

2harvest.org

“Inside the Heartland” is publishedfor the partners and stakeholders

of Second Harvest Heartlandthroughout Minnesota and

western Wisconsin.

Every measure has been taken toensure the accuracy of the namesand information printed in thisnewsletter. We apologize if we

have overlooked any organizationor individual.

A member of America’s Second Harvest - The Nation’s Food Bank Network and United Way

IInnssiiddee:: Message from the Executive Director:

Ending hunger in the Heartland

CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

Donate 2006 Summer Kids Campaign

Your donations to Second Harvest Heartland’s 2006 Summer KidsCampaign help “fill the gap” when school meals aren’t available. Pleasecontribute what you can to help us reach our $200,000 Labor Day goal.

Give Kids a Vacation from HungerExpanding to Meet the Need

On June 26th, Second Harvest Heartland broke ground on a 4,600sq. ft. freezer/cooler expansion. The additional capacity will increaseour efficiency and make us more responsive to the communities weserve. Your financial support will help us meet our goal of providingenough food to end hunger in the Heartland.

YYoouu aarree ccoorrddiiaallllyy iinnvviitteedd::

Fall Open House and Freezer/Cooler Expansion CelebrationThursday, September 28, 2006, 2:00-6:00 PM

Second Harvest Heartland1140 Gervais Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55109

Mark your calendars! For more information, call 651-209-7941 or visit www.2harvest.org.

Upcoming Events:

Join us in the Education Building at the Minnesota State Fair fromAugust 24 until September 4. Find out more about ending hungerin the Heartland, and how you can help. Hope to see you there.

We’d like to thank the Maplewood Community Center for theircommitment to hunger relief. Their 5th annual Wine and JazzFestival will benefit Second Harvest Heartland. Here are the details:

Saturday November 4, 2006, 7:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.Maplewood Community Center, 2100 White Bear Avenue

Call 651-249-2100 to make your reservation or for additional details.