OPEN YOUR HEART
Challenge Yourself to End Hunger
Accept the 2023 Food Shelf Challenge from Open Your Heart to the Hungry and Homeless and The Pipestone County Food Shelf 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. Children are home from school and the family budget is tight. The Pipestone County Food Shelf helps provide nutritious food to these families and needs your help this summer.
In a normal 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. This summer, between the kids being home from school and more families experiencing economic hardship due to inflation, soaring food and gas prices, and the impacts of expiring COVID-19 pandemic relief programs, we are seeing a greater level of need.
Make a bigger impact on hunger in our community this July
Every day, Minnesotans make over 15,000 visits to food shelves statewide – that is more than ten visits to a food shelf every minute if food shelves were open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In 2022, Minnesotans made a record 5,505,100 visits to their food shelves statewide – up almost 2 million visits from the year prior. Children represented 35% of food shelf visits in Minnesota with a total of 1,934,205 visits, up 55% from 2021. Even before COVID-19, there was a record level of need across the state..
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.
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 15,000+ daily food shelf visits statewide.
