North Minneapolis Food Shelves struggle to keep up with rising food insecurity
A line snakes around the parking lot of Salem Lutheran Church where Camden Collective runs a food distribution program. Photo by David Pierini
By Azhae’la Hanson, reporter
People need more food than food shelves can provide, and faster. Lines have grown to wrap around entire blocks and volunteering staff are overwhelmed with the influx of first timers that reach the thousands.
In the past year alone, the number of North Minneapolis residents served by Shiloh Cares Food Shelf has increased by more than 2,000 people per month, in addition to more than 1,000 cooked meals.
Shiloh recently partnered with Second Harvest Heartland for support as they struggled to keep shelves stocked and to keep the program staffed.
“A lot of communities don’t have the time, transportation, or wealth to volunteer time,” said Aliison O’Toole, CEO of Second Harvest Heartland
“Someone can go through our line and get up to $150 dollars in groceries. But it still might not be enough.”
The demand has worn out volunteers, many of whom are community members dealing with the same issues as people they serve. Because of this, for the first time, volunteers were paid to keep the shelf in operation.
New food shelves had even been established to meet the growing demand of food amidst the pandemic in 2021. Anna Gerdeen started the Camden Collective out of the Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church as a drive through pre-packed food pickup service.
Even after a year of serving the community, she never realized how many people depended on her services until she expanded the operation into a walk up.
And the line stretched around the block.
Since Gerdeen opened the doors to the Camden Collective, she has been expanding the food shelf to meet the demands of the community.
“I get people who are almost weeping with thanks,” said Gerdeen.
When she first started, the Camden Collective distributed about 75 boxes a week. Last May that number grew to 90. By October of 2022, Camden Collective was serving 150 families with a steady increase of 10 families each month.
The ongoing global food shortage that emerged from the pandemic has left more families in need in North Minneapolis than ever before, and food shelves slammed, trying to keep up with the rapidly growing influx of community members seeking food.
This year has produced record breaking attendance in food shelves for Minnesotans, a near 2 million attendance increase than in 2020 at the start of the pandemic, according to a recent report in the Star Tribune.
“Our clients from the BIPOC neighborhoods of the City of Minneapolis and Hennepin County have been impacted by the inflation and food shortage the most,” said Shiloh Cares Food Shelf CEO Jalilia Abdul-Brown.
Many low income communities dealing with food insecurity prior to the pandemic were hit hard when a global food shortage combined with a pandemic left people hungry and unemployed. Inflation has caused food to double in price, and food stamps no longer stretch as far as they used to.
Food costs and demand have left the Camden Collective fighting for funds to keep their doors open to serve the community during the winter.
“Someone can go through our line and get up to $150 dollars in groceries,” Gerdeen said. “But it still might not be enough.”
Typical food groups like meat and produce are in shorter supply, varying from week to week. Food shelves are doing the best they can with what they’ve got.
“One week you will see a lot of meat, others, a lot of produce, not typically at the same time,” Gerdeen said.
Kevin Johnson, a Northside resident, has depended on food from the Camden Collective since it first began. A cancer survivor, chemo left him homebound, and he regularly used instacart to have his groceries delivered. This became too expensive for him to maintain.
“I met Anna and suddenly, I’m getting really good food,” Johnson said. “I hadn’t had to go grocery shopping since she started, which I really needed help with.”
He attributes the shelf as the reason he's changed his eating habits and feels much healthier when he cooks the meat and produce he received from the shelf. He has noticed the change in food he’s received in the recent months.
“There's been a change but to be honest, but I'm not gonna start complaining because it's still remarkable that she [Anna] can carry on despite the challenges,” Johnson said. “If she's gonna start having to make choices on me, I can get by on soup and bread.”