New Shiloh food vault adds convenience for hungry families
At the grand opening of the Shiloh Cares Food Shelf vault, state Sen. Bobby Joe Champion walked away with some candy after successfully demonstrating how the food lockers work. Photo by David Pierini
By David Pierini, Editor
Wanda Porter stood outside a row of lockers, waiting for her phone to alert her with a PIN. On a small screen in the center of the lockers, she typed the code to unlock a door. Inside was candy.
“Cool beans,” she said, smiling.
A day later, the refrigerated lockers were filled with groceries, accessible to Northsiders in need at any hour.
Local community leaders cut the ribbon on an 18-door food vault outside Shiloh Temple International Ministries on Oct. 21. The lockers were installed for those who can't access the Shiloh Cares Food Pantry during its regular hours.
Porter said the food-on-demand lockers are a blessing, adding that she has had times when she couldn't get to the Shiloh pantry on time.
“They close at 2:30 p.m., so if I have a doctor’s appointment and they’re running behind, I might not make it,” Porter said. “This is a big relief.”
Change Starts with Community, which runs the Shiloh food pantry, worked with Community Emergency Services in South Minneapolis. CES worked with an Australian company that manufactures the lockers and has operated a 32-locker vault for 18 months.
CES clients access a website to fill out a shopping list, but Change Starts with Community wanted to simplify food access for folks uncomfortable with technology, said Jalilia Abdul-Brown, executive director of Change Starts with Community.
The Shiloh pantry, which serves more than 8,000 people per month, will ask clients likely to use the lockers to complete a one-time survey with a few options, she said.
People can also text pantry staff if they need certain items, she said. The food vault, located just behind the bus stop at West Broadway and Fremont avenues, has security cameras and ample lighting.
“Hunger never sleeps,” Abdul-Brown said. “It’s 24/7. The lockers are beautiful and humane. It allows people to get their stuff discreetly and walk off.”
About two years ago, CES President Jamie Dolynchuk, who attended the opening of the Shiloh food vault, was searching for innovation to feed hungry Southsiders.
The CES program serves an average of 150,000 families per year. His team adopted an appointment system, which cut long waits and lines, but CES still struggled to reach a segment of residents, the working poor, who couldn't make it to the pantry before closing. Some had to ask their children to stand in line for the food.
“We had a focus group with them, and they said, ‘Is there any way that you could just leave the food available after hours outside?’ That’s when I stumbled across the company in Australia, and they worked with us on a prototype,” Dolynchuk said, adding that lockers were designed to hold four paper grocery bags worth of food. “It’s remarkable. The lockers did exactly what they intended.”
CES started with 15 lockers and quickly moved to 30. The lockers average about 120 to 150 people per day.
Abdul-Brown said she hopes to get additional lockers by early next year.