Farm in the Cities is a new, fun and fresh event presented by Six Rivers Cooperative and participating restaurants. The event, hosted by Solera Restaurant, spotlights local farmers’ foods and the restaurants that serve them. The event was created as a way to educate and excite the public about sourcing and preparing farm-fresh food.

Join us on Sunday, October 30 to mingle with top-named chefs, enjoy appetizers and a delicious seven course dinner, all prepared by the chefs using locally grown products. Plus, you’ll get the chance to learn about the products used in the preparation of the meals, as well as support hunger-relief right here in our community.

Don’t miss out on this one-of-a-kind opportunity. Tickets can be purchased by calling Solera’s Jay Viskocil at 612-338-0062. Tickets are priced at $125, and all proceeds benefit Second Harvest Heartland.

For more information about the event, click here.

Last year, we introduced you to Henry and Dylan, two local boys who have been organizing a Food & Fund Drive in their Stillwater neighborhood for the past three years. Together, the young boys walked through their neighborhood and distributed 175 bags on their neighbors’ doorsteps with a goal of collecting 500 pounds of food—which they more than doubled! In total, they collected 1,600 pounds of food for our hungry neighbors!

Well, the boys are back, along with more kids, for the fourth annual Stillwater Neighborhood Food Drive. This year five Stillwater neighborhoods—Oak Glen, Settlers Glen, Inspiration, Highlands and South Hill—will get a chance to participate and to help provide much needed meals for our neighbors in need. They’ve also created an online donation page to help boost their efforts! (You can make a gift to their drive here.)

To show everyone how easy and fun it is to organize a Food & Fund Drive, the boys sent along two YouTube videos: “Look Like Fun? ” and “Join the Effort.”  Watch the boys in action in the cute and creative videos as they collect food for our hungry neighbors.

Every year, hundreds of groups hold Food & Fund Drives for Second Harvest Heartland. They range in size from a small collection at a neighborhood book club to large campaigns at companies and churches. Hosting a Food & Fund Drive is a simple and effective way to help in our fight against hunger.

Thanks again to Henry, Dylan and all the kids for their work in support of our efforts! You truly are making a difference in the lives of those in need.

Looking for something fun to do this weekend? Stop by Mall of America to check out some amazing structures built from ordinary cans of food!

Canstruction is a national charity committed to ending hunger using one can as a catalyst for change through a unique design/build competition. Each year top design firms from the Twin Cities build enormous structures from cans of food and thousands of onlookers vote for their favorite.  But, most importantly, once the event is completed the structures are dissembled and the cans of food are donated to Second Harvest Heartland. Last year, teams used more than 15,000 cans of food, all of which was distributed to our neighbors in need.

Be there to cheer on designers, check out the structures and vote for your favorite.

For more details on how you can get involved, click here.

If you haven’t heard yet, the most recent edition of our newsletter is available online only. As an effort to reduce costs and put more of your generous gifts towards helping those in need, we’ve decided to print only two newsletters per year—our spring and fall editions. We’re excited to present the first digital-only copy of Stories of Hope. We hope you enjoy it! Click here to check out the current edition which includes stories about:

• The work of our dedicated volunteers
• Info on how to get involved with Hunger Action Month
• “The Friday Guys”—a group of guys who have collectively volunteered with us for over 20 years

September is Hunger Action Month, and you can help provide much-needed meals for those who count on us for support. In partnership with Cub Foods, Malt-O-Meal, Snapple and 5 Eyewitness News, we can make a difference.

Here are three easy ways you can take action this September:

1. Make a donation. Snapple is matching all online gifts up to $50,000! Donate now >>

2. Give a Little, Feed a Lot at Cub Foods. Make a cash donation at the register, or purchase a Cub Community Cupboard Bag that benefits your local food shelf. Find your local Cub store >>

3. Feed others, feed yourself.

For every Malt-O-Meal brand cereal or Better Oats brand instant oatmeal purchased during Hunger Action Month, the Malt-O-Meal Company will make a food donation, with a goal to donate one million servings of breakfast to families in Minnesota. Get your Malt-O-Meal brand cereal or Better Oats brand instant oatmeal at your local Cub store.

Also, Snapple and Grammy award-winning pop-rock band Maroon 5 have partnered to launch “Tea Will Be Loved” – a delicious blend of healthy green tea and tasty black tea with notes of pomegranate and berries. Purchases of the tea will benefit Feeding America. Inspired by the unique personalities of the band members and named for their smash-hit “She Will Be Loved,” this limited release Snapple tea will be available at participating retailers’ nationwide beginning in September. Get your bottle of “Tea Will Be Loved” at your local Cub store.

Watch the video PSA below and visit the Hunger Action Month MN website to learn more!

Today, Feeding America released the Map the Meal Gap: Child Food Insecurity 2011 study which provides a detailed look into the number of children in America that are under the age of 18 that go hungry every year.

The study reveals that there are children struggling with hunger in every county in America. Nationally, while one in six Americans overall don’t have proper access to the food they need, the rate for children is much higher: nearly one in four children are at risk of hunger.

It also provides information on Second Harvest Heartland’s service area in which it found that there are more than 200,000 children under the age of 18 that are currently struggling with hunger.

Child hunger is simply unacceptable. The new information gained from this study will help us develop even more ways to improve our child hunger programs like the Summer Food Service Program which provides meals to children who may otherwise go hungry during the summer or the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which provides a box of nutritious food each month through the Mothers and Children Program (MAC).

For more details on this study check out the entire interactive map here.

In July of 2009, Second Harvest Heartland teamed up with the Minneapolis Farmers Market to collect produce from vendors and shoppers during the growing season. The collaboration quickly caught the attention of Market-goers, growers and the media—all of whom recognize the importance of delivering fresh produce to our neighbors in need.

Since then, we’ve collected 124 tons of fresh produce from donors and growers at the Market, and hope to continue to grow the program…but we need your help.

The Mosaic Company has stepped up in a big way in support of this summer’s donation program at the market: they’re offering $2,500 gifts for every full volunteer slot during 24 weeks this summer (three shifts per Sunday). That means you can help us raise $7,500 in support of our neighbors in need by offering your time!

But that’s not all…

You can help make an even bigger impact by supporting Fellowship of the Fresh with social media activities. The Mosaic Company has also offered a generous $5,000 match for activities completed. It’s as easy as $1, $2, $3!
Tweet it for $1

Just use the hashtag #getfreshforthehungry in your tweet, and Mosaic will donate $1. Tweet now >>

Facebook it for $2

“Like” us on Facebook or “like” or comment on any post. Go to our Facebook page >>

Scan it for $3
Use your smartphone to take a photo of the QR code below now, or at the Minneapolis Farmers Market on Sundays.

When the Minnesota state government shut down at midnight, our hungry neighbors were put at even greater risk of hunger.

• Unemployment rates will temporarily increase, putting extra strain on families.
• Some Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) sites are being forced to close, as the host schools rely on government funding to run summer programs.
• Meal programs that rely on government funding are being forced to shut down.

You can help ease the strain on affected families by:

• Fundraising on behalf of Second Harvest Heartland or another local hunger-relief organization on our GiveMN campaign. To donate directly to Second Harvest Heartland, click here. To create your own fundraiser on behalf of Second Harvest Heartland or another hunger-relief organization (any 501c3) click here and click “Fundraise” in the “Join this team” box on the right.
• Spreading the word about the shutdown impact on Minnesota families on Facebook or Twitter. Use hashtag #mnshutdown to track the conversation, and use the URL http://bit.ly/mnhunger to save characters when directing to the GiveMN campaign.
• Bringing food directly to your local food shelf.

Feel free to contact us at any time with questions. Thanks for your support during this difficult time for so many of our neighbors.

Today marks the official launch of Hunger-Free Minnesota, a statewide movement to close the gap of 100 million missing meals in our state. “There is a lot of excitement about this, not just within our own state, but nationally. Other states recognize the unique and practical approach that Hunger-Free Minnesota is taking, and see the potential to replicate success in their states,” said our executive director, Rob Zeaske.  This morning, Rob joined business leaders and many of our colleagues in hunger relief in a press conference outlining how you, your co-workers, volunteers and clients all will be positively affected by Hunger-Free Minnesota. It’s a three-year campaign with an action plan designed to focus on three areas of meal delivery:

• Increase annual meal delivery in the emergency food network by 50 million meals.
• Increase access in the SNAP/Minnesota Food Support Program by 30 million meals.
• Increase utilization of infant and child nutrition programs to yield an additional 20 million meals.

Hunger-Free Minnesota’s website contains interesting information about hunger, including original reporting from MPR reporter Julie Siple. Yet, at its heart, Hunger-Free Minnesota is an intensely local movement. Even its tagline, “Hunger Hurts Us All. Fight Hunger Where You Live.” encourages everyone who wants to donate their time, talents and money to closing the meal gap to seek out their local emergency food providers.

You may notice coverage about the Hunger-Free Minnesota launch press conference today and on an ongoing basis. You can also watch the press conference by clicking here.

For more information please read the hunger fact sheet on our website that contains statistics about hunger in Minnesota and information about Hunger-Free Minnesota.

Sincere thanks to all of our friends who supported the work of Second Harvest Heartland at Thursday’s Dish: Cuisine for Change at the Saint Paul RiverCentre. The event attracted almost 1,000 people and raised more than $500,000. We are humbled and grateful to our sponsors, restaurants, auction donors, individual attendees and other supporters for the incredible generosity displayed that evening. Thank you!

Whether you were able to attend or not, we invite you to download a recipe booklet from this year’s participating restaurants—The Strip Club Meat & Fish, Kincaid’s, Oceanaire and more.

Download the Recipe Booklet Now >>