One in six children in Minnesota is at risk of missing a meal every day, but thanks to the help from local youth groups, we’re working to change that.
This year, youth from the Twin Cities and around the Midwest gave thousands of hours packing, sorting and distributing the nutritious foods that kids need to learn, play and grow. We are especially thankful for the volunteers from the YouthWorks, Urban Immersion Retreats, Twin Cities Academy, The International School of Minnesota and Breck Upper and Lower School groups for donating over 200 hours of service last year!
But we need more youth to join us in the movement of fighting hunger, and with our new facility in Golden Valley, it’s never been easier. We now have the ability to host groups of all sizes, and most volunteer activities are appropriate for children 10 and over, with some being suitable for children as young as 8.
For more information and to see available volunteer shifts, visit our website here. You can also call us at 651.282.0901 to discuss hosting your next party with us.
With your support, we can fight hunger in our community!
Thank you to the over 3,000 people that started their Thanksgiving morning by giving back and attending the fifth annual Walk to End Hunger!
This year, more than 3,000 participants helped raise over $306,000 to support 12 partner hunger relief organizations, including Second Harvest Heartland. Special thanks to the over 270 individuals that walked for Second Harvest Heartland and helped us raise over $21,500!
The Walk to End Hunger, presented by Greater Twin Cities United Way and The Mosaic Company, is a collaboration of hunger relief agencies to raise awareness and funds to end hunger in the Twin Cities and gather thousands of nonperishable food items for local hunger relief organizations. Thanks to all who participated!
Despite an economic downturn, smaller food-manufacturer surpluses and reductions in government funding, Second Harvest Heartland has been able to thrive. So what’s the secret to our success? YOU!
In the latest edition of the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, Second
Harvest Heartland was highlighted because of our capability to not only weather the storm, but to grow and provide more food to our hungry neighbors than ever before. And we owe all the success to our generous donors, the thousands of volunteers who have given their time, and to the corporations and community partners we’re so fortunate to have.
On behalf of those in our community that we serve, thank you. Together, we’re turning hunger into hope for so many people who need our help!
For the second year in a row, the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council is helping fight hunger during the holiday season. Along with an initial $2,500 donation, they’ll contribute $5 to Second Harvest Heartland for every Facebook “Like” received on their page between now and December 31 (up to $6,000 total)!
Last year, 626 people liked their Facebook page to help drive a $5,805 donation. Help spread the word among your friends and family today by sharing the link to the Minnesota Soybean and Research Council Facebook page.
During the holiday season, it’s important to consider those who need a little extra help putting food on the table. Now is the perfect time to join the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council in their continued support in the fight against hunger.
For more than 10 years, we’ve been fortunate enough to receive fresh produce through Hunger Solutions thanks to the Open Your Heart to the Hungry and Homeless grant. Again this year, Second Harvest Heartland and our five partner Feeding America food banks in the state were awarded the $100,000 grant to help fund a statewide acquisition of fresh produce for our neighbors in need!
Minnesota food banks obtain nearly 1 million pounds of fresh produce—the equivalent of 800,000 meals—through the grant each year, which is hugely significant since fresh produce is one of the most costly and difficult food items to obtain for those in need, and also tends to be a crucial component of culturally-relevant food.
Over the last several weeks, we have received over 84,000 pounds of onions, 40,700 pounds of oranges and 33,693 pounds of pears!
Sincere thanks to Open Your Heart for helping to bring more fresh food to the children, working families and seniors who are struggling to put food on the table.
Corporations, businesses, groups and families of all sizes are hosting Food & Fund Drives this holiday season. There are a lot of ways to participate in a Food & Fund drive: With your family and friends, at your workplace, or when you’re out
and about doing your holiday shopping.
Below are just a couple of different Food & Fund Drives happening around the Twin Cities that you can take part in.
Bring three canned food items to any participating Twin
Cities Qdoba restaurant now until December 9 and receive a free order of chips and queso.
Do some holiday shopping at one of the two Primp Boutiques between December 10-20, and 10 percent of all sales will be donated to Second Harvest Heartland.
Stop by Family Dollar and donate $1, $3 or $5 at the register, now through December 19.
With the growing demand for food in our community, your help is needed now more than ever. Consider participating in one of these Food & Fund Drives, or start one of your own this holiday season, and join the tens of thousands of people throughout our communities who are helping fight hunger.
As the need for food continues to rise, it’s important that we keep finding new sources. While traditional donations of surplus goods are crucial to the success of our work, we simply cannot fill the missing meal gap on those donations alone.
That’s where the Pallet of the Month Club comes in. The Pallet of the Month Club collects first-run, newly produced product on a pallet-per-month basis from local food manufactures. Since the program’s inception in August 2010, we’ve received 427,327 pounds of food.
On Thursday, we celebrated the success of the program and the nine members for their commitment to fighting hunger in our community with a luncheon and plaque presentation. These nine members have provided 333,849 meals of first-run product to those in need throughout Minnesota and western Wisconsin over the past two years.
On behalf of Second Harvest Heartland, our community partners and the children, working families and seniors we serve, let us thank the following Pallet of the Month Club members for their incredible generosity:
Ralcorp Baking: Bread Sparboe Farms: Eggs Land O’Lakes: Cheese Dakota Growers Pasta Co.: Pasta Horizon Milling: Flour General Mills-Green Giant: Canned vegetables General Mills: Baked goods ConAgra Mills: Flour Kemps: Milk
You’re invited to help Panera Bread celebrate their Bread & Baking Discovery Day at 6 this evening at any of the 25 Panera Bakery Café’s in the Twin Cities. At the event, there will be a synchronized breaking of bread along with an opportunity to donate to Second Harvest Heartland.
Join us, along with Panera customers and community partners, in a celebration of their Bread Heritage and recognition of their commitment to fight food insecurity.
To find the nearest Panera Bakery Café, click here.
Eighty-thousand Minnesota seniors struggle with hunger every day. To help raise awareness about senior hunger, and connect those in need with the programs and resources that can help, we have been fortunate to partner with UnitedHealthcare.
They were instrumental in several outreach campaigns and events in October to help fight senior hunger in the Twin Cities. Promotions were run on WCCO-TV directing viewers to food assistance resources. WCCO-TV hosted a call-in event, staffed with UnitedHealthcare volunteers, to answer senior and caregiver questions and connect them with local resources. Later in the month, the Minnesota Vikings cheerleaders and players, including Chris Kluwe, joined 180 UnitedHealthcare employees for a volunteer food-packing event at Second Harvest Heartland West. UnitedHealthcare volunteers also collected nonperishable food items and donations at the Vikings Food & Fund Drive prior to a Vikings game at Mall of America Field. Finally, all UnitedHealthcare offices hosted food drives in the Twin Cities. All of these activities were a part of UnitedHealthcare’s “Do Good. Live Well.” program, an employee-volunteer initiative to prevent hunger, diabetes and obesity.
A great partner such as UnitedHealthcare plays a vital role in helping us support those in need in our community, and we can’t thank them enough.
For more information about senior hunger and to find local resources, click here.
With Thanksgiving past us and a thin blanket of snow on the ground, now is a perfect time for viewing holiday lights! The fifth annual IBEW Holiday Lights in the Park Tour is a spectacular drive-through holiday light display experience, featuring more than 50 larger than life holiday light sculptures and animated displays. It is a perfect destination for a festive evening, and you can enjoy it all from the comfort of your car.
The event in St. Paul’s Phalen park benefits Second Harvest Heartland and other local charities, and is open now through January 1.
The holiday season is a perfect time to give back, and making a Second Harvest Heartland gift is a powerful way to honor a loved one or celebrate a special occasion while making a difference in the lives of working families, children and seniors in our community who are at risk of missing a meal today.
Here are three ways to give—and give back:
Tribute Gift
Celebrate special occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries or weddings. Honor or remember a loved one, colleague or special friend. Provide recognition for achievements or milestones. Offer a holiday gift for colleagues or business partners. Each $100 raised through a Tribute Gift is enough to provide a month’s worth
of meals to a family of four in our community.
Click here to learn more or make a tribute gift.
Hillary’s Gift Basket
Hillary’s Heartland Hunger Relief Gift Basket can help you show appreciation, say thank you or send well-wishes. 10% of proceeds benefit Second Harvest Heartland.
Click here to learn more or purchase a basket.
CRAVE Gift Card
For every $100 worth of CRAVE gift cards you purchase through December 31, CRAVE
will make a $20 in-kind donation to Second Harvest Heartland!
Click here to purchase your gift cards.
This holiday season, consider giving a gift that gives back to those children and families in need in our community.
If you, or someone you know, are in need of food this holiday season, there are several local emergency food services and assistance programs that can help. To contact someone for information about available resources, fill out the short form on this page or call our front desk at 651.484.5117 for immediate assistance.
We understand the holiday season puts extra strain on your budget—but you shouldn’t have to go without food. Contact us today for help.
And on behalf of all of us at Second Harvest Heartland—Happy Thanksgiving.
On behalf of Second Harvest Heartland, our community partners and the children, working families and seniors we serve, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you for your incredible generosity on Give the Max Day this year.
Thanks to The Mosaic Company, a special group of individual donors and the humbling online gifts from generous individuals like you, we’ll be able to provide the equivalent of over 1.7 million meals to those in our community who are counting on us for support!
This year, we received:
- $314,749 in individual contributions;
- $150,000 in matching funds from The Mosaic Company and individual donors;
- $2,500 for the third place prize award;
- $1,000 for the golden ticket winner.
All of that amounts to $468,249—enough to help us provide food for 1.73 million meals. Please take a moment to watch my personal video thank you message.
Thank you for your generosity. Know that this holiday season, our neighbors will sit down for a plentiful meal and give thanks for you.
Today, more than 100 volunteers from Ameriprise Financial are spending the day at Second Harvest Heartland West to help pack onions as part of their National Day of Service.
For this special day of service, volunteers from Ameriprise Financial offices across the U.S. are spending the day helping more than 320 hunger relief organizations repackage bulk
food items, assemble holiday meal packages and stock their warehouses.
Ameriprise Financial is a great hunger relief partner, and we can’t thank them enough for their commitment to helping families in need. Since 2009, Ameriprise Financial has donated more than $300,000 to Second Harvest Heartland—enough to provide food for more than 1,110,000 meals for our neighbors in need.
With the dedication and commitment displayed through more than 1,000 volunteer hours, Ameriprise Financial has helped bring more food to more people, truly making a difference in the lives of those who are hungry. Nationally, Ameriprise Financial has helped provide more than 21 million meals through donations to Feeding America and local food banks over the past four years. And through employee giving, they’ve generated 1.6 million meals.
Sincere thanks to the Ameriprise Financial organization and employees for this important work in our communities!
Thanksgiving is one week away! Have you and your family registered to give back before giving thanks? The Walk to End Hunger is still accepting registrations and we’d love to have you join team Second Harvest Heartland.
The Walk to End Hunger, presented by the Twin Cities Hunger Initiative, is a collaboration of hunger relief agencies to raise awareness and funds to end hunger in the Twin Cities and gather thousands of nonperishable food items for local hunger relief organizations, including Second Harvest Heartland.
There are many ways to participate in the walk:
• Join the Second Harvest Heartland walking team. It’s simple to sign up, just click here and select Join Our Team. Then join us on November 22 to walk, side-by-side, with other Second Harvest Heartland supporters.
• Become a captain and start your own walking team. As a captain, you recruit family members, friends, co-workers and neighbors. Set a goal! Every walker raising $100 or more will receive an official Walk to End Hunger t-shirt at the event. Click here to get started today and be sure to select Second Harvest Heartland as your target for donations when you create your team.
• If you’re unable to join us for the walk, you can still help Team Second Harvest Heartland by making a contribution here.
• Other ways to help include volunteering for the event; sending a contribution; bringing a food item to the Mall of America Thanksgiving morning to donate; or you can phone in your contribution Thanksgiving morning.
However you choose to participate, you will help provide more food to those who are hungry in our community! For more information about Walk to End Hunger, visit the Walk to End Hunger website or call 651.789.9842. Hope to see you there!
In just two days, thousands of Minnesota nonprofits will come together to raise millions of dollars in just 24 hours. You can make a direct impact on the lives of those in need by making Second Harvest Heartland your charity of choice on Give to the Max Day by clicking here. And thanks to The Mosaic Company and a group of generous individuals, we’re featuring a matching fund of $150,000! Make sure to take advantage of this amazing opportunity, available ONLY on November 15.
You can schedule your donation today by clicking here! Then, on November 15, your donation will automatically be pulled from your account, and will qualify to be matched!
When you give $100 or more on Give to the Max Day, we’ll send you a “thank you” postcard, hand-colored by a child who benefits from one of our programs. Your gift of $100 will provide a meal-a-day for a year to a child, working parent or senior in our community who is struggling with hunger.
Hunger in our region has doubled over the past five years, and today one in ten Minnesotans has to choose between food and something else that they need almost as much: rent that keeps a roof over their heads as the weather grows colder, gas for the car that gets them to the job that lets them feed their families or medications they need to manage chronic illness. Our neighbors in need shouldn’t have to choose.
Please give generously, and thank you for considering making Second Harvest Heartland one of your charities of choice this Give to the Max Day.
We’re excited to announce that Second Harvest Heartland has been awarded the highest rating of four stars for sound fiscal management and commitment to accountability and transparency for the third year in a row by Charity Navigator, the country’s largest and most-utilized independent evaluator of charities. Only nine percent of the charities Charity Navigator rates have received at least three consecutive 4-star evaluations.
As the nonprofit sector continues to grow, we know we are one of so many worthy charities you can choose to support. More than ever, we’re committed to ensuring we’re accountable and transparent so that you can trust us with your hard-earned dollars. The new rating illustrates our commitment to good governance and highlights how we pursue our mission in the most fiscally responsible way possible.
We couldn’t have received this top rating without you. Thank you for trusting us with your donations, your volunteer time and your good will. Your support means so much to us and the individuals and families we serve!
We’re excited to report that since the Meals for Minds program began in May 2010, the equivalent of more than 590,000 meals has been distributed to families in need in our community. And on November 1, Second Harvest Heartland added a ninth school to the program, expanding our reach further than ever before!
Meals for Minds, sponsored through a grant from Target, is an innovative mobile grocery distribution that provides food to families with students enrolled in select low-income elementary schools in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Families typically receive between 30-40 pounds of food per student enrolled; including milk, bread, pasta and a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables.
And our volunteers’ efforts are the wheels that have helped this program grow—each month, over 250 people donate their time to help distribute food at Meals for Minds events. But we need additional help to keep the program growing. If you are interested in learning more about how to get involved with this program, contact Volunteer Services here today!
Check out our fall edition of Stories of Hope, the Second Harvest Heartland newsletter. In this issue we feature our Harvest to Home program and our efforts in bringing a bounty of farm-fresh food to local families.
Also featured:
• Punch Pizza’s successful annual Food & Fund Drive.
• A profile of Second Harvest Heartland’s SNAP Outreach Program manager, Camille Cyprian.
• An inside look at our volunteers behind the volunteers, Elise Saggau and Jerri Freier, two of our dedicated volunteer data entry specialists.
• And much more!
The Taste of the Vikings, one of our premier events, is just a few weeks away! Don’t miss your chance to see the entire current Vikings team, as well as former players, while sampling food from the Twin Cities’ finest restaurants on Monday, November 19, at Nickelodeon Universe in Mall of America.
One in six Minnesota children lives at risk of hunger, and this party with a purpose has been making a huge impact on hunger relief for over 20 years. All proceeds help benefit the Vikings Children’s Fund Summer Lunch Program through Second Harvest Heartland. Grab your tickets today and help kick childhood hunger!
Second Harvest Heartland is the Upper Midwest's largest hunger-relief organization, striving to end hunger through community partnerships. We form the backbone of organizations working together to efficiently alleviate hunger in 59 counties throughout Minnesota and Western Wisconsin. Read More...
This year, youth from the Twin Cities and around the Midwest gave thousands of hours packing, sorting and distributing the nutritious foods that kids need to learn, play and grow. We are especially thankful for the volunteers from the YouthWorks, Urban Immersion Retreats, Twin Cities Academy, The International School of Minnesota and Breck Upper and Lower School groups for donating over 200 hours of service last year!
Thank you to the over 3,000 people that started their Thanksgiving morning by giving back and attending the fifth annual 
Despite an economic downturn, smaller food-manufacturer surpluses and reductions in government funding, Second Harvest Heartland has been able to thrive. So what’s the secret to our success? YOU!
For more than 10 years, we’ve been fortunate enough to receive fresh produce through 
Over the last several weeks, we have received over 84,000 pounds of onions, 40,700 pounds of oranges and 33,693 pounds of pears! 
Corporations, businesses, groups and families of all sizes are hosting 
On behalf of Second Harvest Heartland, our community partners and the children, working families and seniors we serve, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you for your incredible generosity on Give the Max Day this year. 
As the nonprofit sector continues to grow, we know we are one of so many worthy charities you can choose to support. More than ever, we’re committed to ensuring we’re accountable and transparent so that you can trust us with your hard-earned dollars. The new rating illustrates our commitment to good governance and highlights how we pursue our mission in the most fiscally responsible way possible. 
Meals for Minds, sponsored through a grant from Target, is an innovative mobile grocery distribution that provides food to families with students enrolled in select low-income elementary schools in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Families typically receive between 30-40 pounds of food per student enrolled; including milk, bread, pasta and a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables.
