After a roller-coaster year, Minnesota food shelves hope crisis is behind them

WABASHA, MINN. – On this sunny March day, things are looking up at Wabasha Area Food Share.

Everyone who comes to the food shelf today can walk out with a free ham. The volunteer staff, which dwindled during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, is back to normal levels. And the newly remodeled space, which Food Share moved into last fall, is working out great.

But it hasn't been easy, for Food Share or for most of the state's more than 320 food shelves. Suffering widespread job losses caused by the pandemic, Minnesotans made more than 3.75 million visits to food shelves last year — a record.

And with their reliance on volunteer corps heavily weighted to senior citizens, many food shelves found their most reliable workers suddenly dropping out just when they were needed the most.

"We found out quickly last March that it's not a good idea to depend solely on volunteers for a service that can't be put on hold," said Chris Simonson, Food Share's director. She, like everyone else involved in Food Share, is a volunteer.

But Simonson and others believe it's time for their organization to have a paid director. Simonson made the case this month to the Wabasha County Board of Commissioners, asking the board to consider partly funding a position of 30 hours a month at $17-18 an hour. There are too many tasks to juggle, she said, and a steady presence at the head of the organization is needed.

"The all-volunteer experience is not working," she said, recounting the chaotic year Food Share experienced.

When the pandemic hit, many senior volunteers "just stopped," Simonson said. "They called and said, 'I can't be there.' "

At the same time, Food Share's longtime host, Gundersen St. Elizabeth's Hospital, was "anxious to get us out of there," said Mary O'Brien, Food Share's president, who's been with the organization for more than 15 years.

Evicted from the hospital because of concerns about disease transmission, Food Share worked for months out of the hospital parking lot. But as the year went on, Food Share found a new, larger home and signed up a host of new volunteers to serve the 75 or so families a month who use the food shelf.

Many other food shelves faced similar challenges, said Colleen Moriarty, executive director of Hunger Solutions, a statewide advocacy group.

"A lot of the workforce of the food shelves around the state has been volunteer, and it is an aging workforce," she said. The days of a completely volunteer food shelf organization may be at an end, she added.

"The sophistication and the level of need has reached the point that people need to know there will be somebody keeping the lights on," she said. "I think that is a model that most food shelves will have to move toward in the long run."

The next generation of volunteers, she said, "is looking for more of a high-impact, short-term experience. They don't want to come volunteer every Wednesday.

"That's great — that's still a valuable service. And that takes someone who can envision those opportunities."

Moriarty is hopeful that the $1.9 trillion federal COVID relief bill signed into law this month will be a turning point for beleaguered food shelves.

"There has been a tremendous amount of strain on the emergency food system," she said. The relief bill "gives people the ability to use the funds to take care of their family needs. It also gives time for the emergency food system to recoup and regroup."

John Reinan • 612-673-7402