When COVID-19 hit and people in St. Paul's Frogtown and Rondo neighborhoods wanted to help others, they dropped food off at Delinia Parris' porch. They knew that Parris, a longtime organizer who has known hunger, would get it to those who needed it most and trusted she would know best how to feed them.
Now, Parris is executive director of Feeding the Dream, where neighbors can pick up food they need, no questions asked.
"To me, the dream is that nobody is hungry. Not just no child is hungry, but no parent is hungry," she said.
With Black and Latino Minnesotans facing hunger at several times the rate of white Minnesotans as recently as 2020, Twin Cities-based Second Harvest Heartland hosted a panel discussion Thursday on the state's racial hunger divide in south Minneapolis.
Besides Parris, panelists at Sabathani Community Center included Second Harvest CEO Allison O'Toole; Deisy DeLeon Esqueda, manager of ECHO Food Shelf in Mankato; Diane Tran, executive director of M Health Fairview Community Health Equity and Engagement System; and Stacy Hammer, community health director of the Lower Sioux Health Care Center in Morton, Minn.
Second Harvest saw its hungriest summer ever this year. Rising food costs, supply chain issues and wages that haven't kept up with inflation contributed to the unprecedented need, O'Toole said. The demand for food in September was even higher than at the height of the pandemic, she said.
About 9% of Minnesotans live in poverty, which is defined as an income of up to $26,000 for a family of two adults and two children, according to 2019 American Community Survey estimates. Poverty rates in Minnesota are higher in communities of color; 31% of American Indians and 29% of Black Minnesotans are considered impoverished.
Panel members shared strategies on how they have addressed the racial hunger gap in their own communities. In Mankato, Esqueda said, stocking food shelves with culturally specific foods has made a difference.
