Minnesota woman wins grocery shopping spree, donates it to food shelf

Two minutes to grab anything you want off a grocery store shelf — that's what Aimee Bortnem won in a contest.

Instead of filling her own shelves, the Minnetrista woman thought about her local food shelf. She even called Westonka Food Shelf ahead of time to see what it needed the most before she took part in the Jubilee Foods shopping spree.

"It's the first thing I thought to do," she said. " It's the perfectly natural thing to do to help people."

Bortnem headed straight for the cereal aisle and also stocked up on soups. Westonka Food Shelf director Shelly Sir said that cereals can be expensive and that they don't have a huge supply.

Contest rules limited Bortnem to taking one of each item. She was thinking about the children in her community and also focused her efforts on after-school snacks.

"It was so generous," Sir said. "It is so nice for our patrons to have things on our shelf that they normally don't get otherwise."

Bortnem filled two and a half carts at the Mound store during her two-minute shopping spree, which she won after her mother entered her name in a drawing. The items were worth $300. The video of her shopping spree has received great reaction from Star Tribune readers and Facebook followers.

"I appreciate everyone thinking this is so great," Bortnem said, " but I was given the opportunity and I passed it on. It feels good to help people in your community."

Vineeta Sawkar • Twitter: @vsawkar