2022 saw record food shelf use in Minnesota with 5.5 million visits. That need hit all areas of the state according to the Executive Director of Hunger Solutions Minnesota, Colleen Moriarity.
“There is really no one who escapes the crushing blow of poverty, and the transition from the pandemic to now,” Moriarty says.
Jason Viana runs The Open Door Food Shelf in Dakota County and he says it is a problem that didn’t go away after the pandemic.
“And the last three month of 2022, into this year, we’ve seen numbers higher than we saw during the pandemic,” said Viana.
Hunger Solutions is behind a bill that would provide $5 million in emergency food shelf funding, and the group supports Governor Walz's budget proposal to increase hunger relief spending from $1.6 million to $6 million over the next biennium.
“The only real answer to this question as we move forward, is long term investment in the emergency food system that really is sustainable, that is there, and that is not just a drop in the bucket,” says Moriarty.
CEO of Second Harvest Heartland, Allison O’Toole, told WCCO’s Adam and Jordana this is a societal problem that goes beyond politics. She was a guest of Minnesota Senator Tina Smith at Tuesday’s State of the Union speech by President Joe Biden.
“No matter how hard these partisan conversations in Washington get, hunger is a unifying issue,” explained O’Toole.
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