Demand at local food shelves remains high and fuel costs are adding to the burden

Second Harvest Heartland CEO Sarah Moberg says they are transitioning into an era of long-term heightened demand, and securing things like protein items has become increasingly difficult due to rising market prices.

"With what we've been seeing, we just expect that the need will remain high and that this is our new normal for the foreseeable future," Moberg explains.

Fuel costs are also adding to the burden. Moberg says that just maintaining supply pipelines costs thousand of dollars a month in transportation fuel alone.

"We spend about $20,000 more per month in fuel costs just to maintain our service and delivery routes to about 1,000 food shelves and meal programs across central Minnesota and western Wisconsin," Moberg adds.

She says with the local growing season ending, they rely more on expensive out-of-state shipments and are asking the public for help to boost local donations.

The food bank has distributed a record-breaking 172 million pounds of food over the past fiscal year, marking a 20% increase over four years.

"A record number of Minnesotans are struggling to make ends meet," Moberg tells WCCO. "Historically, you know, we used to call or think about this as, we'd use the term hunger crisis. But that really implies that there's a beginning and an end."

Moberg says this comes as thousands of Minnesotan's have recently lost SNAP benefits due to federal cuts. Enrollment in the biggest federally funded food aid program in the U.S. dropped by more than 13% in a 12-month span — a decline far steeper than the government estimated as work requirements and other provisions of President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful bill” took hold over the summer.

Moberg says they will need to rely on donations more than ever before. Click here to learn more about supporting Second Harvest Heartland.