Second Harvest Northern Lakes Food Bank is permanently waiving fees for the nationally and regionally donated food it provides to the 75 NE Minnesota and NW Wisconsin food shelves, soup kitchens, shelters and the other non-profit agency partners it supplies as the region’s only “food bank.” This announcement comes at a time when demand has increased beyond pandemic levels and when communities like Moose Lake need the food bank most.

“We’re seeing a 32% increase at our region’s food shelves,” shares Shaye Moris, executive director, Second Harvest Northern Lakes Food Bank. “We made our decision to waive fees to ensure our region’s non-profit partners could be as generous as possible to those facing hunger in their local communities. So many of our neighbors have been impacted by the pandemic, economic impacts of inflation and a high cost of living recently that we felt it an important time to make this decision.”

Although often confused with a “food shelf” (which the food bank does operate), Second Harvest Northern Lakes Food Bank is the region’s only “food bank” supplying non-profit programs with nationally and regionally donated food and non-food items. Prior to their decision, agency partners paid an average $.02 per pound fee to share Second Harvest’s cost of food acquisition, storage and distribution.

“You’re our primary source of food,” shared Karl Oberstar, manager of Quad Cities Food Shelf, in Mt. Iron, one of Second Harvest’s largest partners. “Without you, there’s a lot of people who wouldn’t get fed up here.”

In the Moose Lake community, over 86,510 pounds of food has been provided by Second Harvest Northern Lakes Food Bank over the last year. This food has an estimated value of $166,100 but agencies will no longer pay to access it other than with the exception of a nominal delivery fee.

Each year Second Harvest Northern Lakes Food Bank provides over 6.5 million pounds of product to the 75 non-profit agencies (and 135 programs) it serves throughout NE Minnesota (St. Louis, Carlton, Lakes and Cook counties) and NW Wisconsin (Douglas, Bayfield, Ashland and Iron counties).

Throughout the U.S. there are just over 200 Feeding AmericaTM food banks like Second Harvest serving specific geographic regions. Together, these food banks distribute over 5 billion pounds of food through 60,000 food shelves and other programs reaching 38 million Americans. For more information about Second Harvest Northern Lakes Food Bank, (218) 727-5653, [email protected] or visit www.northernlakesfoodbank.org.

About Second Harvest Northern Lakes Food Bank

Second Harvest Northern Lakes Food Bank is the region’s only food bank and rescuer of nationally and regionally donated food for 135 non-profit charitable feeding programs (food shelves, soup kitchens, shelters, etc.) and approximately 44,000 people in need throughout NE Minnesota (St. Louis, Carlton, Lake and Cook counties) and NW Wisconsin (Douglas, Bayfield, Ashland and Iron counties). In addition to providing food to other non-profit programs, Second Harvest provides service to nearly 4,910 people per month as part of its Food Shelf, Mobile Food Pantry, Nutrition for Seniors and BackPack Programs. Over the last year, Second Harvest has rescued and distributed 6.6 million pounds of food or enough food for 5.3 million meals for those in need throughout the Northland.

To read this original story and more news, follow this link to the Moose Lake Star Gazette News website.