Audio Listen to an extended interview with Pastor Paul Photos Packing for the hungry Offering encouragement... and food Food for 6,000 View full slideshow (4 images) Your Voice Join the conversation with other MPR listeners in the News Forum.

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Minnesota is hungry for help
by Tom Scheck, Minnesota Public Radio
November 27, 2003

On a recent Saturday, about 300 volunteers packed food shelves to Gospel music for the Christian organization, "Here's Life Inner City." (MPR Photo/Tom Scheck)

Each day, thousands of Minnesotans go hungry, and their numbers are growing. Officials at area food shelves say there are more hungry people this year than last. They also say individual and corporate donations are not keeping up with the increased demand. The squeeze is causing many food shelves to run a deficit and it's forcing area food banks to limit their donations.

St. Paul, Minn. — Marty Mumma and Julie Kelly take a morning stroll on Thanksgiving morning. The two women are making the rounds in the Mall of America for this year's Hunger Walk. Mumma, of Eagan, and Kelly, of Minneapolis, are just two of the 3,000 people who are walking past the closed stores of Bed, Bath, and Beyond, Victoria's Secret and Sam Goody to raise money for Minnesota's six area food banks. "For me, it's a really small activity effort that you can do really sort of give back to the community and make a contribution on a day that there seems to be lots of people who have plenty. In some ways, it's sort of a symbolic way of saying thank you," Mumma says.

	Offering encouragement... and food

"It occurred to me this morning as I got up to do this, that I can easily afford to give a little bit," says Kelly. "The whole idea of giving when we were little and in service organizations, they would say 'Give until it hurts.' And I think nobody does that anymore and I thought I'm doing a little bit this morning but I should be sacrificing more to help others and I should think about that."

Event organizers say they raised $102,000 this year, which easily surpassed last year's total of nearly $80,000. The money raised at the Hunger Walk goes directly to food banks. Those food banks use the money to buy food in bulk and distribute it to area food shelves.

Pastor Paul Arnopoulos runs Pastor Paul's Mission in North Minneapolis. The short, stocky, balding man with a gray goatee bounces around the basement of this North Minneapolis church packing bags and offering encouragement to staff and volunteers.

Pastor Paul, as everyone knows him, says his food shelf serves an serves 8,500 families now. But he expects that number to increase to 10,000 families by next summer. Ten-thousand families will amount to food for 45,000 people per month.

"People aren't eating," he says. "They're skipping a meal or the parent isn't eating and the kids are eating. And if you have a teenager and you get a box of Corn Flakes -- that's usually about half full when you buy it anyway -- he's going to eat that whole thing in one TV sitting. He'll eat the whole thing; the milk, the cereal and probably the wrappers."

Pastor Paul says the increase in demand is cutting into his bottom line. He says he'll always be able to offer food to his customers. But he says he's having trouble paying the bills. He rattles off the various bills that cost thousands of dollars a month, including heat, insurance and electricity to keep he massive refrigerators running.

"This is like running around a track that's oval and has a rim. If I don't keep one step ahead, or if I stop, the bill collector catches up with me and I fall in the hole. So I keep one step ahead of him, I just run the rim," he says.

	Food for 6,000

Pastor Paul has served food to the needy for 23 years. Most of his clients are the working poor, the elderly and the unemployed. He calls it his life mission, and you can tell. The massive tractor trailers in back of the church bear his likeness holding boxing gloves. The words printed next to the image of his face read, fight hunger.

"You want people to be sick, don't feed them. You want them not to go get a job, you want them so they can't learn in school, don't feed them. The main basic thing is eating. You just miss a meal, you say 'I'm hungry let's go eat, let's go to McDonald's.' But if you don't have that money you can't do that," he says.

Pastor Paul's Mission is Second Harvest Heartland's biggest customer. The Twin Cities-based Second Harvest is one of six food banks in Minnesota. Jane Brown, the executive director of Second Harvest, says food shelf demand is up 34 percent since 2001. She also says donations are down. Brown says they provided 30 million pounds of food to food shelves and other charities in 2001. She says they expect to serve less than 27 million pounds of food this year. Brown says the combination of higher demand and declining contributions has forced the organization to changes its priorities.

"The food banks, all of us around the state are going to a priority system where we just say that the emergency food shelves and onsite feeding programs get served first and whatever product is left then can go to the other charities who depend upon us for food," according to Brown.

Hunger is most acute outside of the Twin Cities. Hibbing Salvation Army Captain Terry Selvage says layoffs on the Iron Range have contributed to the increased demand for both food and services. He also says people who haven't lived in Hibbing for years have returned to home with the hope of finding work. Selvage says more people who visit the Salvation Army during the holidays are trying to stretch their money.

"People are trying to save the few dollars that they have for the Christmas season. The lack of work in this area. Actually, lack of work is probably the biggest comment that we've had from individuals coming in. Where they've been looking for a job and just can't find one," saus Selvage.

Selage says the Hibbing Salvation Army is far behind its $82,000 goal for its Christmas drive. He says they've raised between $5,000 and $6,000 to date.

	Demand for food shelf help is up

Other groups blame state budget cuts for the increase. Eileen Wallace, with the Heartland Community Action Agency in Willmar, says the lower income people are often forced to decide between paying for health care and paying for food. She also says cuts to state programs that provide nourishment to women and infants have forced parents to look to food shelves for help.

"I don't see the demand for food shelves, or any of those basic needs changing for three to four years and part of the reason for that is it takes so long in rural Minnesota for that economic upturn to get out here," according to Wallace.

Organizations are trying to fill the gap any way they can. On a recent Saturday, about 300 volunteers packed food shelves to Gospel music for the Christian organization, Here's Life Inner City.

Executive Director John Sather says they hoped to provide enough Thanksgiving meals to serve 6,000 people. He says volunteers are delivering the so-called boxes of love to the needy throughout the week. Sather says it's evident that businesses have lowered their financial and food donations since Sept. 11, 2001.

"Many corporations are cutting right down to the very bottom line and so they don't make any overflow products. So the donations that we used to get, we're no longer getting. The effect of 9/11 is still lingering on. I think with 9/11 and the war and all that, most of the products are heading overseas and many time we're just left here where we're just not getting the products that we're used to."

Not all food companies have reduced their corporate donations. Officials with General Mills, one of Minnesota's largest food companies, say they've increased their food donations in the last fiscal year. Spokeswoman Marybeth Thorsgaard says General Mills has donated $22 million in food products in fiscal year 2003. She says they donated $20 million in food products in fiscal year 2002.

"Each and every day, General Mills donates three semi-trailer loads of food, which ranks it among the top three contributors of food to people in need," says Thorsgaard.

Even so, food shelves say they'll be lucky if they are able to meet the increased demand. They just hope that those who are thinking about having that second helping this holiday season remember that there are many who are struggling to get their first bite.

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