Friends in Need: Blueprints from a Model Food Shelf

In a world rapidly changing, we have to look at what’s already working well.

So just before the “Stinky Bridge” on 494 that crosses the Mississippi River, I head south to St. Paul Park’s Friends in Need Food shelf, or FIN. This streamlined, state-of-the-art facility is where it’s at—a model of what could happen in so many communities with excess food.

On this frozen February morning, I sat down with Jill Hughes, Assistant Director. Hughes, part-time, is one of only two paid employees at FIN. All the rest are volunteers, and they’re mostly retired seniors. Michelle Rageth, the other paid employee, is full-time Director. FIN’s layout, design, and efficiency was largely her brain-child, although a committee helped develop her ideas. 

“We’re bare bones,” Hughes said, referring to the small staff. “We’re so lean here that when you donate to us, it’s not going to pay all kinds of administrative people... the money’s going directly to buy food… We’re just lucky that we have capable people—volunteers—who aren’t paid.”

FIN’s original home had been in the old American Legion in town. That space was dark and moldy to such a degree that areas had to be taped off. This posed a health hazard for both the volunteers and those they served.

But then something beautiful happened.

St. Paul Park Refining Company—the reason why locals call the bridge “stinky”—sold some of their land for $1 to build a new food shelf. But they didn’t stop there.

They donated the down-payment for a new building—a check for $250,000 in 2015—and agreed to pay part of the mortgage for the next ten years. Regardless of the stench that billows out from the refinery, talk about a company who really gives back to the community. Their generosity, in turn, has triggered a ripple effect in several of the surrounding cities.

FIN’s Food Sources

While FIN pays for some of its food—special items like canned tuna—most of the food comes from Second Harvest Heartland, which, according to their website, is “a member of Feeding America, a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks that helps feed people across the country.” FIN also receives government funding, excess food from local grocery stores, and fresh produce from BIX.

Hughes explains, “Mondays we get ‘Rescue Food’, and Second Harvest picks it up. They go to four local grocery stores: Target, WalMart, Hy-Vee, Cub, and we get stuff and sort through it all. We just have to pay a truck fee, $75 per trip.

“So the funding goes to the truck delivery fees, the food that we buy, and a delivery from BIX produce once a week. Because that’s a huge thing—we want to have fresh fruits and vegetables and we want to promote healthy eating. You know, not just canned food.

“We can’t guarantee what we’re going to get from ‘Rescue’ or what Second Harvest is going to have available. But we’re also lucky that we have such a big facility, a walk-in freezer, and a walk-in cooler, so we can take a lot that’s free that other people don’t have room for… We’ve got room to keep it. So that helps.”

Donations

With food coming from local grocery stores and Second Harvest, I was curious how regular people could help. As a mom of five, I look for ways to get my kids involved. It’s hard for them to visualize giving when it’s money, so I’ve always thought it better to bring in something tangible, like Campbell’s soup.

“We understand that, so we encourage toiletries,” Hughes said. “We’ve made it a priority this year that we’re going to spend more money on laundry detergent, things like that… Our priority is food obviously, but toiletries are usually the first thing to go. People have to wash their clothes, their dishes. And we have pet food as well.”

Thanks to one of their volunteers with connections, Purina donates a lot of FIN’s pet food.

Hughes adds, “We can buy food way cheaper. People always want to donate food… but we can buy ten times more food with a dollar because we buy from Second Harvest. We also get surplus and government subsidy stuff free.”

This led us to one of the main problems a food shelf faces with random donations: “When people donate their food, they clean out their cupboard, and it’s expired. So we have to sort through it and throw half away.”

(I hate to admit it, but I’ve been guilty of doing this myself. So it’s a lesson I’m learning alongside my kids—Sacrifice means it costs me something. Otherwise, it’s not really a sacrifice.)

“If there’s expired food, we make our clients aware.”

I’d seen the carts of expired food (pictured left)—boxes of Life cereal, salad dressing, caramel corn, chips, cookies. Clients are free to take whatever they’ll use from those carts, knowing those products are past the date printed on the package.

“But the canned foods on the shelf—we make sure those aren’t expired.” Then she adds, “and we rotate stock.” 

Order and Organization

Since transitioning to the new building, FIN has undergone a lot of changes. In the past, clients placed an order which would be filled by a volunteer in the backroom. The clients were then handed a grocery bag filled with items they may or may not use.

In the new building with a well-planned layout, clients experience a grocery store layout and choose their own products, shopping with grocery carts.

But FIN tackled a bigger problem with their simple, color-coded system. Previously, every family received the same amount of food, regardless of family size family. As Bill Winter, a volunteer, explained, “We found out that the bigger families were getting short-changed.” 

To remedy this, FIN placed cards on the top shelf with colored rectangles next to each number, representing the number of family members.

Hughes explains: “It’s color-coded based on how many people are in your family. So if you have one or two members in your family… you have two cans of this or two cans of that.” The color and number of cans changes based on how many are in the family. This system ensures that a larger family’s needs are met the same as smaller families or individuals.

Now each family gets their fair share, and the cards change some weeks, depending on surplus.

Hughes explains, “The tuna and chicken is expensive. We usually have to buy it. But now we’ve got all this rescue stuff where we’ve got a ton of milk, so we’ll change the cards. This week we have double the eggs. We don’t pay for them, so clients can take more.”

Clients

As we talked, I wanted to know more about who FIN serves.

“The primary areas we serve are Cottage Grove, Newport, St. Paul Park, and Grey Cloud Island,” Hughes said. “So any extras we provide, we’ll only provide to those people who live in those areas, like rides, deliveries, our Christmas and Thanksgiving programs, all that. But anyone else, we have to serve them because it’s government food. We can’t turn anyone away.”

But out of respect, clients are kept confidential to protect their privacy.

“Most food shelves, you can only come once a month, but we allow people to come every other week. It’s just they can only get items like laundry detergent once a month. They can come twice a month for food. And a lot of food shelves don’t allow that.”

“So how many people do you serve here?” I asked.

“We track the actual number of people, and we break it up by age. We have to report to Second Harvest for all this because we get government surplus food. We have people who come in, and they have to sign a form based on income eligibility. It’s 200% of the poverty level. 200%--if you get government stuff, they have to self-declare.

“Last month we saw 594 families. Now some of them were repeat people… Some could have been there twice. Some-once. So a total of 2,222 people came in January alone.”

“You’re saying it’s important to count clients,” I asked, “rather than note whether or not they’re repeated so that the food shelf knows how many they’re serving total?”

“Yes,” Hughes said. “And we also have a statistic for ‘Unique’ which means it’s their first time here, and we have on forms they fill out if this is the first time they’ve been here this month. Then we know how many forms were ‘Subsequent’—or repeated.”

Government Role

As we talked, our conversation turned to the government’s role at this food shelf.

“They just oversee,” she said. “Since we get our stuff from Second Harvest, we have to go by Second Harvest’s guidelines—we have to legally serve anyone who wants to come here, no matter where they’re from..

The government is “kind of like the food bank that says ‘we’re paying farmers for oranges for trade mitigation to prop up their processing from them.’ Because of the trade war with China, we’ve gotten a lot from that. The government will buy from farmers and then give it to food banks.”

This is where The Emergency Food Assistance Program, or TEFAP, comes in.

“If we transport other food—like food from LeeAnn Chins—we have to check our coolers, and we have thermometers, and we have to keep records so that if they come in and we get inspectors or anything, we have to prove that we’ve kept everything at temperature so that nothing goes bad. It’s just general food safety—like any grocery store would do.”

I thought about the frozen pizza I’d seen back in the walk-in cooler. The pizza—slightly thawed—had to be tossed because no one knew how long it had been sitting out.

“And everything has to be labeled because Minnesota has guidelines, even for the labeling of eggs. So we have to make sure they’re individually labeled or a sign saying these are the dates on the eggs. Like any regular food source or industry—just keeping regular food service labeling or keeping food safe, all that regulation—we can be inspected at any time.”

Interconnected Community

All while we talked, I knew a full crew of volunteers worked in the back, checking expiration dates, throwing out rotten grapes, drooping celery, limp broccoli. At FIN, volunteers keep only food they themselves would eat.

So we talked of these volunteers, mostly seniors. 

“I see this spark in their eyes,” I said. “They’re excited, and that meets a need—a purpose… With their life experiences, they know good times and bad. They have a heart for those they serve. And what’s cool is that these seniors are still very present, active, and connected within community.”

“Yes, well, Lois is our volunteer coordinator,” Hughes said. “She’s 80-some years old, and she also runs all these trips all over the place—on her own time. And if we need people, she wrangles them in. She knows people…

“And then there’s the lunch. A couple of the ladies volunteer to make lunch for the other volunteers. Once a month we get donuts from Cub, and we get pizza from Carbone’s across the street… This is a social thing. They hang out.”

Full Circle

And that’s the whole point of an organization like Friends in Need.

Not only are they reaching out in community, but they’re doing it in multiple ways:

• Seniors need to know that their life experience and presence is valued. Needed. (But they can't be the only generation helping. Some of those boxes are heavy.)
• FIN’s clients can get extra help, like gas cards or emergency funds, along with information about local resources and job opportunities.
• Busy volunteers, like Tracy Thiede, helps from home. Although she runs a daycare, she uploads a weekly job list to FIN. It’s volunteering made accessible—even if time or money is short.
• Seasonal groups sort food in December during Holiday Train and the Ten Days of Giving.
• Donors can contribute through Second Harvest Heartland’s website at www.2harvest.org.
• Donating $100 to Friends in Need will get you a gold leaf on their tree with your name on it. Check it out at www.finfood.org.

The point is—we can all do something. As we wrapped up the interview, I thanked Hughes and walked away inspired, reminded of that line from Alan Fox’s book, People Tools, “We need to need, and we need to be needed.”[i]

At Friends in Need Foodshelf, that’s what it’s all about—in full circle.

* In addition to St. Paul Park Refining Company, Friends in Need sends a special thanks to Hugh J. Andersen Foundation, Otto Bremer Trust, Andersen Corporate Foundation, 3M Foundation, LSP, Fred C. & Katherine B. Andersen Foundation, Thrivent Financial, Lions and Lioness Clubs, Tennis Sanitation, CP, WalMart, Cub, Supermom’s Bakery, Target, Hy-Vee, Aldi, and the Holiday Train Committee. Thank you for all you do to make Friends in Need the model food shelf that it is today. Their service within the community couldn’t be done without all of you.

[i][i] Fox, Alan C. People Tools: 54 Strategies for Building Relationships, Creating Joy, and Embracing Prosperity. New York: SelectBooks, 2014.