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Make Hunger History, a plan initiated by Second Harvest Heartland and supported by Channel One Regional Food Bank, among other statewide partners, offers a bold goal to cut hunger in half for all Minnesotans by 2030.

The Make Hunger History initiative, similar to Austin’s own Hometown Food Security Project, which was launched in 2022, will unite communities, policymakers, and business leaders to  reduce hunger today by increasing access to emergency food and prevent hunger tomorrow through  policy and partnerships, tracking shared progress along the way.

Minnesotans visited food shelves a record seven million times in 2023, a clear indicator of the rising need  in the state and the result of sky-high grocery, gas and utility prices coupled with the expiration of  pandemic-era emergency relief programs.

Channel One Regional Food Bank and Second Harvest  Heartland, along with an extensive network of local food shelves and hunger relief partners, is challenging community leaders to find the necessary urgency and creativity to tackle the issue of hunger  once and for all.

“We have long been asking questions of how to reinvent food banking to meet the increase in need and  believe this is our answer,” said Virginia Witherspoon Merritt, Channel One Regional Food Bank  executive director. “We will rely on lawmakers, hunger relief partners, and our communities to help us  rise to the occasion to end the status quo of food insecurity with this impactful statewide collaboration.”

To make hunger history, the Make Hunger History partners will work with neighbors to:

• Power up partnerships to get more of the right food, right where it’s needed most – with  new mapping capabilities to identify hunger hot spots, new delivery and pick-up methods and  prioritizing in-demand produce and proteins.

• Reimagine the emergency food delivery network to serve more neighbors – the network will  lean into mobile distributions and community identified pick-up sites, increase delivery efficiencies  and keep food local whenever possible.

• Make hunger less common by delivering one-on-one services – Second Harvest Heartland’s  new Care Center team will proactively work with neighbors to find grocery help and connect them  with other economic and social services.

• Increase economic stability across the region through coalition building and policy wins – root causes of hunger like access to affordable housing, transportation and healthcare will be  addressed by a coalition made up of food shelves and other nonprofits, community members and  leaders, creating a shared legislative agenda to ensure every Minnesotan’s basic needs are met.

• Track progress to do more of what’s working, less of what isn’t – with a clear,  measurable goal to reduce Minnesota food shelf visits long-term, Channel One Regional Food  Bank, Second Harvest Heartland, and partners will track progress publicly using new data sets and metrics that allow the food bank to track food insecurity with more accuracy and urgency.

“This is a defining moment in our mission to end hunger,” said Allison O’Toole, CEO of Second Harvest  Heartland. “We’re not settling for short-term fixes anymore. Through new connections, advocacy and  insights, we’re working together towards systemic change and a future where every Minnesotan has the  food they need to thrive.”

Through operational changes, new community partnerships, and active engagement in advocacy and  policy change, Second Harvest Heartland, Channel One Regional Food Bank, and partners are building  on past efforts and leveraging these new connections and insights to Make Hunger History.

Like the Make Hunger History Project, the Hometown Food Security Project (HFSP) aims at bringing individual groups and community organizations together in order to find sustained solutions for food insecurity.

In April of last year, the HFSP held a summit at The Hormel Institute that brought together those interested in being a part of the HFSP. It also began the process of forming action teams to address specific areas of food insecurity.

Learn more at 2harvest.org for advocacy and helpingfeedpeople.org for local  volunteer opportunities.