Hunger Solutions Minnesota

Food shelf capacity - to end Hunger in Minnesota, we need a strong, responsive emergency food system. Hunger Solutions Minnesota works to build food shelf capacity so food shelves in our state are best able to meet the needs of their local communities. In 2023, Hunger Solutions Minnesota, in partnership with the Minnesota department of human services, distributed more than $4.25 million in grants to over 273 food shelves across the state. These grant allowed food shelves the funding they need to keep food on their shelves and the resources they need to be able to serve their communities.

Advocacy - serving as the anti-hunger community's leading voice with law makers, we champion ending Hunger through public policy intervention and systemic change. Key public policies that were passed in 2023 included the passing of universal school meals in Minnesota, a raise to the gross income eligibility limit for snap, increased funding for the emergency food system and more.

Snap outreach - the supplemental nutrition assistance program (snap) is the largest federal nutrition assistance program, supplementing the food budgets of over 400,000 low-income households in Minnesota. The program serves as the first line of defense against Hunger, for every meal provided by the network of food banks and food shelves, snap provides nine meals. Hunger Solutions Minnesota's snap outreach efforts connect people to the snap program and to local food resources through the Minnesota food helpline, market bucks and snap rx. In 2023, the Minnesota food helpline answered 15,456 calls for help.