You may have heard of Minnesota FoodShare’s March Campaign, Minnesota’s largest collective food and fund drive. But did you know that Minnesota FoodShare puts on another food drive later in the year? The Harvest Campaign is focused on getting fresh locally grown produce into food shelves, and in turn into the hands of the Minnesotans who frequent food shelves.
Food shelf clients suffer disproportionately from diet-related health conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity. The Harvest Campaign seeks to address these health disparities by highlighting the healthy food donation efforts of food shelf supporters, elevating the conversation around food access, and increasing the availability of produce and whole foods to food shelf users.
The campaign runs August 1-September 30. It works very similarly to the March Campaign. Congregations and other groups collect fresh produce during this time, bring it to one of the participating food shelves, then report the final numbers as pounds of fresh produce. It is a simple concept that goes a long way for the ones that it impacts.
If you are an interested congregation, food shelf, or just want more information on the Harvest Campaign, visit here.