More Minnesotans turned to food shelves in 2024 than ever before
Last year proved to be a record year for food insecurity in Minnesota, as food shelves set record highs for visits statewide.
Minnesotans made nearly 9 million trips to food shelves, according to The Food Group, a statewide agency that announced its report Wednesday.
The 9 million visits are up 1.4 million from 2023 and are nearly 2.5 times higher than pre-pandemic levels set in 2019.
Visits are up an average of 18.4% across all counties.
"We're in a hunger crisis," Second Harvest Heartland CEO Allison O'Toole said. "This isn't an urban issue, this isn't a rural issue, it's an everywhere issue."
O'Toole says a 2024 study found nearly one in five Minnesota households couldn't afford the food they needed.
In Minnetonka, the issue is the same at ICA Food Shelf, which services about 1,800 families each month.
"We have just seen the food flying off the shelves right now," Erin Wiedenman, ICA's Food Shelf Specialist, said. "When I first started a few years ago, we were booking out like four-to-five days for appointments, now it's close to two weeks pretty consistently."
Wiedenman and O'Toole both point to the rising costs for groceries — which the Food Group study reports increased by an average of 28% per trip.
"People's grocery bills have gone up that it's just not affordable for people," Wiedenman said. "I honestly believe anyone could need (help) at any time — that's why we're here. We're here to help anyone that needs help at any time — that could be any one of us."
O'Toole says she's increasingly concerned about potential cuts to SNAP benefits nationwide — as the US House passed forward spending cuts Tuesday.
"These cuts and these proposals worry me. I hope that they worry everyone," O'Toole said. "The policies put in place, if there are cuts to those, it just turns a crisis into a catastrophe."
