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Over the last year, our volunteers contributed 17,000 hours of support which helped more than 44,000 children, families, and seniors throughout NE Minnesota and NW Wisconsin get the food they need to live healthy lives.

Ann, one of our 1,200 regional volunteers, has been giving back weekly since retiring as a nurse at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I love it here. All the people at Second Harvest are just such good people and really empathetic towards the neighbors who come here. We all really want to make sure everyone who comes to our food shelf is taken care of. People shouldn’t be in a situation where they don’t have food,” she shares. 

Ann and many other of our regular volunteers share that once they start coming, they keep wanting to give back. Mardy, another wonderful volunteer, shares that she started to volunteer when the pandemic began and saw how people were really hurting.

“I knew volunteering at Second Harvest could directly help people. I’ve met great people here and coming is like a little family,” she shares.

For more than two decades Walmart and Sam’s Club have been strong partners in our work supplying food and financial donations to support families, children, and seniors in our region.

“We’ve had a great partnership with your organization,” shares Tim Sundstrom, Club Manager of Sam’s Club. “We have a lot of good food items that can be reused in our community. Our partnership helps reuse and recycle food that would potentially go to waste just because it is beyond a sell-by date. The food gets to be used to help others.”

In addition to the 1.2 million meals made possible by their local surplus food donations annually, national efforts like the 10th Annual “Fight Hunger. Spark Change.” campaign help feed our neighbors. In fact, your support by rounding up at the register or purchasing specially marked products resulted in nearly 85,000 meals in 2022 alone. We’re grateful to partners like Walmart and Sam’s Club for supporting our Northland neighbors in need.