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Q & A with Great Plains Food Bank. organization working to fight hunger in Fargo and Moorhead

As we approach the holiday season, we at the High Plains Reader wanted to learn more about efforts to end hunger in our region. The Great Plains Food Bank is the only food bank in North Dakota, as well as in Clay County in Minnesota, and provides food to all of the food pantries in our region. We asked Marsha Paulson, director of marketing and development for the Great Plains Food Bank, about ways you can help them do their job and what exactly they do. Also, if you know someone who is hungry, read on to learn about ways they can get fed.

HPR: First off, why don’t you tell us a little bit about what the Great Plains Food Bank does?

Marsha Paulson: We are the only food bank for the state of North Dakota and Clay County in Minnesota so our role is very unique in the world of hunger relief. Our role is pretty simple too. We recover surplus food from those entities who have it and then get it into the hands of hungry people who need it. We rely greatly on four major partners to do this work.

One, the food industry who generously gives of their product, whether it be growers, manufacturers, retailers, grocery stores, restaurants or hospitals. Those folks that have surplus, nutritious food that was at one point going to waste. And we have over 275 of those types of donors that give to us every year.

Then we rely greatly on our volunteer partnership: about 5,300 volunteers share nearly 20,000 hours a year, and they help us prepare that food once we receive it, whether it’s sorting, packing, assembling or repacking bulk items into smaller quantities so that we can distribute it easier.

Our third partnership is our statewide network of charitable feeding programs -- so this is the food pantries, the emergency shelters, the soup kitchens, the low-income child care centers, the senior meal sites -- agencies that are working with folks who are low income needing emergency food assistance. The food bank supplies about three quarters of the food that these partner agencies distribute to people in need. So we’re a primary source of food support to them.

Then our fourth partnership is our financial partners. We wouldn’t be able to do what we are able to do at the food bank without the private support, a little bit of government support and some grants. Because of all the food donations and volunteers, the Great Plains Food Bank can distribute four meals for every charitable dollar we receive, so it really is an intricate, efficient, effective system. We are just one cog in this big wheel, but a very unique cog.

HPR: What is it you need from the public? Is it volunteer help, food donations or financial donations? What is the best way they can help?

MP: We really rely on people’s generous support in the areas of food contributions. We have the top 10 list of items that are always requested by our food pantry partners and those that we are serving in our service area. So high-protein items, meat, peanut butter, beans, those types of things. Also items that help prepare a full meal -- so pasta, sauces, soups, boxed meals. We always welcome a product that can be put into our backpack program, which helps feed children on the weekends when school is not available: individual items like fruit cups and juices and those kinds of things.

If people want to give their time, it’s extremely valuable. We have volunteer opportunities almost every day of the week, some evening hours, some weekend hours. All ages of volunteers are welcome. We have preschoolers in here doing projects as well as senior groups, businesses and church groups. We can work with groups of up to 25 people at a time, so it really is a great family effort if people are gathering around the holidays but certainly long past the holiday season.

Then financial support is always welcomed. Like I say, we can really make the dollars stretch: 97 percent of every dollar goes right to feeding people. So making those dollars go a long way in our world of food banking certainly helps too. Three different ways to plug in.

When it comes to ending hunger, we always ask people to share their voice too and let people know we are a resource if they know someone who is needing help. Our website has all the pantries across the state that are available. Or if they want to become a hunger advocate, we can have them sign up and be a part of action alerts and taking action at a public policy level.

HPR: Are there any food items that you want people to not bring in?

MP: We do not accept baby food and we can’t take home processed canned items. It has to be prepared in a commercial kitchen and/or a USDA-approved butcher. We can’t have people bringing in venison that they cut up in their garage, but if they send it through a USDA butcher, we are happy to accept that. But those are the only two things.

People wonder if we take pet food, and absolutely we take pet food. There are a lot of folks that are struggling themselves and then they worry about their pets too, and for some seniors in particular, they are going to feed their animal before they feed themselves. So if we can put a little bit of pet food in a food basket that we distribute, we’re happy to do that too.

HPR: What are you seeing with the need in the Fargo area? Obviously it’s a rapidly growing community, thriving but also with a population growing quickly. Are you seeing the need for food supply increasing in the area?

MP: We hear from our partner network that it is serving more people. Last year, the Great Plains Food Bank touched the lives of one in 10 people in our community and statewide we served over 87,000 people. We’re projecting by the end of 2015 to serve over 92,000 people, so about a 5 percent increase over last year. Partly because there’s a greater need but also the charitable feeding network in our community and across the state is much more responsive.

We’re getting more food closer to the people who are needing it -- so the kid’s summer lunch program feeding kids when school’s out, as well as the backpack program and the mobile food pantry program.

Our food pantry partners are becoming much more attuned to the needs of those who are hungry, whether they are providing pop-top cans of food because someone might only have access to a microwave to cook or they don’t have any access to heat products. So they’re getting the food that people can use into their hands.

It’s amazing to me the incredible volunteers that are running so many of the pantries in our community and across the state. They give so much of their time and attention to meeting our needs. We’re very fortunate in the Fargo-Moorhead community because it usually is a one-stop shop. If somebody needs help and they go to a food pantry, they probably are going to get more information about other ways that they can be helped other than food. It’s that wraparound support. So we can be very proud in this community to be part of a network like this.

HPR: Is there anything that you do differently for the holidays -- special meals or anything like that? Obviously it can be a trying time for somebody who is hungry.

MP: As a food bank … from now until the end of the year, we don’t have anything special. We did have some holiday baskets that went out prior to the Thanksgiving holiday on our mobile food pantry. But I know there are typically entities whether it be a hunger charitable feeding program or a church feeding program that steps up during the holidays. I am not sure about the two largest food pantries in town, the Emergency Food Pantry and the Dorothy Day Food Pantry in Moorhead. They might be doing something special with their food baskets they are giving out now, because the last two weeks are for at least Christmas and the New Year’s holiday. EDITOR'S NOTE: We have a list of holiday dinners for the needy at the end of this story. 

HPR: If somebody is hungry, what do you recommend they do?

MP: If they access to internet, we have the comprehensive list of all the pantries and all the programs listed, and most are up to date. If they went to greatplainsfoodbank.org and clicked on the Need Help button, it’s going to take them to that list. It’s by county and there’s a phone number for each of those.

If they don’t have access to the internet, they can certainly give us a call and we can provide a variety of options. Some are open at night, some more are open during the day and some need a referral. So we can help ferret that out a little bit, as to what their needs are and direct them to the most convenient location.

HPR: You mentioned that you are a bank and there are pantries out there. How do you guys differ from the pantry? Is it that you don’t do the actual serving, you are just providing the pantries with help?

MP: In the Fargo-Moorhead community, we are supplying the pantries. Typically outside of that pantry network, we do direct service to children at the schools so they have food to take home during the weekend. We do direct service to kids in the summer ensuring that they’re fed. We do direct service in our mobile program in rural communities that don’t have a pantry, or for senior boxes in communities west of Valley City. So here in the Fargo-Moorhead community, our primary service is to supply pantries, but we do have the backpack program, which serves the people.

HPR: Anything else you wanted to add?

MP: Just that we are extremely grateful to this community. Every time we put the word that there’s a need, this community responds. We’re very proud to be working in it. The Fill The Dome students are a prime example. These young adults are doing amazing things and they raised a record 215,000 pounds of food, which goes right into the shelves of all these pantry partners. So we’re very grateful and thankful that people are willing to step forward and join us in the fight to end hunger.

The Great Plains Food Bank is located at 1720 3rd Ave. N. in Fargo. Their phone number is 701-232-6219, and they are on the web at www.greatplainsfoodbank.org

Food pantries in Fargo and Moorhead:

Emergency Food Pantry is at 1101 4th Ave North in Fargo, their phone number is 701-237-9337 and they are on the web at http://www.emergencyfoodpantry.com/

The Dorothy Day Food Pantry is at 1308 Main Ave in Moorhead, their phone number is 218-284-8895 and they are on the web at http://www.fmddh.org/food-pantry/

Holiday Christmas dinners for the needy and alone in the Fargo and Moorhead:

Churches United For The Homeless at 1901 1st Ave N, Moorhead, will have its usual meal times on Christmas Eve December 24th and Christmas Day December 25th featuring breakfast from 8 to 8:30 am, lunch from 12 Noon to 1 pm and dinner 5:30 to 7 pm.

The Salvation Army at 304 Roberts Street in Fargo, will host a Christmas Eve lunch on December 24th from 11 am to 1 pm.

Olivet Lutheran Church at 1330 University Drive South in Fargo will have a Christmas Eve dinner on December 24th from 6 to 8 pm.

Nativity Catholic Church at 1825 11th Street South in Fargo will host a Christmas Eve dinner on December 24th from 6 to 8 pm.