The MPCA has announced 13 grant recipients that will receive a total of nearly $4.8 million for projects that will keep good food from going to waste in Minnesota. These statewide efforts — which include a 300% capacity increase for a food bank in northern Minnesota — will reduce waste and overall greenhouse gas emissions while diverting usable food to people in need.
Of all the food Minnesotans throw out, over 95% could be diverted from the landfill and about 46% could have been eaten or donated, according to an MPCA-commissioned study of solid waste in 2019 and 2020. Growing, raising, processing, and delivering food also uses resources such as water, land, fuel, packaging materials, and more. These processes also contribute to air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. When food spoils or is thrown away before we eat it, everything that goes into creating the food is wasted. The wasted food also takes up space in landfills and releases greenhouse gases as it decomposes rather than nourishing people or alleviating food insecurity.
“Preventing wasted food has a positive economic, environmental, and social impact,” said Cristina Villella, the administrator for the MPCA’s prevention of wasted food and food rescue grant program. “We’re excited to help fund so many projects across the state that are committed to these efforts in their communities.”
Feeding those in need
Second Harvest Northland in Duluth is one recipient committed to addressing both the environmental and social impact of wasted food. Covering 15 counties and over 27,000 square miles in northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin, Second Harvest Northland is the region’s largest and only food bank. To better serve its large coverage area and keep up with the rising post-pandemic demand at food shelves and food banks, Second Harvest Northland used its $1 million award to install a 13,600-square-foot freezer and cooler at its new facility in Duluth.
“This important equipment will support our increased distribution of the top three neighbor-desired foods which also support their good health and nutrition: fresh produce, dairy, and meat/fish/poultry,” said Shaye Moris, the president and CEO of Second Harvest Northland. “In fact, this equipment increased our capacity to rescue and distribute 310% more perishable food for our neighbors in need, helping us move closer to our goal of ending hunger in our region.”
Second Harvest Northland has diverted more than 7.6 million pounds of food from landfills over the last year. That food provided more than 11 million meals to in-need families, children, and seniors. Through this investment and others, its goal is to increase its annual distribution to more than 16 million meals by 2032.
Future funding
The Minnesota Legislature set aside $500,000 per year for the MPCA to distribute as grants to programs intended to prevent wasted food and expand food rescue in Minnesota. The MPCA combined that with one-time funding for a total of nearly $4.8 million in this most recent round of prevention of wasted food and food rescue grants. Additional grants for the prevention of wasted food and food rescue will be available as part of the EPA-funded Climate Pollution Reduction Grant program through the climate-smart food systems grant.
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Grant recipients
Saint Paul Public Schools
- Grant award: $924,218
- Project cost: $1,571,713
Saint Paul Public Schools will address the pressing issues of food waste and local food insecurity in all 65 of its schools by focusing on two strategies: 1) making food recovery a part of the culture by creating an internal system of reliable, safe, and measured food recovery, and 2) preventing food waste by developing systems and procedures to track waste against goals that inform staff training needs. Successful implementation of this plan will save a projected 142,000 pounds of food from the compost pile.
Southern Anoka Community Assistance (SACA) Food Shelf
- Grant award: $100,801
- Project cost: $126,075
In 2025, SACA Food Shelf will relocate to a new building, where it expects to serve almost twice as many food shelf clients. This grant funding will complement this move and will expand the food shelf’s capacity to rescue, sort, and store food at its new location. SACA’s capacity-building project will focus on building new relationships with food retailers and outfitting the food rescue space in their new building, ultimately preventing an anticipated 766,659 pounds of food from going to a landfill while having a positive impact on the health and well-being of an anticipated 16,500 new clients.
Keystone Community Services
- Grant award: $309,961
- Project cost: $387,511
The Keystone Food Rescue Project will develop and sustain Keystone’s capacity to rescue and distribute 1.2 million pounds of food each year in Ramsey County. Key elements of the work include securing equipment and staffing, completing routes to collect food rescue and bring it to the Keystone Community Food Center, distributing rescued food, and documenting pounds of food rescued.
Neighborhood House Association
- Grant award: $165,139
- Project cost: $207,039
Neighborhood House plans to add a walk-in cooler in the Wellstone Center Food Market in Saint Paul. The cooler will increase storage capacity from 200 cubic feet of portable refrigeration at this location to approximately 1,350 cubic feet, enabling bulk produce to be stored in proper conditions, resulting in extended shelf life. Support for food-rescue activities would expand with a new partnership with Twin Cities Food Justice. With the addition of the new walk-in cooler, Neighborhood House can reduce food waste by roughly 15% and avoid discarding over 20,000 pounds of fresh produce per year.
Sharing Our Roots
- Grant award: $414,402
- Project cost: $518,003
Sharing Our Roots will provide a holistic approach to food waste reduction by strengthening an equitable hyper-local food system and providing long-term shared infrastructure and training opportunities for the growing farmer cohort at the Sharing Our Roots Farm just outside of Northfield. This project will provide infrastructure for immigrant and emerging farmers at Sharing Our Roots to properly wash, handle, and store produce, and will provide farmers with crop planning and field design knowledge.
Christian Cupboard Emergency Food Shelf, DBA Open Cupboard/Today’s Harvest
- Grant award: $222,489
- Project cost: $342,867
Open Cupboard in Oakdale and Maplewood plans to refine its operational model, improving the flow of food and increasing the amount of food rescued from local partners. This will result in the rescue, sorting, and distribution of more than 5 million pounds of food that would otherwise have gone into the waste stream. Open Cupboard will also host more than 200 people from at least 25 hunger relief agencies to learn about the Today’s Harvest food rescue model through site tours, training sessions, and tools, resulting in operational changes at food shelves that support increased distribution of rescued food.
Catholic Charities of the Diocese of St. Cloud
- Grant award: $75,000
- Project cost: $94,365
Catholic Charities of the Diocese of St. Cloud will purchase a new food rescue truck at dock-level height that will allow them to partner with additional grocers, restaurants, and other food establishments to reduce food waste in central Minnesota. The goal is for the additional partners to increase food rescue volume by an additional 156,000 pounds per year. Completion of this project will assist in better meeting the increasing need for food resources within the community to help ensure that no one goes hungry.
Twin Cities Food Justice
- Grant award: $184,229
- Project cost: $244,537
Twin Cities Food Justice (TCFJ) plans to dedicate time and funding to several food rescue program components and disseminate educational materials regarding food waste reduction to the public and its partners. TCFJ will address food safety issues relating to expanding its food service and catering rescue efforts by purchasing necessary equipment. It also plans to expand the number of farmers markets and farmers it purchases unused products from. TCFJ also plans to fully implement and continue its Produce Preservation Program piloted in 2024 to preserve more varieties of produce for winter distribution. Through these efforts, TCFJ expects to increase the amount of food it rescues and provides at no cost to its partners by 30%, reducing the amount of food wasted by 63,000 pounds over its current annual rescue rate of 210,000 pounds.
Second Harvest Northland
- Grant award: $1 million
- Project cost: $1.2 million
Second Harvest Northland, which serves northeast Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin, will purchase a carbon dioxide refrigeration rack for the 13,600-square-foot freezer/cooler space at the new Second Harvest Northland facility in Duluth, increasing its capacity by 310%. This purchase will allow new storage capacity, a critical component in the overall effort to increase food rescue, and help prevent food waste in the northern Minnesota and Wisconsin communities that it serves. It is expected that the capacity increase will provide a 60% increase in overall distribution capabilities. The freezer/cooler will be able to accommodate 117,600 pounds of rescued food in refrigerated storage space and will allow Second Harvest Northland to increase rescue by at least 250,650 pounds per year.
Northfield Community Action Center
- Grant award: $105,000
- Project cost: $132,040
Northfield Community Action Center (CAC) will expand food rescue capacity at its Faribault and Northfield program locations. For its Faribault programming, it will purchase and install a cooler/freezer that increases the amount of food that can be rescued and stored. It will install pallet-sized doors on the cooler/freezers at their Faribault and Northfield locations, allowing staff and volunteers to stock and distribute refrigerated goods more efficiently. To further expand food rescue storage at its Northfield location, CAC will keep the same refrigeration units while bumping out one wall to increase the units’ overall area. Through these efforts, CAC will double its storage and food rescue capacity in Faribault and increase its Northfield storage and rescue capacity by 60%. With increased cooler/freezer storage capacity, CAC expects that it could increase its food rescue intake by around 30%.
Coon Rapids United Methodist Church
- Grant award: $91,325
- Project cost: $509,359
Coon Rapids United Methodist Church plans to hire a project manager to coordinate its Spirit of Matthew 25 project, which rescues surplus food and provides it to those in need. The addition of a project manager will allow the church to do the necessary research and work to expand the food network to include additional entities. The project manager will coordinate and manage volunteers, allowing the church to be more strategic in volunteer training, leading to enhanced efficiency and improved results. The reimbursement of volunteers for mileage when they pick up rescued food will be essential to keep and recruit volunteers.
Central Lakes College
- Grant award: $303,075
- Project cost: $382,641
By hiring a food rescue coordinator, Central Lakes College Food Pantry in Brainerd will be able to continue operations and, more importantly, engage in opportunities to rescue even more food in the area. Central Lakes College Food Pantry’s model has proven that it can provide food to all corners of Crow Wing County by sharing rescued food among eight food shelves that are working together to eliminate hunger in the area. Based upon conversations with Feeding America and local establishments, a food rescue coordinator will assist with an increase in rescue to more than 100,000 pounds per year.
The Good Acre
- Grant award: $902,927
- Project cost: $1,128,746
The Good Acre (TGA), Minnesota’s largest nonprofit food hub, will use this funding to help address food waste and promote equity in the food system through its Local Emergency Assistance Farmer Fund program. TGA will rescue at least 600,000 pounds of produce from farmers to be redirected to hunger relief partners, equating to $750,000 in revenue to farmers of color and providing opportunities for long-term financial sustainability. Every participating farmer will receive technical assistance related to production, supporting the creation of efficiencies in their planning and leading to a reduction in the amount of food waste generated on farms. This funding will also support a pilot spoke-to-hub model with TGA’s partners that will create greater efficiencies for farmers and TGA operations. More food will be kept in the community it’s grown in by streamlining the dispersal of the food and providing coordinated technical assistance to farmers, focusing on TGA’s established wholesale standards.