Bemidji Community Food Shelf Awarded $30,000 Grant

The Bemidji Community Food Shelf (BCFS) will now have help picking up food from the North Country Food Bank in Crookston, Minnesota, and other area stores.

The Minnesota Super Bowl Committee awarded the food shelf with a $30,000 grant toward the purchase of a van. The van may allow the food shelf to reach surrounding communities in the future.

The BCFS van will help increase the frequency and amount of food the organization can collect and distribute.

“Northern Beltrami County is considered a food desert with a significant number of residents earning less than 200 percent of the poverty level,” said Mary Mitchell, Executive Director, Bemidji Community Food Shelf. “With the loss of the Sentence to Serve Program, this new vehicle will allow us to continue picking up food from our food bank to continue to provide the people in our county with access to nutritious food.”

BCFS provides nearly 3,000 families each year with emergency food services and nearly half of recipients are children.