With Increase in Demand, Bemidji Community Food Shelf Looking for More Volunteers

In 2022, Minnesota saw a new record made of over 5 million visits to food shelves in the state. In 2023, that record was broken again, where 7.5 million visits to food shelves were made by residents.

The number of people seeking help in Bemidji has also shot up dramatically. “The COVID supports had started to go away and then that next month we went from 700 families a month over to over 1,000 families a month,” said Bemidji Community Food Shelf Executive Director Michael Olson. “And that’s been every month since then. So we’re coming up almost on a year now that we’ve seen such an increase.

In 2023, the Bemidji Community Food Shelf had seen a 20% increase in people seeking help, which consisted of 11,000 families and total 37,000 people. Over 900 of those families were new clients.

Volunteers at the food shelf are essential in dealing with the influx in families, and more help is always needed, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic caused volunteer numbers to dwindle. And with the month of March just around the corner, there is also Minnesota FoodShare Month, and area food shelves could use any donations possible.

“The Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches provides a match to all donations that are made to food shelves during March. We really encourage people to take advantage of that,” said Olson. “And given the amount of support that is going out, it’s an important time for us as well to build up our reserves to get us through the next year.

More information on the Bemidji Community Food Shelf and how to become a volunteer can be found on their website.