Second Harvest Heartland ~ Agency Zone

Food Outreach Program

Second Harvest Heartland is piloting a program that will increase the amount of supplemental food provided in a community.

 
In a perfect world, every agency would be able to meet all of the needs of the hungry in their community. However, time, staff, volunteer help, space, money and sometimes client pride impede on that perfect world. Second Harvest Heartland’s new mobile food distribution program, which we are calling “Food Outreach”, allows an agency or a community to set many of these factors aside and get up to 30,000 pounds of food to approximately 350-400 needy families in a matter of only a few hours!
 
The “Food Outreach” distribution takes place in a community through a host organization that provides the location, equipment and volunteers. Second Harvest Heartland provides transportation of a semi-load of food (approximately 30,000 pounds or 24 pallets) for a nominal fee of $500 which is raised in the community and paid by the host. Food Outreach hosts vary and can be any organization within a community, whether they are nonprofit or not. Currently, most of our hosts are churches, although service clubs or our current partner agencies are welcome to host a distribution. The most important criteria are eagerness and a desire to help feed people in need.
 
Please refer to the Frequently Asked Questions for more information about the program.  Questions or inquiries can be directed to Pat Pearson at 651.209.7964 or ppearson@2harvest.org or Wendy Ogren at 651.209.7910 or wogren@2harvest.org.
 

Information for current or prospective hosts:

The Food Outreach Distribution Guidelines give specific information about how to run the distribution including space requirements, volunteers & equipment needed, etc. 

Host sites may use the following template flier to promote the distribution.  All fliers or other publications regarding the Food Outreach distribution must include Second Harvest Heartland's logo and the program name "Second Harvest Food Outreach".  Every effort should be made to include local food shelves in promoting or even participating in the distribution.  To find the food shelves in your county, visit http://mnhungerpartners.org/.

All participants receiving food/products through the Food Outreach distribution must complete a registration form.  The form is available in English and Spanish.  The host site then compiles the information and reports back to Second Harvest Heartland.  Information can be compiled by downloading the Food Outreach Program Access Database (you must save the program onto your computer, you cannot directly open this link).  Please email the summary page to agencies@2harvest.org within 10 days of your distribution.

Some products provided at a distribution may be past date.  Code dates (use by, etc.) are designed as guidelines for freshness and peak quality.  They are never indicators of food safety.  Other considerations such as how a product is packaged and stored are equally, if not more, important when assessing freshness, quality and safety.  Distribution sites may copy and distribute our fliers that explain the typical lifespan of different products past the date on the package.

All host sites sign a Memorandum of Understanding so that Second Harvest Heartland's and the host site's contributions are clearly understood.