Minnesota food shelves saw nearly 9 million visits in 2024
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Minnesotans made nearly 9 million visits to the food shelves in 2024, a steady increase in visitation rates since pre-pandemic levels, according to a new report’s findings.
The Food Group, a nonprofit working toward food justice and equity, released the report on Wednesday in partnership with the Department of Children, Youth and Families. Highlights show grocery prices increased by 28 percent over four years.
The same groceries that cost $100 in 2019, according to the report, cost $128 in 2024.
Meanwhile, monthly assistance provided through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP tracked downward. Last year, SNAP recipients had an average of $100 less each month to spend on food in comparison to early 2023, according to the report.
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“While food shelf visits continue to rise statewide, the good news is they aren’t rising as quickly as 2022 and 2023,” said Sophia Lenarz-Coy, executive director of The Food Group. “I applaud Minnesota food shelves for strategically expanding their programming to meet rising need. Tighter safety nets like the state child income tax credit and universal free school meals also make a meaningful difference for families experiencing hunger.”
The report highlighted how many food shelves adapted mobile or other delivery models to help distribute food to make it more accessible to the community.
In Mankato, ECHO Food Shelf saw an uptick in the number of families it serves. ECHO went from assisting 45 families per day during the pandemic to about 130 families per day currently.
Manager Deisy de Leon Esqueda said to meet clients’ needs more quickly, the food shelf continued using curb-side pick-up services, which were initiated during the COVID-19 pandemic. That allowed ECHO to serve more people than their physical space accommodates, reducing wait times for clients to receive food.
“For us to be able to keep serving our community, we just realized that the system that we had used during COVID would just stay in place until our numbers drop,” Esqueda said.
The report shows food shelf visits increased by an average of 18.4 percent between 2023 and 2024 in Minnesota’s 87 counties last year.
Jill Westfall, The Food Group’s statewide food access manager, said the food shelf use increased across all demographics.
“From 2023 to 2024 you can see the number of kids and adults is rising a little faster than the total number of seniors,” Westfall said. “But, we are seeing increases in all three age categories.”
Higher grocery prices were a big factor driving the increase in food shelf use in 2024, according to Westfall.