From bleak to bright

We have EXCITING NEWS regarding Every Meal’s long-term growth plans and our ability to serve more kids experiencing food insecurity in the years to come.

A hub and spoke model

Back in March of this year, we shared the growth opportunities and challenges we’re facing. More specifically, we highlighted the current limitations of our facility to feed the many more thousands of kids in Minnesota who don’t have enough food on the weekends and our bold solution to keep our work going and growing. Using a hub and spoke model, our plan includes a facility that will be the central home of Every Meal and serves as the starting point for food distribution. This will allow us to streamline operations, purchase at scale, and increase efficiency. Ultimately, this will increase our ability to feed more children in need.

A bold approach for a bold solution

This vision spurred us into action. Our bold solution needed a bold approach, which meant turning to state funding for the first time in Every Meal’s history. So, we began working with Senator Maye-Quade and Representative Becker-Finn on a Bill – SF2223/HF2546 – to provide Every Meal with a one-time cash investment to help secure a building that could serve as our main food distribution hub. We asked our community to contact local legislators to help get our bill passed, which would provide $4 million from the State of Minnesota towards an $8 million distribution hub.

From bleak to bright

Every Meal faced an uphill battle and the prospects of securing the funding seemed rather bleak. In a bright turn of events, in early June we learned that our request for $4 million dollars for our facility needs was approved! These funds are specifically allocated for the purchase of a larger facility and need to be matched with an additional $4 million dollars of our own fundraising efforts. We are not allowed to use the state funds to purchase food or any other purpose other than purchasing a building. We are actively working on plans to match these funds philanthropically and are dedicated to securing the necessary resources to continue our vision of making sure every child has every meal in our new and improved facility.

What happens next?

Soon, we’ll learn more about how the funding gets designated and released. As we get further into this process we remain hopeful. If you’d like more details and be one of the first to know as things progress, please make sure to sign up here to get the insider scoop on our plans.

In the meantime, the community’s continued support remains critical. Five family foundations have stepped up to declare that it’s not OK that kids in our community are hungry and offer a $1 million match.  All one-time gifts are currently being matched dollar-for-dollar and monthly donations are matched 2-to-1, tripling your impact. Meeting this match means supporting our summer programs and preparing us for a successful start to the new school year. We anticipate the need for weekend food support to remain significantly high. Donate today to help us unlock the full match so we can continue changing the story of child hunger in Minnesota!