Filling the Gaps In Hunger Relief, No Matter What

Minneapolis Food Collection Drive, May 31, 2020. All photos courtesy of The Sheridan Story.

In just a few hours they were gone.

On May 28, 2020, any store selling food near the Minneapolis 3rd Police Precinct burned down along with it.

In the wake of unrest related to George Floyd’s death while in police custody, the Cub Foods supermarket, the Target, several small groceries and drug stores, and a gas station had all been destroyed.

Suddenly, the neighborhood was a food desert. Public transit was stopped or coronavirus safety measures limited the number of people allowed on buses, preventing them from getting food from other areas. Thousands of families were left without access to food.

There was an urgent need, and Rob Williams, founder and executive director of the hunger relief nonprofit Every Meal, and his team stepped in to work with community members to address it.

The following day, a Friday, a parent at the nearby Sanford Middle School emailed friends and posted on Facebook with a call for food donations. That call-to-action went viral.

Two days later, in the area surrounding the school there was bumper-to-bumper traffic for 14 blocks, because thousands came to donate and to pick up food.

The desire to help was so strong that not only locals rose to the occasion; there were food donation offers from as far as Houston and Germany.

The planners had at first thought they might get 500 bags of donated food.

Founder/Executive Director Rob Williams.

As Williams and the food drive team received an increasing number of inquiries that weekend, they sought 8,500 bags for distribution.

Williams says: “We ultimately received 29,000 bags of food—18 semi-trucks full of food. We served about 2,000 families that day.”

 Williams and his team took extra food to another distribution site later in the day, and still had more food to share later that week.

 “It was an emotional day to see Minneapolis stepping up,” Williams says. “The community’s response—of people from all different backgrounds bringing food and supplies to people in need from all different backgrounds. And the gratitude from the families receiving the food was palpable.”

 Hunger Doesn’t Take The Weekend Off
Williams began working in hunger relief in 2010. The principal of The Sheridan School in Northeast Minneapolis asked the nearby Mill City Church administrator if something could be done to help students who were hoarding food on Fridays to eat over the weekend.

 Williams was an active member of the church. He offered to help and bought food from a local grocer at cost. At the end of the school week, he brought the food to 27 kindergarten students.

 That was at the end of the spring 2010 term. That fall, he and others began with a more organized effort and by 2013, they were able to offer weekend food supplies to any of the Sheridan School students whose families enrolled in the program.

That year Williams created the Every Meal nonprofit. It was a turning point.

He was a logistics consultant at a corporate firm and his wife was pregnant with their first child, but he had to make a decision.

He knew that in Minnesota alone, there are 200,000 kids with food insecurity.

He says he realized: “Either we’re going to try this in other schools and I’m going to leave my job, or I have to turn my back on the rest of the kids when I think I have a solution.

“I had to try. I couldn’t personally accept that the discomfort or concern over leaving my corporate job was enough to not start this organization. I couldn’t turn my back and not serve and support the kids in my community.”

 The weekend food program work had originally been financed by Mill City Church and Woodbridge Church, where they did fundraisers.

Now Williams says that 98% of Every Meal operations are still funded only by donations. It is not a government-supported nonprofit because The Sheridan Story focuses on food gaps — times when families can’t access food elsewhere. Government programs provide food during school but not on weekends or school breaks.

Before the pandemic hit and Minneapolis schools closed on March 15, the Every Meal weekend program collaborated with 250 schools, serving about 6,500 kids a week. They also had a holiday break program and a summer program with food distribution in 300 locations. They serve 10,000 kids in all of the programs in Minneapolis and western Wisconsin.

The Sheridan Story team distributes food for the weekend.

The weekend food program, which Williams plans to return to, offers five options for families: A general bag of shelf-stable foods including a fruit, vegetable, protein, grain, and a main dish such as soup or chili. They’ve worked with family feedback and community representatives to create three culturally tailored choices dedicated to the local East African, Latinx, and Southeast Asian communities. They also have a mobile/transient option with ready-to-eat foods.

Williams believes making careful food choices is key. “It’s not that helpful to give people food that doesn’t taste good [to them] because they won’t eat it. And if the food tastes good but isn’t nutritious, they might eat it but it won’t benefit them. We buy 98% of the food we give to families. We do taste tests. We have a nutritionist on staff. The food, we say, has to be nutritious and delicious.”

The Risk of Hunger Is Real
When the pandemic hit and schools closed, businesses closed, and everyone at home was unsettled. There was a big strain on families. Food insecurity significantly increased.

Each of the 37 school districts that Williams works with has a government-backed food distribution program. Every Meal transitioned to working with each district rather than the schools, to make sure families get food for weekends as well.

Though food sourcing has gotten more difficult, Every Meal provides 100,000 meals a week, an increase of 400%.

Williams has been building this food gap hunger relief program for ten years, yet even with recent unexpected challenges (or maybe because of them), he remains focused.

“Hunger is solvable,” he says. “It’s pretty straight-forward. The solution to hunger is food. Food insecurity is not a supply problem but a distribution problem.

“Our vision is that every child has every meal and that’s what we work toward every day. It’s difficult to rest knowing that there are tens of thousands of kids who need food and that the only thing standing in the way is funding.

He gets affirmation periodically that he’s on the right path.

Williams shares: “About two years ago, at a school in the St. Paul suburbs, Principal Becky Berkas told me a story: A third grader in her school had behavioral issues. One Friday, when he was acting up more than normal, Principal Berkas had to drive him home. While in her car’s back seat, he saw a granola bar and asked if he could have it. She said yes and he put it in his pocket. When they arrived at his home, she walked him to the door and when it opened, she saw his little brothers and sisters. He broke up the granola bar into six pieces to share with each of them, not keeping any for himself.

Principal Berkas said: ‘I realized how important your program was. They’re dealing with not just the feeling of hunger but also with what’s happening with the family at home…Hunger affects behavior, self-esteem, attentiveness, and physical development. That’s why we need this program.’”

Williams acknowledges that a major motivation for him is the people around him: “I’m really thankful for how much heart my team has for the kids that we serve and that we’re all always trying to do our best.”[]

You can donate to Every Meal here.