Remember Minneapolis – 2022 is a Rebuilding Year

2022 Summary:

• Food Shelf Serves 11,493 people ($847,000 food relief & 490,000 lbs of food) in 1st quarter of 2022.
• Serving 18x more people and 50 times more food since 2020.
• Food Cost Increase 7x
• 1st Time Commitments, Homeless Youth Rainbow Outreach, Alpha & Food Shelf 
• New Programs Begin: Shuttling the Car-less, Neighborhood Pop-Ups, Meal Program, Healthy Cooking Classes & Packing Program
• Women’s Drop-In: Resources, Support & Encouragement
• Homeless Encampment Season is here – Outreach Teams
• Latino Family Outreach – ESL, Pastoral Calls and Zooming from Columbia, Lopez Family preparing to move to Mpls this summer
• Residential and Support Living: Middle East Refugee Housing (2 Families), women in out-patient, and single moms
• This summer: Teen Leadership Interns, Trainings & Internships
• Ukraine Medical Supply Trip (May) & Hosting Ukraine Youth Soccer MN Tour (July) 

Remember Minneapolis

2022 is a Significant Rebuild, Recovery & Rehab Year

Don’t Forget the Poorest of the Poor

Historically the neighborhoods that have been hit by riots have never recovered. Minneapolis continues to have the fewest officers per capita in the nation. Crime and violence remain at record highs, with skyrocketing inflation and continuing pandemic challenges.

Source Programs Rise to Meet Increased Need

Every week we meet new families in need. The first quarter numbers of ’20-’22 do not just reflect the effects of the summer of 2020 but also the last 12 months. We are on pace for $3 Million of relief in ’22. Food relief ($847,000) and people served (11,453) in the 1st quarter has increased over 4x since ’21.

Come help rebuild, restore, and rehab Minneapolis 

Minneapolis will be rebuilding for more than the next decade and this year will be significant.

There are meaningful opportunities this summer at Source that make a difference: come once, weekly, or a few times –Wednesday afternoons 2-5 and our monthly Kmart food give away are our biggest food shelf needs.

Come be part of changing the natural projection of a city recovering from riots – be part of giving to the poorest of the poor, families and youth Opportunity and Hope.

Get Involved

Urban Ministry Training

We are opening up our Urban Ministry Training sessions and outreaches to the public. We want to invite you to come to any of the sessions offered June 4th-11th. The kickoff session is June 4th from 9am-3pm at 3041 4th Ave S, Minneapolis. You will be hearing from Kristin D’Arpa from Kingdom Culture School of Ministry and Peter Wohler, Executive Director of Source MN. The following sessions are June 7th-10th at 2601 2nd Ave, Minneapolis.  

Sessions will include: 

• How to Effectively Share the Good News of God’s Love and Forgiveness
• Spiritual Warfare 101
• Praying for Strangers
• Lake Street Prayer Walk
• Service Projects for the Poor
• Human Trafficking
• Homeless Youth
• Racial Reconciliation
• Being a Light after 2020
• How to be Smart and Safe in Times of Unrest
• How to Persevere while Reaching out to the Marginalized

For more details including times and locations of all sessions and outreaching, go to sourcemn.org/restore-week-opportunities.

Please email carole [at] sourcemn [dot] org if you have any questions or plan to come.

Food Shelf Serves 11,493 People in 1st Quarter of 2022
Food Cost Goes Up 7x

• The Source MN Food Shelf gave out $847,000 food relief & 490,000 lbs of food in the 1st quarter of 2022.
• 18x more people and 50 times more food since 2020.
• Food cost increased 7 fold.

Many Government Covid programs, that provided a majority of our food & increased assistance to the poor in ’20-’21, have ended. Inflation plus our programs seeing 4x the demand have all led to our cost increasing 7 times compared to ’21. In the first quarter of ’22, Source provided $847,000 of food relief for 11,493 people. That is 50x more food compared to 1st quarter in ’20 and 4x more than the 1st quarter of ’21. We meet new families each week where the parents and children do not know English (something rare before 2020) which most likely means they are new immigrants. From June 2020 to December 2021, we provided over $3 Million of food relief. We are on pace to exceed that total in 2022 alone.

Volunteer & Donate – Please consider making a monthly or summer donation and be part of rebuilding Minneapolis. Thank you for your support and prayers.

Feed you and Pray for you – 1st Time Commitments & Baptism

• 1st Time Commitments, Homeless Youth Rainbow Outreach, Alpha, & Food Shelf 

We are known as the people that feed you and pray for you. The Source Holistic Empowerment model is to 1) Provide physical needs for safety and stability of families and individuals, 2) Voice the hope of God’s love and forgiveness, assuring those in need that God is for them, not against them, and has a plan for a better life, 3) Offer recovery resources for long term independent healthy living that include practical steps along with a community of support and encouragement.

Source Holistic Empowerment

• Physical Needs – today
• Voice Hope – future
• Recovery Resources – tomorrow

The marginalized have little hope and often believe the creator of the universe scorns them. When people lose hope they lose vision and become desperate. Meeting physical needs (food) and showing care allow us to speak hope, encouragement and vision into lives. We offer prayer for those that desire it and we ask permission to explain God’s love and forgiveness. We have seen physical miracles in the food line along with many tears as we ask the simple questions, “How has this last year been for you and how can I prayer for you?” In 2021, we saw 100’s receive prayer and over 300  first-time commitments to receive God’s love and forgiveness – and we are seeing that spiritual fruit continue in 2022 as we have already seen dozens of first time commitments at the food shelf and also through each area of Source outreach.

Homeless Youth Rainbow Outreach – Ocala

Source has worked with Homeless Youth since 1995 and has hosted a national outreach in Florida since 2003. Homeless Youth migrate south each winter to the woods of Ocala, FL to be part of a Rainbow Gathering. Serving 100’s of meals each day, prayer and worship around the campfire, many spiritual conversations, 1st time commitments and baptisms have all been included in the Jesus Camp. Michael, who went by the name Slum Dog, was 21 years old and a traveler (modern-day homeless vagabonds who hitchhike around the country): “Wow that makes a lot of sense, I never heard the Bible explained like that before,” he stated after a conversation about God’s love and forgiveness. Mike’s tattoo’s revealed very dark times in his past. It was an honor to baptize Mike and pray over him for a new chapter in his life to begin. Pray for Mike and our National Outreach Team attending the National Rainbow Gathering in Colorado in June/July.

Alpha in 3 languages

Source was the first group in MN to host an Alpha course in 1996. Alpha is a 10 week intro to the Bible and Christian faith course that includes a meal, video and discussion. “I kept feeling God’s presence on me even after I left and it kept me awake into the night!” Through Alpha we have seen first time commitments including several of our Vietnamese refugee neighbors. Some of them have been in Minneapolis 45 years and still do not know English as they tend to be very isolated. Alpha is used by every denomination and is in almost every country. It was such a joy to see them watch the videos and respond after we have interacted for over 20 years as they live on the same block as the Fallout Urban Art Center.

Poorest of the Poor: New Programs Begin

• Shuttling the Car-less, Neighborhood Pop-Ups, Meal Program, Healthy Cooking Classes & Packing Program

One third of our food shelf recipients come on foot. This is not common for food shelves as most only offer drive up. Source is located in the neighborhoods that are in the greatest need. We offer 100-150 lbs of groceries each visit, up to $250 per individual. Those with vehicles a few blocks away will drive because of the challenge to carry these groceries home. However, for those without a vehicle, the poorest of the poor, it is a challenge. Many are also disabled and elderly. We have many that are not on government assistance programs. One elderly man told us, “thank you, I really appreciate this, I live off of $103 each month after my rent is paid. You have no idea what this means.” 

In 2022, we are beginning Food And Community Engagement (FACE) programs focusing on helping the poorest of the poor. Our new shuttle bus will allow us to shuttle people home and deliver groceries to those without vehicles and the disabled. The bus also allows us to do Neighborhood Pop-Ups (groceries and meals): we are partnering with area local churches and community centers throughout the 10 square miles of south Mpls and north Mpls  in order to make food more accessible. Our partners promote spreading the word to their own neighbors (as we don’t want to see only our regulars repeat, but also reach others in need), and their congregations provide volunteers to interact with the recipients. We have already been to Little Earth twice this spring. Little Earth is a native American community that is notorious for the high levels of crime, addictions and domestic abuse. It is also hard for faith-based groups to have an impact because of the walls and past reputations. We had music and kid’s games, along with our groceries and meals. We had staff and volunteers carry 1,000’s of lbs of groceries to the “elders” homes in a 3 block radius. There were lots of smiles and welcomes when we returned for the second time. Little Earth is less than 1.5 miles straight down 26th St from the Fallout. However, even though the need is great and we are the closest food shelf, no one we met had been to our food shelf last year. Our Pop-Ups this summer will also include George Floyd square which remains a significant neighborhood of need.

Meal Program, Healthy Cooking Classes & Packing Program

Eating healthy from food stamps and the food shelf is the theme of our FACE meals. Our commercial kitchen is complete. We are partnering with area restaurants, empowering the poor to eat healthy and providing healthy meals to the homeless. This is a Win-Win-Win. Our packing program allows us to bless recipients that come and volunteer for 2 hours (we need the help each week) with a Target gift card.It allows us to treat people with dignity as they give back to the food shelf (a 4th Win).

Women’s Drop-In: Resources, Support & Encouragement

Women victimization increases with record homelessness, crime and violence. Pray for the women that are caught in addictions, controlled by others and have no hope to getting out and staying out. Pray also for our Homeless Outreach female staff as they are always looking for females in encampments. Making contact, gaining trust and building a trustworthy relationship is key for women getting out but it is also a large challenge.

The Women’s Drop-In reflects Source Holistic Empowerment.  Women can get 1) physical needs for safety and stability for today, the immediate need 2) meet staff that are supportive and encouraging, not judging, who also voice that they have worth and value along with the hope of God’s love and forgiveness. That God is for you, not against you and has a plan for a better life and 3) offer recovery resources and case workers for the practical steps of getting out and overcoming, resulting in long term independent healthy living that includes practical steps along with a community of support and encouragement.

The Drop-In Center includes hygiene products, laundry, a meal and a place to rest (take a nap), All of these are essential to vulnerable women living on the street. A great majority of women who are homeless are vulnerable and/or victims of abuse and trafficking. Women’s drop-in is ideal for our teams to offer as a follow up when individuals are ready for more.

2022: Recovery Resources and Nurturing Growth