20,000 Meals – 20 Tons of Food Every Month
May 1st Update: Demand has significantly increased in last since end of March.
We have gone from 500 meals a week at the end of March to now providing over 5,000 meals a week with Involve MN. Over 2,000 meals and 20 tons of groceries are prepared and distributed from Source’s community center.
Established in 1987, the mission of Source MN Urban Outreach and Anti-Trafficking is to bring hope and opportunity to the at-risk and unreached. These include victims of homelessness, addictions, trafficking and poverty. For this population, COVID-19 has forced shelters, drop in centers, service providers and public access to critical needs to shut down, become limited or stretched beyond their capabilities. In response to the urgent need, Source is increasing our food outreach 20-fold. We are partnering with Involve MN and Fruit of the Vine to provide 10,000 meals and 10 tons of food monthly (and we hope to have the capability to do more to meet the demand).
Food Outreach has Increased 20 fold in a Few Weeks
The best way you can help right now is through a financial donation to Source MN. In the past, our weekly meal and bi-weekly food shelf would serve 150-200 meals and over 2,000 lbs of food each month in the neighborhood of our community center. We are expanding to help meet the need through the whole city. We are partnering with Involve MN and Fruit of the Vine to resource, prepare and distribute 20,000 meals and 20 tons of food. We are providing 1) To-Go Hot meals at our front door, 2) homeless street outreach 3) meals to Women’s and Homeless Youth Shelters and 4) Groceries at our Food Shelf. The Minneapolis Police Department have also asked us to deliver groceries to doorsteps of COVID-19 positive residents that do not have resources to get food.
Source Food Distribution: To-Go Meals & Food Shelf at the Fallout
How to Help
$16,000 of new unbudgeted monthly expenses
Our increased financial need is $16,000 monthly. These funds were unexpected and were not in our original budget.
Additionally, due to the virus, we must reschedule several of our most well attended fundraising events of the year, resulting in a significant shortfall at a time when we feel called to respond to this most urgent need.
Currently, we are not asking folks to purchase food to donate to our community meal or food shelf. The concerns around this outreach are creating some unstable situations in retail environments and we do not want to add to that. Financial gifts allow us to increase our purchases from food shelf suppliers and The Food Group to supplement our supplies.
THANK YOU!
Food Outreach has Increased 20 fold in a Few Weeks
Food distributed will include:
- To-Go Meals,
- Street Team Distribution,
- Shelter Deliveries, and
- Food Shelf Expansion – we have also been asked to do Residential Deliveries.
In the past, our weekly meal and bi-weekly food shelf would serve 150-200 meals and over 2,000 lbs of food monthly that serves our community center’s direct neighborhood. We are expanding to help meet the need through the whole city. We are partnering with Involve MN and Fruit of the Vine to resource, prepare and distribute 10,000 meals and 10 tons of food. We are daily providing To-Go meals at our front door, delivering.to shelters, and homeless street outreach. The Minneapolis Police Department has asked us to deliver groceries to doorsteps of COVID-19 positive residents that do not have resources to get food.
Here’s the Plan:
Who’s In Need:
The homeless and those in poverty on limited or no assistance including immigrants, the elderly who live on their own and families in section 8 housing. This population often depends upon drop in centers, agencies, service providers and public schools to meet their critical needs. Unfortunately, these have been forced to shut down, making access is no longer available.
How to meet the need:
We continue to offer Hope and Opportunity, being a friend and a voice to those in need.
- HOPE: Be Available – Being a friend and providing ways to stay connected during times of uncertainty when much of our society is panicking. Our Resource/Prayer Line (612-822-5200, Ex 704) offers someone to talk to, set up food deliveries, offer prayer and do what we can to meet needs.
- OPPORTUNITY: Provide food – Meeting critical needs directly from the Fallout and helping supply shelters and service providers.
Meals: Meals To-Go from the Fallout UAC
Shelters: Delivering meals to Mens and Womens Shelters
Street Distribution: Handing out meals at key locations
Food Shelf: Expanding from serving 80 to over 400 families monthly from the Fallout UAC
Funding: $16,000 of monthly unbudgeted (unplanned) expenses
If we are to be able to sustain this response for any amount of time, we need the funding. This will allow us to continue to purchase the food and resource to meet the needs for so many.
20,000 Meals and 20 Tons of Food
How is an expansion from monthly serving 150-200 meals and 2 tons of groceries to 10,000 meals and 10 tons of food possible?
- Extreme Caution to limit exposure
- Dedicated and flexible staff
- Ideal location
- Newly remodeled facility
- Experience with service providers and shelters
- Established partnerships with Law Enforcement and Food NPO’s
- Network of supporters for prayer and funding
Extreme Caution
We are taking extreme caution to not put our neighbors, volunteers, and staff in danger by taking recommendations from the MN 
Department of Health and food shelf advisors. The Fallout building is closed to the public, TO-GO meals and Food Shelf groceries are available on the doorstep, we are facilitating social distancing on sidewalks when lines form, building is limited to 10 staff/volunteers at any one time, staff/volunteers participate in social distancing during food prep, cleaning is done daily and after every food prep or give away and no staff/volunteers are allowed to be present if they have displayed any symptoms.
Location
The Fallout Urban Art Center was established in 2001 and is the Source community center – hub of outreach. For nearly 20 years, Source has established the Fallout as a community center to meet the diverse needs and be a light to the at-risk and unreached. Located on the edge of downtown amongst the diversity of 1) Poverty: 4 shelters within 4 blocks & a large number of Section 8 housing, 2) over 100 languages spoken within 1.5 miles and 3) across the street from the Mpls Institute of Arts. The Fallout is also located in a “food desert,” an area of the city that is the most difficult and has limited access to grocery stores or food shelves.
Law Enforcement Partnerships
Source has also established trust and relationships with local police. Source anti-trafficking worked with local and national law enforcement as the Victim Resource Coordinators and ran an emergency women’s shelter during Super Bowl 52. Our ongoing law enforcement relationships and partnerships that also include referrals for homeless youth, marginalized, and trafficking victims allows Source to be a trusted resource for the city. We have been asked to be a resource to get groceries to COVID19 confirmed positive homes and vulnerable individuals that are unable to get food delivered to their homes.
Experience with Service Providers and Shelters
Source has more than 25 years of experience working with the at-risk and unreached. Homeless youth and adult outreach assisted with local shelters, drop-ins, and food shelves. Our Transitional Homes have been a resource for safe houses, shelters, and urban treatment centers. The history of being part of the urban landscape has developed trust and has allowed us to come along side and given us access to reach this population.
Our COVID-19 Response Partners – Food Non Profit Organizations
- Involve MN:
started with the vision of 10,000 meals in 6 weeks that we have partnered with. The need has quickly expanded to a monthly (vs. every 6 weeks). We will be resourcing, prepping, and distributing over 3,000 meals, bag lunches, and homeless snack bags as of the third week of April, with over 1,000 prepped at the Fallout Urban Art Center. Minneapolis Police Lieutenant Grant Snyder and his wife Melanie Snyder of Involve MN have worked with us for years. We have committed to raising $10,000 for food prepped at Involve MN.
- Fruit of the Vine (FOTV) and Lavinia Vineyard Churches:
have been partners with Source, supplying food for our food shelf for 15 years. Located in Burnsville, FOTV has run one of the largest food shelves in the state. The Lavinia St. Paul location saw an incredible demand at the end of March. They will not only supply food but also volunteers to help with our Latino guests.
Newly remodeled Facility:
Our final building inspection was signed off at the beginning of March. We completed our third phase after three years of renovations that included kitchen, community room, ADA bathrooms, front windows, food storage and fire doors. As the COVID-19 building restrictions of gathering size were rolled out in March, our first response was disappointment. We just increased the occupancy capacity to our building but now we cannot have anyone come into the building. We now see that the renovations were finished just in time for us to expand weekly meals and groceries to meet the needs during this crisis.
