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   The mission of the Longville Area Food Shelf is to involve our communities to end hunger. We are grateful that our community helps us to fulfill this mission every day through donations, volunteerism, and shopping at our thrift store, The Tossed & Found Boutique. The Tossed & Found exists because of the food shelf, and the food shelf provides many wonderful services because of the Tossed & Found Boutique.

   Second Harvest Northland of Duluth is the food bank that services the Longville Area Food Shelf. Second Harvest receives donations and purchases food and other items from various sources then sells and distributes those items to over 200 local food shelves, plus school pantries and mobile pop-ups in north and north central Minnesota and parts of Wisconsin. While it is important to support our food bank, it is also important to support our local food shelf. Donations to the Longville Area Food Shelf are used to benefit folks in our community, which helps us in our battle to end hunger and food insecurity locally.

   In 2022 The Longville Area Food Shelf, guided by the University of Minnesota Extension Health and Nutrition Team, was transformed into a Super Shelf. What does this mean? It means we are committed to providing a welcoming and dignified shopping experience and providing healthier foods in a grocery store atmosphere. In other words, we strive to consistently provide not only shelf stable food, but also fresh fruits, vegetables, dairy, and a variety of meats and proteins to our shoppers. My favorite memory after becoming a super shelf is walking into the shopping area and witnessing one of our shoppers squeal with delight when she saw the fresh produce! That made all the work of transforming into a Super Shelf all worthwhile!

   Since Covid, our food shelf usage has more than doubled. In 2024 the Longville Area Food Shelf had 2,036 visits, gave out over 163,000 pounds of food and added 133 new households to its shopper database. These numbers are expected to continue to rise due to economic conditions, recent changes to SNAP (supplemental nutrition assistance program), the elimination of SNAP education programs, and elimination or reductions of Federal Funds.

   How does the Longville Area Food Shelf manage to accommodate this growing need? Through the support we receive from this great community! Profits from the Tossed & Found Boutique pay 100% of overhead costs (maintenance, repairs, utilities, salaries, etc.). Thank you to all for both your donations to the store and for your patronage! With overhead costs covered, 100% of your monetary donations are used exclusively to benefit our food shelf shoppers. We are very proud of this as very few non-profits or food shelves can put 100% of donations toward their cause.

   In addition to supplying food, the Longville Area Food Shelf also helps our community in many other ways.

   • In August we provide backpacks and school supplies for kids.

   • In the late fall, we partner with the Knights of Columbus to provide coats, snow pants, hats and mittens to kids.

   • We supply warm socks.

   • We supply night lights to help prevent falls.

   • We partner with the MN Diaper Bank to provide diapers for our shoppers at no cost.

   • We manage the distribution of pet food for Lou Lou’s Pet Pantry, located inside our food shelf.

   • In extreme cases we can help with utility bills, rent, auto repairs, and basic needs through our Emergency Assistance program.

   • We help with clothing and household goods for people in need (fire victims, people displaced from their homes, etc.).

   • We distribute food packages according to the CSFP (Commodity Senior Food Program).

   • For the holidays, we provide turkeys, hams and other holiday foods for our shoppers.

   One of the challenges our food shelf faces is the increasing cost of food. Demands on all food shelves across the region have increased dramatically. This means the demand for food banks like Second Harvest Northland has increased dramatically as well. The Longville Area Food Shelf food costs increased by 23% from 2023 to 2024. That increase is expected to continue this year and into 2026. This is partially because of limited supply. We are only able to get about 50% of the food we need from Second Harvest. Most of the food we need to purchase from other sources is fresh produce and dairy products like milk, eggs, cheese, and butter. To ensure our fruit, vegetables and dairy are fresh, our food shelf purchases almost all these items from other wholesale vendors. We can occasionally get produce from the Second Harvest Northland Food Bank. However, the timeline of them acquiring the produce and then getting it out to food shelves, means the freshness of the produce is marginal at best. The Remer Community Garden donates approximately 2/3 of their harvest to the Longville Area Food Shelf which we are very grateful for. The Remer Garden puts a lot of attention into growing culturally appropriate produce, which our shoppers absolutely love!

   We are so grateful to live in the generous and caring community of Longville! It is because of our generous donors, and shoppers, that we can help our community in so many wonderful ways! Please help us to continue to be able to do our work in the challenging years ahead. We are often asked what we need the most at our food shelf… The answer to this is monetary funds. Our purchasing power is much greater by purchasing in bulk. We can make a $10 donation go much further than your individual $10 alone. Donations can be mailed to P.O. Box 308, Longville, MN 56655, dropped off at the Longville Area Food Shelf, or Tossed & Found Boutique. Or you can make an online donation at GiveMN.com.

   Thank you so much for 28 years of support to our Food Shelf!

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