Second Harvest Heartland

Food banks and food pantries play a key role in meeting the nutritional needs of low-income children and families, who have less access to nutritious, affordable foods and are disproportionately impacted by obesity and diet-related disease. Our food bank partners make sure that times of sacrifice don’t also mean sacrificing good health.

Second Harvest Heartland will receive support from PHA to implement a comprehensive nutrition ranking system over the next two years. PHA will provide technical assistance to help Second Harvest Heartland understand the nutritional quality of its inventory, enhancing food equity for the communities they serve.

At Second Harvest Heartland, we work to end hunger through partnerships. As one of the largest, most efficient, and most innovative hunger relief organizations in the nation, we leverage our unique position in the emergency food chain to make an impact. In close partnership with a network of 360 food shelves and nearly 1,000 partner programs, we support those in our region facing hunger today.

On average, 84 percent of the food distributed by partners comes from Second Harvest Heartland, and in fiscal year 2020, we provided 105 million meals throughout our region.

More than a food bank, we’re a leading partner in the policies and programs that work to end hunger, like SNAP, school meals and senior nutrition programs, and we’re an innovator in the areas where food can be the solution, like FOODRx and Minnesota Central Kitchen.

We will continue to leverage our unique position in the emergency food chain to advocate, educate and provide food until everyone in our service area has what they need to thrive.