‘Don’t hesitate, just come:’ Stigma around food shelves is a barrier for food insecure people

NINA MOINI: You're listening to Minnesota Now. We thank you for that. If you were to ask most people right now about the most iconic part of Thanksgiving, they'd probably say an enormous feast shared with family and friends. I'm sure someone in your life is worrying about what's going into tomorrow's big meal.

About one in every 11 people in Minnesota are worried generally about where their next meal is coming from. That food insecurity has been more intense in the United States since the pandemic began almost five years ago. There are so many factors that can go into people not having enough food, and there aren't always simple answers. But food shelves do a lot of heavy lifting, even for holiday meals this time of year.

Cindy Favre is the manager of the St. Peter Area Food Shelf just north of Mankato, and she's seen a lot of people struggling to get enough food in their households. She's on the line now to explain the problem and talk about the role of food shelves. Thank you so much for being here, Cindy.

CINDY FAVRE: Hi. Thank you for having me.

NINA MOINI: I bet you might be a little bit busy right now, heading into the holiday. Has your organization and your region seen a rise in hunger recently as well, like most of the state?

CINDY FAVRE: Yes. The short answer is yes, we have. I think overall what we're seeing is not just the cost of grocery prices, which we all see when we go to the grocery store, but other increases-- energy, housing, health care, childcare. All of those things shrink that grocery budget. And so for nearly half of Americans living paycheck to paycheck, one incident-- a car repair, a medical thing-- puts them in a hard position of having to make decisions about paying bills and purchasing food. So yes, we are seeing that increase, just as other folks have told you.

NINA MOINI: Sure. And how has it been trying to keep up with that demand?

CINDY FAVRE: We have had to make some decisions about how we spend our money and focus the funds that we have available. Our mission is really focused on food, although people show up to us with other concerns and other needs. But for example, we are focusing on food, and so relying on community donations for personal care products, cleaning products, that type of thing, because we just made the decision that we have to stay focused on the food first, and then those other things are secondary.

NINA MOINI: Sure, sure. Food insecurity and some of the things you're talking about can be an invisible issue. It's not always obvious when someone is experiencing hunger. I'm curious-- I have heard that there's been an uptick in seniors, in particular, visiting food shelves. I wonder if you have any demographic graphic ideas of who's coming and who you're seeing?

CINDY FAVRE: Yeah. Of course, we see a whole range. We see young people, young families, very large families, sometimes multigenerational households. But yes, we do have seniors. And for seniors, it becomes even more complicated if they have disabilities or transportation concerns and issues. So we work particularly to try to accommodate whatever needs they might have, so that we can be sure that they're getting food in their house.

NINA MOINI: Sure. Are there any other barriers that you think people face? You mentioned transportation to getting to a food shelf. Any ways that you're addressing that?

CINDY FAVRE: Yeah. So I think barriers to getting to food shelves is about the logistics. Like, where is the food shelf, and what are the hours, and how do I get there? Those kinds of things. And so we do what we can to have service hours available, having them during the day and also evening hours. We do some limited delivery. We allow people to have proxies, so other people can come and pick up the food for them. Or we can bring it out to your car, if you're not able to get yourself into the food shelf. So those kinds of things.

But I also think that something that I often hear in the food shelf is people saying, I never thought I would go to a food shelf. I never thought I'd be in this position. And so what I've come to realize that a barrier is people's identity. They have to reshape their identity to say, oh, I'm a person who does go to a food shelf, and it's OK for me to be doing this. So I think sometimes that's a barrier, is getting over their personal image of themselves and their own identity.

NINA MOINI: Oh, Cindy, I think that's a really important point. And I've visited a lot of food shelves for work purposes, but if you've never been and you've never had to go, it might be intimidating. Do you want to share a little bit about what the experience is like when people do come, and what you all do to make it a good environment, a comfortable environment?

CINDY FAVRE: Yeah. I think that's really true, is that just like anything, if you haven't been there, you don't know what you're walking into. The first thing I would say that might surprise people is how joyful food shelves are. It's just a joyful place to be. We have volunteers who love being there. We have families who are able to get food and to make choices about what foods that they want. There is a lot of laughing and there's a lot of greeting people. Some of our shoppers we get to know, because they come to us pretty frequently.

So when I'm asked if I like working at the food shelf, I say, I'm a farmer's daughter, and so it gives me great joy to send people home with food. And I think that's the one thing that I would say. We try to really limit the paperwork and the documentation that you have to do. We try to make that really simple and easy. And we work hard to have fresh produce and a variety of food choices, and then to let people do their own shopping and make their own choice of what foods they want to take home.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, and the people there are just people like you and I. I wonder, as we are heading into next year, we know that hunger is a huge issue right now in our state and beyond. We have a legislative session coming up in January. What needs to happen structurally or in government to help you right now, and help your cause and in your region?

CINDY FAVRE: Yeah. Hunger, like so many of the issues we face now, hunger is complex and it's layered. And if the answers were easy, we would have already figured it out. So it's going to take a lot of people working from a lot of different angles. The good news is that I know that there are professionals on a lot of levels. Our public health professionals, our partners at Second Harvest Heartland, are doing a lot of that higher-level strategic work.

Second Harvest Heartland's strategic initiative is to make hunger history, which that specific goal is to cut hunger in Minnesota by half by 2030. So just a lot of folks working on a lot of different angles to make it happen. And what we're seeing locally is just a lot of community members stepping up with volunteering their time, with donations, both of food and products, and also financial support. And I think that's how we're going to solve it, all of us working together.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. What are some of the other food shelves in your area? Like, are you pretty much one of the only services out there, or are you all kind of working together? You mentioned other partners like Second Harvest Heartland.

CINDY FAVRE: Yeah. Other communities in our area do have food shelves, and as far as I know, at least, all of us are in partnership with Second Harvest Heartland. And so we get together and have conversations about what are you doing, and what's working for you, and those types of conversations.

But with that said, each food shelf has the opportunity to operate in a way that best fits their community. So if in our food shelf, it works better for people to call in and make shopping appointments, we do that. If for someplace else, it works better for people to just walk in without appointments, they can do that. So that's, I think, one of the great things about our food shelves is that they really are a part of the communities that they're serving.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. And people can always call and ask if they have a specific need, or if they're curious.

CINDY FAVRE: Absolutely. And I think most of our food shelves have web pages, they're on social media. But certainly calling, or people just stop in and say, how does this work? And we're happy to share that.

NINA MOINI: Cindy, thank you so much. I'm wishing you a great Thanksgiving and a good year ahead.

CINDY FAVRE: Thank you for the conversation today, and happy Thanksgiving to you and your listeners.

NINA MOINI: Thank you. That was Cindy Favre, the manager of the St. Peter Area Food Shelf.