Minnesota farmers have an opportunity this fall to help solve a rising but little known problem affecting rural communities throughout the state. Next week, Second Harvest Heartland will be representing the six Feeding America food banks serving Minnesota at FarmFest in Morgan, Minn., to engage farmers in Invest an Acre.
This year in rural Minnesota, families will miss 40 million meals. Minnesota farmers already play a significant role in food production for the state, country and world. But a need still exists and in rural communities hunger is often hidden.
Feeding America’s Invest an Acre program turns farmer contributions into meals for local families. Farmers can get involved in two ways; they can make a cash donation now or pledge to make a donation from this year’s crop at harvest. Farmers do not need to give a final commitment until the crops are at the elevator.
Volunteers will be present at the FarmFest booth, asking farmers to pledge revenue from an acre, bushel or any amount of their 2014 crop to help fight hunger in their own communities. When harvest nears, farmers will be reminded to go online to create a donation form to bring to their local elevator with their grain donation. One hundred percent of the donation stays in the farmer’s community, and all of the money goes directly to provide food to hungry families. The Monsanto Company is matching every donation nationally, dollar for dollar, up to $675,000.
Participating food banks include: Channel One Regional Food Bank, Great Plains Food Bank, North Country Food Bank, Inc., Second Harvest Heartland, Second Harvest North Central Food Bank and Second Harvest Northern Lakes Food Bank.
To learn more about Invest an Acre and Harvest to End Hunger Minnesota, visit www.HarvestToEndHungerMN.org.
For more information about FarmFest, please visit the event page at www.ideaggroup.com/farmfest.
