Team members join in community event

A community-wide volunteer event resulted in
10,000 bags of food being packaged for area food shelves,
schools and local programs.
Photo provided by United Way of Southwest Minnesota.

Jan. 26, 2017 — “Uniting Against Hunger,” more than 50 of our team members joined the community in Marshall, Minnesota, to help package 10,000 bags of food during a United Way of Southwest Minnesota event. The food will provide 60,060 meals for those experiencing food insecurities in southwest Minnesota.

The “Unite Against Hunger” event was sponsored by United Way of Southwest Minnesota with additional support from the Redwood Area United Way and the Kiwanis Club of Granite Falls, Minnesota. To coordinate the event, United Way of Southwest Minnesota partnered with Outreach, Inc., which is non-profit 501(c)(3) based out of Iowa that helps with sourcing ingredients and training volunteer groups to package meals.

The meals packaged were distributed to 21 food shelves, schools and local programs throughout southwest Minnesota free of charge.

Two meal varieties were packaged by volunteers: an apple cinnamon oatmeal and a tomato basil pasta. For the tomato basil pasta, the Schwan culinary team developed recipes that people could make using the pasta. The recipes included chipotle pasta with vegetables, pasta bake and toasted cheese pasta bake. Click here to see the recipes.