Crystal’s NEAR Helps Rescue Food Before It Goes To Waste
This week is Food Waste Prevention Week, a reminder of how much of our food goes to waste.
According to U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics, it’s estimated that between 30 to 40 percent of the nation’s food supply ends up in the trash — a startling figure considering millions of Americans go hungry.
But a food pantry in Crystal is working to rescue that food.
Dave Fernelius just got done with his biweekly grocery run, or should we say grocery rescue.
Fernelius loaded his vehicle with bread and dairy donations from the Robbinsdale Hy-Vee to bring to NEAR Food Shelf in Crystal.
“This is a way that it can help people in the community,” said Fernelius.
Grocery stores like Hy-Vee take part in Second Harvest Heartland’s Food Rescue program, donating items near the end of their “use-by” dates.
“Everything is needed, because we are a little mini-store for our clients,” said NEAR Food Shelf Director Thea Bruley.
Bruley said the majority of its frozen and fresh foods are grocery store donations.
“If we didn’t have that food source, we would probably be only giving out bare minimum of what we are able to have donated to us, which would be mainly shelf-stable items,” said Bruley.
Volunteers stock shelves at Near Food Shelf in Crystal.
A Hy-Vee representative told CCX News that every one of its Minnesota stores participates in the Food Rescue program. Hy-Vee donated 975,000 pounds of food to Second Harvest Heartland-affiliated food pantries across the Twin Cities in 2024, the spokesperson said.
NEAR Food Shelf tries to make the best use of the donations as possible.
As an absolute last resort, NEAR will put any unused food in a food barrel that will go to a local pig farmer.
“He provides the barrels for us,” said Bruley. “And we fill them throughout the week and he comes once a week to pick that up and then he feeds it, cooks, it and feeds it to his pigs.”
Bruley said donations from grocery stores and volunteers keep them running.
NEAR Food Shelf serves around 650 households a month.
They say their new model of letting food shelf clients pick out their own food has also prevented food waste.
