New Hope Food Bank Receives Big Donation from Local LDS Churches

The COVID-19 pandemic combined with the recent social unrest over the death of George Floyd has created an unprecedented need for food and other supplies.

It’s one reason why a local church group has stepped up to help a local food bank in a big way.

“We know that this will help people in New Hope as well as people in the greater Minneapolis area,” said Paul Wilson, Anoka Minnesota Stake President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “And it’s hard to put yourself in that situation to know what their suffering might look like. But the hope is that if we can make food more readily available to those that are in need, we feel just really happy and blessed to be able to be in a position to help others.”

Wednesday morning, a group of eight local congregations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints donated more than 40,000 pounds of non-perishable food and other supplies to The Food Group in New Hope.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ donation to The Food Group took up 24 pallets.

The Food Group works with 150 food shelves and meal programs throughout the Twin Cities metro area.

Those programs will be able to access the food and other items from the church donation, free-of-charge, over the coming weeks.

Officials from The Food Group say the need in the Twin Cities right now is tremendous, and they expect it to go up.

“In south Minneapolis right now, because of a lack of grocery access, the need is higher than we’ve ever seen it,” said Sophia Lenarz-Coy, executive director of The Food Group. “But we also are bracing for a tremendous increase once the federal unemployment bonus runs out, which will happen later this month. And so I think we’re just gearing up to see need like we’ve never seen before.”

Earlier this month, the church congregations also donated another 40,000 pounds of food to Second Harvest Heartland in Brooklyn Park.

New Hope