Nonprofit Uses Shoe Drive to Combat Community Hunger

 A nonprofit with ties to Plymouth is using shoe donations to help eliminate hunger.

Good in the ‘Hood has a program called Shoe Away Hunger, through which the organization collects used shoes.

Those same shoes are then sold for an affordable price — although some sponsored giveaways feature free shoes — and the proceeds are used to buy food.

The nonprofit then distributes that food to at 32 hunger relief sites across the Twin Cities.

Good in the ‘Hood has a program called Shoe Away Hunger, through which the organization collects used shoes. Those same shoes are then sold for an affordable price — although some sponsored giveaways feature free shoes — and the proceeds are used to buy food.

Good in the ‘Hood has a warehouse in Plymouth. CCX News was there while students from Free Lutheran Bible College were on site sorting shoes.

Representatives from Good in the ‘Hood said there’s growing demand for its hunger relief programs.

“We tend to think, ‘oh, that’s somewhere else,'” said Timothy Boelk with Good in the ‘Hood. “That’s in another country, overseas, in another state. But the reality is it’s right in our neighborhoods, and it might be someone a couple of doors down, it might be someone a couple of streets down, a couple of blocks down.”

The nonprofit fed about 140,000 people last year.

See also: ‘Shoe Away Hunger’ Bus Makes Stop in Brooklyn Center

Plymouth