Every year during Minnesota’s Give to the Max day, Land Stewardship Project highlights the work of several BIPOC-led or rural-based organizations and asks our members to also support the work of these partners. This year, in light of continuing food insecurity and lingering effects of the recent government shutdown, LSP staff wanted to shout-out organizations who are doing important food distribution work in rural or underserved communities. Please join us in supporting some of the many organizations around the state who are making sure that people have enough to eat.

First Nations’ Kitchen — Every Sunday in south Minneapolis, First Nations Kitchen provides bags of fresh gleaned produce and serves hot meals based on ancestral fare of the First Nations people in Minnesota. FNK volunteers and partners are driven by shared beliefs that respecting the dignity of all and sharing meaningful food together is vital to the community.

The Food Group — The Food Group (which now includes Hunger Solutions MN) is a longtime partner of LSP when it comes to Farm to School projects, and their farm incubator program, Big River Farms, helps get more farmers on the land. The Food Group operates food shelves and food affordability programs across the state. Please donate today so they can meet this moment.

Meeker Area Food Shelf — The Meeker Area Food Shelf began in 1983 and has grown to serve 350+ families a week in the Meeker County area. With locations in Litchfield and Dassel, MAFS also provides weekend snack packs to school children over the weekend. They are continuing to see an increase in the number of people needing food assistance, so please consider supporting their work this Give to the Max Day. You can find their GiveMN page here.

Prairie Five — Two of the many impactful programs of Prairie Five Community Action in western Minnesota are their meals program for aging people and their multiple food shelves. The meals program promotes healthy and independent living through improved nutrition and social isolation, delivering nourishing meals seven days a week in their five-county service area.

Ruby’s Pantry — Through its pop-up pantry locations in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and South Dakota, Ruby’s Pantry provides food assistance to over 300,000 families a year. There is no income or residency requirement and ANYONE looking to extend their monthly grocery budget can attend any of the Ruby’s Pantry locations. You can support this food distribution work here.

The mission of the Land Stewardship Project (LSP) is to foster an ethic of stewardship for farmland, to promote sustainable agriculture and to develop sustainable communities.

LSP is dedicated to creating transformational change in our food and farming system. LSP’s work has a broad and deep impact, from new farmer training and local organizing, to federal policy and community based food system development. At the core of all of our work are the values of stewardship, justice, democracy, fairness, health, and community

This Give to the Max Day, we are highlighting how growing more farmers on the land and breaking the chokehold of consolidation in agriculture is essential for our children, our communities, and our climate.

LSP’s membership base is a community of over 5,000 farmers, rural, and urban people who are organizing around their shared values to advance stewardship of the land, support small and mid-size farms, and create vibrant rural communities.

Your financial support allows LSP to put money where it’s needed most — for working for a more just food and farming system, an inclusive democracy, more farmers on the land, clean water and healthy soil, and more.  DONATE HERE