CHUM Food Shelf Needs Help for Thanksgiving

DULUTH, Minn.- The CHUM food shelf is asking for help as we approach the holidays.

CHUM is planning on distributing 300 complete Thanksgiving meals for people in need and is asking for monetary donations from the public.

The Duluth food shelf held a press conference earlier today, asking for help, as more and more people come to them for food around the holidays.

Last year hundreds of people came to CHUM for a Thanksgiving meal, including more than 450 children and 65 seniors. And with the recent rise in the cost of food, making Thanksgiving boxes that will provide ingredients for meals is becoming more expensive.

“CHUM is wanting to always do it is to provide those everyday things they are sometimes out of reach for many of our friends and neighbors, and make it more of like a general thing of everybody deserves to have a great Thanksgiving dinner.”

The holiday boxes will include ingredients to make a Thanksgiving meal. A Turkey, potatoes, and vegetables are among the many items. The ingredients needed to make 300 complete Thanksgiving meals are estimated to cost around $18,000. And that is why CHUM is looking for help from Northlanders.

“We learned through all of that, that there was a huge issue with barriers of acquiring food for people, getting to the food shelf, for people waiting to get food at food shelves, and CHUM’s whole goal and mission is to knock down those barriers and enter, make things as easy as possible.”

In addition to needing donations, the CHUM food shelf is making an expansion with a new CHUM-2-GO delivery system.

Food shelf staff have noticed accessibility issues for some of its recipients due to the ongoing pandemic and transportation disparities.

The new delivery system will bring up to 20 food boxes to different locations in Duluth each Tuesday, from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. Every Tuesday, they will be at a new location, rotating the four areas each month.