Union Gospel Mission Receives Outpouring Support For Summer Weekend Food Bag Program

CLOQUET, Minn. — The Union Gospel Mission is receiving a lot of support for their Summer Weekend Food Bag program.

The program fills bags of food with easy to prepare items. The bags are then delivered to local youth organizations that distribute them to children who don’t have adequate food access over the weekends.

Many local groups help fill the bags. Wednesday at Zion Lutheran Church in Cloquet around 20 people volunteered.

“I think that you know people see that there’s a lot of need going on. There’s a lot of you know housing issues and food shortage And groceries are expensive. And I think people just want to help. People have been in those low places and have hopefully had people supporting them and I think that that’s what they want to do,” said Jana Picotte, Development Coordinator, UGM.

The summer food bag program is funded by a few organizations. One of them is Project Joy.

“A lot of us are teachers or former teachers that are on Project Joy, and we saw the need. And so, to see the community step up from across counties here, from across places. It’s amazing. People here care about kids, people across the country care about kids and they actually come to Duluth to raise money to feed kids around here,” said Deb Roach, Project Joy volunteer.

Last summer the Union Gospel Mission distributed close to 2,000 food bags. So far this year they have already exceeded that number.