Second Harvest Marks 3 Months of COVID-19 Response with 20,000 Boxes of Food Packed

The food bank has provided more than 1.7 million pounds of food for community members in need throughout the Northland since just the middle of March.

DULUTH, Minn. – This week marks 3 months of Second Harvest Northern Lakes Food Bank’s COVID-19 response effort.

The food bank has provided more than 1.7 million pounds of food for community members in need throughout the Northland since just the middle of March.

This week the food bank will hit the important milestone of packing their 20,000th box of food for vulnerable Northlanders since the pandemic began.

Supply chains are still being disrupted making the food bank worried about the long-term food supply.

In 22 years on the job, Executive Director Shaye Moris says she has never seen the need like this before.

She says the need varies from week to week but the are prepared and will be there for those who require food assistance.

Second Harvest is also extremely grateful to the community to remember the food bank during this time.

“This is a community and region that really supports its own and I think we’ve seen that whether it was the recession or when we first started when the iron mines closed in the early 80s I think people really want to take care of their neighbors and I think that’s really a testament to the area that we live in,” said Moris.

Day-to-day operations are also being affected.

Volunteers are wearing masks and getting health screenings when they arrive each day.

The building is also being sanitized twice a day to make sure they can keep being there for those in need.

As always, people in need of food assistance can go to the Second Harvest Northern Lakes Food Bank website here.