One local food bank starts preparing for Give to the Max Day early

Non-profits and organizations are gearing up for Give to the Max Day on November 18th but one local nonprofit is starting early.

Second Harvest Northern Lakes Food Banks is starting early after a big match was proposed to them by The Catholic Charity Superior Bureau. Executive Director Shaye Moris says, “We’ve got a $10,000 dollar match which will go until midnight until November 18th. So if people give a dollar they’ll match it at a dollar for dollar ratio up to $10,000 dollars."

Moris says these donations will help the nonprofit immensely. She says, “That doubles our impact. With every dollar that we bring in we can distribute three meals. So on this special day we’ll be able to leverage six meals."

You can donate to Second Harvest Northern Lakes Food Banks here.

The food bank says that the money will most likely go towards transportation and storage for the food but says that doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect the community.

Moris recalls a situation where she saw how much food assistance helps people. She says, "We had a woman who came to us at the senior food distribution and she was noticeably teary eyed and one of our staff asked what’s wrong. And she said ‘I’ve never needed food assistance before I’ve given to you guys for 20 years’ and he said ‘you know what, it’s you turn to be supported now.’”

The pandemic hasn’t helped the situation for those who need food assistance either. The company has seen those effects first hand. "So the pandemic you know we’ve seen ebb and flows of food participation and need. We’ve certainly seen an uptick in the last couple of weeks I would say in particular leading up to the holidays”, says Moris.

But the non-profit is excited for the donations to come on November 18th. Shaye Moris says, "We really trying to prepare to not only give people a good holiday season but to make sure there is enough food available in the next year."