By Allison Maass
Murphy News Service
Unsold bread from Lakewinds Cooperative will no longer go to waste, but instead help feed families in need.
The Rotary Club of Richfield has launched an initiative called Bread of Hope to deliver about 200 lbs. of unsold bread a week from Lakewinds to Hope Presbyterian Church for the Loaves and Fishes evening meal. The meal is served every Monday through Thursday. The bread would go to waste if it was not donated.
The club picks up the bread and delivers it to the church one day a week. The Richfield Lions Club, Optimists Club and Headway Family Services help deliver on the other days.
“This is really a classic community project,” Richfield Rotarian Marlene Evenson said.
Sometimes a portion of the bread is used for the meal when there is not enough food, but usually it is set on a table for people to take home.
“Oh, you bet it helps the budget,” Sylvia Remer said.
Reimer and her husband, Ralph, have lived in Bloomington for 56 years and have been coming to Loaves and Fishes for almost two years. Their favorite part about the weekly meals is meeting different people.
David and Sharon Erickson come to Loaves and Fishes because there is “good nutritious food and really nice people,” and they enjoy taking the bread home with them after the meal.
“It helps out,” Sharon said.
The project was organized by Evenson, but she said the idea really came from Dan Hallberg, a member of the Rotary Club of Edina.
Hallberg has been a long-time volunteer for Volunteers Enlisted to Assist People (VEAP). He picks up food donated to VEAP from Lakewinds every Tuesday and Friday. He noticed unsold bread while he was there that was not labeled or dated being thrown away because VEAP could not take undated bread.
Hallberg called the Loaves and Fishes in Bloomington to see if they would take the bread, but they had the same restrictions as VEAP. They referred him to Hope Presbyterian, who said they could take it.
“Then the question was, how do we do that,” Hallberg said.
Hallberg knew Evenson through the rotary club and asked her if they would be able to help out. She said the rotary club would like to, but could only help deliver one day a week. So she called up the other groups and got it organized.
“She did a good job,” Hallberg said.
It has now been a month since the Bread of Hope project started, and “it has been very successful,” Menekeh Giddings, Loaves and Fishes site coordinator for Hope Presbyterian, said.
“They come in every night looking forward to taking home that bread,” Giddings said.
People had started lining up to take the bread home, but since most of the bread was unpackaged they did not have a place to put it.
“I saw people putting the bread in their pockets,” Hallberg said.
Giddings asked Hallberg if there was a way to get bags for people to take the bread home in. He was able to get bags donated from Festival Foods and Jerry’s Foods so people no longer had to carry the bread home in their pockets.
“It’s one of those things that just sort of happens. The pieces just came together,” Hallberg said.
Reporter Allison Maass is studying Journalism at the University of Minnesota.
Congratulations, Allison. You did a great job on this article. Marlene and I are sharing it with our fellow Rotarians and other friends. Who knows how many other people might be inspired by your article to do a similar project in their community.