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  • Community Investments Grant
    Loaves & Fishes is one of 95 local nonprofits awarded a grant from the Greater Twin Cities United Way in 2019. Executive Director Cathy Maes told the Star Tribune that without the United Way’s grant, which equals about 4% of the nonprofit’s revenue, she would have had to cut staff or programs. “We’re really thankful…
  • Community Breakfast Success
    Mayor Jacob Frey was the keynote speaker at our Community Breakfast on May 21, 2019. Heartfelt stories conveying the life-changing impact our meals make were shared. We are grateful to all who spoke and attended – it was an inspiring morning!
  • myTalk Radio Interview
    Executive Director Cathy Maes talks about Loaves & Fishes mission, growth and upcoming fundraising event–“A Warehouse Affair.”
  • Third Annual “A Warehouse Affair” Set for September 28
    Third Annual “A Warehouse Affair” Event Occurring Saturday The third annual Loaves & Fishes “A Warehouse Affair” event is taking place next Saturday, September 28. The event will provide a variety of dishes from local food trucks and restaurants. Loaves & Fishes Executive Director Cathy Maes and Pimento Jamaican Kitchen Chef Okkoy Graham joined KSTP’s…
  • Hennepin County Plans to Cut Food Funding for Nonprofits
      Summary: Five nonprofits providing food to low-income Hennepin County residents currently receive $1.1 million dollars from county funding. But county leaders have proposed phasing out this funding and reducing aid by $282,000 before it’s eliminated completely in subsequent years. East Side Neighborhood Services, says deliveries will be drastically scaled back next year if Hennepin…
  • Loaves & Fishes Hands Out Blankets Ahead Of Winter Months
    From WCCO-TV: Loaves and Fishes volunteers and staff spent Saturday October 19 helping the homeless get ready for winter. The group is usually on the streets giving out meals, but on this day they focused on keeping people warm when winter rolls around. Read the full article
  • One Millionth Meal Milestone
    Loaves and Fishes served its one millionth free, healthy meal in October 2019, two months earlier than 2018.
  • Loaves & Fishes Delivers Food to the Needy in Greater Minnesota
    Northern Minnesota is known for its scenic woods, lake resorts, and cabins. But Brian Chaffee also sees often hidden signs of poverty that are affecting families and older adults.
  • More than Just a Meal
    Loaves & Fishes Volunteers to Distribute Coats to Dining Guests
  • Special Holiday Hours: Christmas, New Years
    Our St. Stephens Dining site in Minneapolis will be open for dinner on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. All other dining sites will be closed on Christmas Day. You can see if your dining site will be open Christmas Eve, New Years Eve or New Years day by going to the Public Dining webpage and…
  • Last Grocery Store in Farmington Closes; Loaves & Fishes Responds
    From KSTP-TV: Loaves and Fishes, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit serving free, nutritious meals at dining sites throughout the Twin Cities Metro Area and Greater Minnesota will partner with Faith United Methodist Church in Farmington to offer fresh and healthy meals on a weekly basis starting January 1.  The dining site will give food insecure Minnesotans in…
  • Resolve to End Hunger in 2020
    The New Year is here and that means New Year’s resolutions. I believe mine will be to eat and cook better and hopefully throw in some workouts in between meetings. As you live out your 2020 resolutions, please consider adding one more: providing nutritious and fresh food to food-insecure Minnesotans. Your tax-deductible gift will offer…
  • Fun at Work
    The only way Loaves & Fishes can feed 3,500 meals every day is through our volunteers. Religious groups, employees, teams, and other groups come to our 33 open to the public dining sites to serve our guests healthy meals. We believe anyone can volunteer, and two young brothers show us that anyone can serve at…
  • YOU Provide A Family Meal At Home
    Because of you, we can provide comforting meals to people like Alexander, Robert, and Roy.
  • Keeping Our Guests & Volunteers Safe
    Loaves & Fishes will continue to serve healthy meals to our guests using food safety standards.
  • Open Tables at Mt. Olivet
    The Mount Olivet Lutheran Church of Plymouth began serving meals at the start of December 2019. As of mid-January, the site served 250 meals in its first five weeks. Diners from our other dining sites are showing up and they continue to have volunteers signing up to serve. The opening of the new dining site is part of…
  • We Will Continue to Serve.
    We will continue to serve wherever there is hunger.
  • I Was A Guest of Loaves and Fishes
    In the midst of a pandemic nearly 30 years later, I was donating hand sanitizer to the organization that fed me as a child.
  • Loaves & Fishes – YMCA – UnitedHealth Group Partnership
    The coronavirus crisis has increased the need for families throughout the Twin Cities to find fresh and healthy meals to eat. Loaves & Fishes and two other organizations are working together to meet the challenge.
  • Loaves & Fishes, YMCA Form Partnership With D’Amico Catering
    The coronavirus crisis has increased the need for families throughout the Twin Cities to find fresh and healthy meals to eat. Loaves & Fishes partnership with D’Amico Catering will allow us to meet this challenge.
  • “We Are Still Here!”
    The coronavirus pandemic has meant changing how Loaves & Fishes serves meals to the people in our community. Amidst the change, a site coordinator thinks things at Loaves & Fishes hasn’t changed.
  • What Life Throws At You
    Site Coordinator Jason Todd learned to be a cook and how to handle life’s surprises from his grandmother.
  • Hunger Leaders Supporting One Another
    Kevin Doran of KSTP-TV joins a conversation on leadership and hunger with Cathy Maes of Loaves & Fishes and Allison O’Toole of Second Harvest Heartland.
  • Community Lifts Up Loaves & Fishes
    Multiple organizations have stepped up to support Loaves & Fishes as the need for food continues to rise.
  • No Need to Worry
    A letter from Executive Director, Cathy Maes.
  • Providing an Oasis Through Food
    An oasis is described as a peaceful area in our everyday lives. Loaves & Fishes has been a longtime partner with Sarah’s… an Oasis for Women. Sarah’s is a home dedicated to safety and dignity for a diverse community of women where they can begin new and productive lives. One way Loaves & Fishes helps…
  • A Day in Marshall
    From the area YMCA to Esther’s Kitchen, Christy Bottger is pouring her heart into the Marshall community through Loaves & Fishes.
  • Loaves & Fishes Serves More Meals in July than EVER BEFORE
    In the month of July Loaves & Fishes served over 505,000 meals, the highest number ever served in a monthly span since the meal program began in 1982.
  • Hunger Action Month Calendar
    Loaves & Fishes is proud to take part in Hunger Action Month! We have provided 30 ways to help fight hunger in 30 days for the month of September. Head to the calendar below and print it out to follow along with us. We will be posting more details for each day on our Facebook…
  • Like Daughter, Like Mother
    Mother-daughter duo, Kelly and Ellen Simon, are both site coordinators at Loaves & Fishes, but Kelly actually followed in Ellen’s footsteps.
  • Community Partners Feed Minnesota Music Industry Over Labor Day
    Loaves & Fishes came together with community partners to feed 300 Minnesota music industry workers and their families.
  • Media Roundup: September 8, 2020
    A look at Loaves & Fishes in the media recently.
  • Shop and Feel Good!
    Generous Goods is featuring Loaves & Fishes on their front page for Hunger Action Month.
  • St. Thomas Business Course Makes Positive Impact
    “Her family had to come to organizations like Loaves & Fishes because they couldn’t afford healthy meals on their own.” Two University of St. Thomas students put in work for Loaves & Fishes this summer, a common sight each term – fall, J-Term, spring and summer- going back 28 years. The “Business Through Learning Service”…
  • Guest Stories: A Night at New Bethel
    Meet some of our guests at New Bethel and the hear about the relief that the community meal brings to them.
  • Back on KSTP with Second Harvest Heartland
    Kevin Doran of KSTP-TV spoke with Loaves & Fishes Executive Director Cathy Maes and Second Harvest Heartland CEO Allison O’Toole in a followup from his June conversation with the pair.
  • Making an Impact One Pineapple at a Time
    Asian Media Access (AMA), a HUB partner with Loaves & Fishes for the past two years, recently put on a food distribution event that impacted over 400 families. Each family picked up rice, noodles, oil, Asian canned food and had access to Voting Registration, Census, COVID-19 booths, along with Hmong, Mandarin and Vietnamese interpreters. One…
  • Gopher Softball Provides Sock Bundles to Community
    The University of Minnesota Gopher softball team spent a team activity making sock bundles for our guests.
  • Give to the Max Early Giving Starts Now
    Any gift made from November 1st-19th will be matched dollar-for-dollar!
  • It Fits Perfect: 14th Annual Coat Drive
    Immanuel Lutheran in Eden Prairie teamed up with Loaves & Fishes to host the 14th Annual Coat Drive last week.
  • Memorable Night Leaves Lasting Impact on Longtime Supporter
    Each person has their own reason for giving back. For longtime supporter MaryFrances Schurb it all goes back to one memorable evening when she was helping serve dinner in St. Paul.
  • Loaves & Fishes Opens Dream Kitchen
    A dream became reality for Loaves & Fishes this week with the opening of the commissary kitchen in collaboration with Urban Ventures.
  • A Special Opportunity to Stretch Your End of Year Giving
    Loaves & Fishes has accepted a challenge from the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation to raise $100,000 from supporters like you.
  • Loaves & Fishes Skyrockets Past Projections, on Pace to Serve FOUR MILLION MEALS
    Loaves & Fishes Minnesota is on pace to serve four million meals in 2020.
  • Loaves & Fishes Opening Two New Locations
    On January 4, 2021 Loaves & Fishes Minnesota will open two new community meal locations.
  • In Case You Missed It: Stories from the Year
    Take a look at a number of the moments you helped us create in 2020.
  • Kindness Keeps Minnetonka Students Coming Back
    Minnetonka High School students Vivian and Amy put in 75 hours of volunteer service with Loaves & Fishes.
  • Loaves & Fishes Launches Interactive Map
    Check out our new interactive map.
  • High School Student Bakes Goodies for Good
    Lina Vincenty has always had a heart for helping others and in 2020 took it to another level by starting “Goodies for Good” at just 14-years-old to give back to the community.
  • Loaves & Fishes Provides Sense of Home in Farmington
    As Farmington celebrates one year as a community meal site, they are seeing 250 guests every Wednesday.
  • Premise Inc. Employees Give Back
    Premise Inc., a relatively new construction company, gave employees the option to donate their holiday gift to charities this year.
  • Loaves & Fishes Improving Operations to Meet the Need
    In 2020, Loaves & Fishes served over 4.4 Million meals and there are no signs of slowing down in 2021 with 662,936 meals served through January and February.
  • A Fresh Start
    Unexpected help from supporters like you has helped Lee turn his life around.
  • Generous Stock Gift Becomes Family Experience
    Learn why the Sellner family decided to give a stock gift to Loaves & Fishes.
  • The NeedINDeed Partners with Loaves & Fishes
    The NeedINDeed, a nonprofit with the mission to serve those in need within the community, started a partnership with Loaves & Fishes this summer.
  • Vaccinated Volunteers Returning to Help
    Longtime volunteers are returning to Loaves & Fishes after getting vaccinated.
  • Guest Turned Volunteer Rebuilding Life, Giving Back
    Gilbert, a 64-year-old retired Vietnam veteran, is giving back his time and energy to Loaves & Fishes as a volunteer after spending years counting on the free meal himself.
  • Grocery Prices Impacting Minnesotans of All Ages
    “According to USDA data released in April, the Consumer Price Index for grocery store or supermarket food purchases last year was up 3.5 percent.”
  • Volunteers Provide Guests Clean Socks, Underwear
    Read how a family of volunteers have poured their hearts into Loaves & Fishes for 34 years.
  • Make TWICE the Impact This Summer
    We have accepted a challenge from “The Otto Bremer Trust” to raise $20,000 by the end of July.
  • Loaves & Fishes to Provide Children’s Programming This Summer
    Loaves & Fishes officially launched 2021 summer programming aimed to feed children
  • Full Team Effort Provides Special Night for Volunteers and Guests
    It was a full team effort at Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Minneapolis last week. The University of Minnesota women’s basketball prepared and served meals along with sock bundles, hygiene kits and snack packs. Not only was it the biggest volunteer team that Loaves & Fishes brought in since the pandemic started, but women’s basketball…
  • Augsburg Partnership Feeds Hundreds
    Augsburg Campus Kitchen is feeding hundreds using their partnership with Loaves & Fishes as a HUB partner to secure inexpensive food.
  • It’s the Relief in Their Eyes
    Site coordinator Rebecca Buckman shared her experiences and personal connection to the Loaves & Fishes mission.
  • Northeast Minneapolis Partnership Helping Families Get By
    Every Tuesday Antioch Community Church hands out free groceries to the public with all the food coming from the Loaves & Fishes warehouse for 9 cents a pound.
  • Board Member Mike Degen Reflects on 25 Years with Loaves & Fishes
    Board member Mike Degen has truly seen it all since joining Loaves & Fishes in the mid-1990s.
  • Helping Create Non-Waste Events
    Loaves & Fishes partnered with the Minneapolis.St Paul Magazine along with Chef Justin Sutherland and food & dining editor Steph March for the Smoke Out at Allianz Field.
  • Maes Named Women in Business Honoree
    The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal named Cathy Maes one of their 2021 Women in Business honorees.
  • Loaves & Fishes Welcomes Minnesota GreenCorps Member
    Loaves & Fishes is excited to welcome Minnesota GreenCorps member Laura Bessenecker
  • Double Your Donation for Give to the Max!
    You can DOUBLE YOUR Loaves & Fishes DONATION from November 1st-18th for Give to the Max.
  • Thank You! $300,000 Raised for Give to the Max
    You stepped up to help us raise $300,000 counting our match for Give to the Max Day! That is a new Loaves & Fishes record and will help us expand our mission and feed more Minnesotans in need.
  • Lifted up by Partnerships
    Nothing we do is possible without great partnerships.
  • 2021 in Review
    We went into 2021 prepared for the hunger needs in Minnesota to stay at an all-time high after serving 4.4 million meals in 2020. Our prediction was right as we went over 4 million meals again this year.
  • July 2022 E-News
    Click here to view the PDF version of the e-news. When you’ve been around for 40 years, it’s easy to forget about the origins of your work. The routine slowly shifts over time, just enough to create a new normal without a second thought. So, as we celebrate 40 years at Loaves & Fishes, we…
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