In the Twin Cities community, there are tens of thousands of seniors who struggle with hunger but lack the mobility to access emergency food at their area foodshelf.
To combat these barriers and the hunger they face, the EFN Mobile Foodshelf (also known as the High Rise Program) delivers quality, nutritious food staples to over a dozen subsidized housing complexes in which a majority of residents are senior citizens, people with disabilities, refugees, and low-income families.
These housing complexes, located across the metro area, receive a wide variety of nutritious foods, including produce, frozen meat, non-perishables and baked goods they may not otherwise be able to afford.
In additional to delivering the food at no charge, EFN works hand-in-hand to train on-site volunteer residents to distribute food. The food provided to the high-rise residents is a generous 3-4 day supply (average: 30 pounds or 6 grocery bags of food) and primarily comes from corporate bulk food donations and community food drives.
In 2006, EFN’s Mobile Foodshelf Program served over 9,300 individuals and distributed 170,000 pounds of free food to area high rises, saving them approximately $340,000.