![]() Q: What is your number one need right now? But those are the things that we order just a week's worth - so that we are offering balanced nutrition. Q: You don't want people to donate boxes and boxes of macaroni and cheese? Q: So you're making new connections with the same farmers who sell at area farmers' markets? And raspberries that come from another farmer. NA: We can order the fresher stuff, making sure people get carrots that will last. Then, after Frogtown Neighborhood Association asked me to coordinate, I was like, "OK, let me try and get less rescue." We were having to toss so much food, volunteers were getting burned out. SA: When I first started, I was so overwhelmed by how much food we had to toss. What has discouraged you about this work? Q: You both seem very optimistic and upbeat. Q: You said you still get most of your food from Second Harvest Heartland. I would rather go directly to the farmer - like the organic farmer or the dairy farmer. I would say no to food that is close to its expiration date. NA: I'd rather get the food and distribute that, rather than the cash. Q: What would you rather have - cash or food? We're getting close to making sure they're not pressured throughout the two weeks and that there is enough to eat. SA: We're getting to the point where we can overstock them so they have enough food to get to the next distribution. Q: What has surprised you about the families that you see? We have some people who have a big family and they ask, "Can we have more?" We don't like to tell people, "No, you can't." NA: Like how many bags of potatoes you could receive, depending on how much we have. SA: We have volunteers to answer any questions. Q: Is there a weight limit or anything like that? Q: And they fill up grocery bags or boxes? Q: What's the process? People line up and take what they want at no cost to them? But we are getting the produce - from fruit to vegetables. When you come in, there are the dry goods and stuff like that because that's the cheapest and easiest to get. SA: We make sure we have pretty much like a grocery store. Q: Tell me the variety of food you give out. We'll write it down for you so that you know it's going to all those in the community who truly need. ![]() ![]() We partner with farms and other farmers they know to get them to give away produce they couldn't figure out what to do with. NA: We get healthy food from local farmers. Q: You have more than packaged food here? We usually spend most of our money on meat. SA: It depends on how much we got, because we get food rescue and then we also order just a little because we're nonprofit, so we're trying to spread it as well as we can. Q: Is there a limit on what people can take, or how much? Now we allow people to pick up for others. We used to have volunteers who would go deliver to, like, 40 houses. Some of them will be picking up for another family too, because we allow that. Sometimes, we actually are not able to get to everybody because we only have a certain amount of time. But we'll start, you know, when the line forms and continues until the end. Q: How many people do you think are going to come today? I had two kids and I've been in the neighborhood but hadn't been leaving my house and was going stir crazy. SA: We'd been involved a couple years already and we realized we knew each other from the community and stuff. Then Sara came, and we started coordinating. ![]() Then, when COVID hit, I took food from the farm to different houses. NA: I started volunteering to take food to different apartments. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. Paul talked with Aegerter and Ahmed on a recent distribution day - they work right now out of the West Minnehaha Recreation Center - to discuss what they do and why. Now, the women are not only helping hundreds of families get food every other week, but they're also growing new connections with area farmers and food distributors to help families eat better than ever.Įye On St. Then they were asked to become co-coordinators of Feeding Frogtown, a free food distribution program run by the Frogtown Neighborhood Association. Paul's Frogtown before - either delivering food to neighbors or helping grow it at Frogtown Farm. The idea of volunteering in their neighborhood was not new to Nura Ahmed, 43, and Sara Aegerter, 35.
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