Want to fight hunger? There’s a better way than scrounging cans from your cupboards

During the final months of the year, reminders of need are all around us. From toy donation drives to food drives to programs where you can “adopt” a family for Christmas presents, this time of year we are primed to tap into our generosity.

One particular way that organizations and individuals get involved with this season of need is to gather food for donation. And that philanthropy is not misplaced. According to Second Harvest Heartland, one in six Minnesotans reported some level of food insecurity in 2021.

Today, it might be even higher: Two years after that information was gathered, Minnesota is having its second record-breaking year in a row for food shelf visits according to Hunger Solutions Minnesota. With food prices still subject to significant inflation and pandemic-era benefits expired, that number is unlikely to diminish anytime soon.

If the idea of your fellow Minnesotans going hungry tugs on your heartstrings (and I hope it does), you might feel compelled to raid your cabinets or venture to the grocery store for items to donate to your local food shelf. But what you may not know is that cash donations can go even further than food donations.

Most important, the buying power of a food bank is far beyond the buying power of an individual consumer. Money goes further at food banks for the same reason that it does at warehouse clubs like Costco: Bulk pricing results in deep discounts. The money you spend on one jar of peanut butter could buy multiple jars when purchased in large quantities by food banks. In fact, Feeding America (the nationwide network of food banks that includes Second Harvest Heartland) crunched the numbers and discovered that for every dollar donated to one of their food banks results in 10 meals. A pound of food donated, on the other hand, results in about one meal.

Second, monetary donations can help respond to the unique needs of a community. While macaroni and cheese, peanut butter, and tuna fish are popular items for some, they might not be the right foods for those with different culturally specific diets or dietary needs. A cash donation can enable a food bank to purchase specific foods for our Hmong, Somali, and Karen neighbors, foods that may not otherwise find their way to food shelves. Unique community needs can also take the shape of gaps in what is donated by individuals. Products that are seldom donated but highly appreciated are things like spices and fresh produce. A cash donation can help fill those gaps.

A third reason to donate money instead of food is that food banks and food shelves need funding to support the operations of the food shelves themselves. Cash donations can be used to pay for a food shelf’s utilities (such as electricity to run refrigerators), shelving space to store food for distribution, or for cooking class instructors who teach participants how to make nutritious meals at home with donated ingredients.

A check or online donation is not very glamorous and doesn’t bring forth that same sense of tangible joy as does a mountain of food items crowding a donation box. But it can be replaced by a different joy, the joy of knowing that you’re making your impact as large as possible for those around you experiencing hunger. If you’d still like to participate in or organize a food drive in a more tangible way, that’s wonderful. But consider making space for cash donations alongside those boxes and cans.

Rachel Levitt is studying for a master’s of social work from the University of St. Thomas. She’s also a food shelf volunteer at Keystone Community Services in St. Paul.