Food Shelf is Still Open!

Yes, your Annandale Food Shelf is still open to feed the hungry. Over the past week and a half, we have made many changes as to how we distribute food. We continue to serve our clients Monday 4 – 6pm, Wednesday 5 – 7pm and Friday 9 – 11:30 am. Please check Facebook and our web site -annandalefoodshelf.org for continuing updates. Remember to refresh your browser. To be more specific as to the areas we serve, it is Annandale, South Haven, South Side TWP and Maple Lake which are the school districts of Annandale and Maple Lake. Our phone 274 3663 will only be taking calls during open hours. We have made many changes to our distribution process. Clients are no longer allowed in the building. We have set up a cone barricade which clients must respect. I called my friend Joe at the city and asked if they could lend us traffic stanchions and caution tape. His quick respond was, were do you want them delivered and when. Thank you, Joe and the city of Annandale. Since clients are no longer allowed in our facility a volunteer will greet them (six ft away or more) ask their family name, address, number of people in the household and if they have received food in 2020. At this time, they will not fill out any documents, we will do this internally. We have compiled a lot of good data since moving to Annandale Boulevard and will prepackage boxes based on the family size. No more client choice. The client will be given a numbered ticket by a volunteer wearing gloves and when their order is ready a volunteer will hold up a card displaying their number. Clients will have to open their vehicle doors and a volunteer will leave the cart 6 feet away. They must empty the cart and return it to within 6 feet of our door where it will be sanitized again. We ask clients to come early since our volunteers are working behind the scenes prepacking food boxes. Please come at least 20 minutes before closing so our volunteers can sanitize everything once again before going home. I realize that this is a lot to digest but I want everyone to understand our new procedures. We are continually making updates to our procedures based on direction from the CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services.I should make the pubic aware that donations are coming in, in person, by mail and through GiveMN via Mightycause <help@mightycause.com>. We were not expecting this, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! We also have had large food donations which we greatly appreciate but would prefer donors give us cash. If we get $100 cash we can buy over $500 of food and the donor doesn’t have to shop for the food. The food donated also has to be sanitized by a volunteer before we can distribute it.In closing I want to thank our volunteers, many of whom are over 65. We would prefer they stayed home but some are determined to come in to feed the hungry. We are so fortunate to live in such a caring and giving community. Please keep referring to our web site for the latest updates and we promise to feed the hungry, if we don’t, then who will?Ed SkomorohPresident Annandale Food Shelf