Milk Appropriation
What This Is: The Minnesota Legislature has appropriated to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture
$1 million in the past biennium for the six Feeding America food banks in Minnesota to use to buy milk
from Minnesota producers and pass that on to local food shelves across the state to serve hungry
Minnesotans.
Why Is This Program Important?
 The most vulnerable people served by food banks and food shelves—children and seniors—are
those most in need of milk.
o 40% of those served by food shelves are children; they rely on milk for healthy physical
and intellectual growth and development. Good nutrition is critical for successful school
learning.
o About 7% are seniors, for whom milk can be essential for preventing bone density loss
and osteoporosis.
 Providing a full range of nutritious foods is an ongoing challenge for food banks and food
shelves. Milk is a highly requested, highly desirable item for food shelves to order as it is a rich
source of protein, vitamins, minerals and calcium and is very nutritious.
 However, fluid milk is rarely donated to Minnesota’s food banks (only about 2% of what is
needed). Despite some generous milk donors, there is still high need and low income families
find it prohibitively expensive to buy. Neither food banks nor food shelves have sufficient
financial resources to purchase all the milk that is needed (there is an estimated 340,000++
additional gallons of need in Minnesota in 2012, beyond what the grant covers).
 This appropriation provides significant financial relief to local food shelves who order it from the
six food banks and gets nutritious milk to food shelf clients that would otherwise not receive it.
How The Program Works
Because of Second Harvest Heartland’s size and central location, the five other food banks have
authorized SHH to act as their agent in disbursing these funds. The six food banks are:
Channel One, Rochester (serves 13 southeastern counties)
Northern Lakes, Duluth (serves 4 northeastern counties)
North Central, Grand Rapids (serves 6 north central counties)
North Country, Crookston (serves 21 northwestern counties)
Great Plains, Fargo (serves Clay County in MN)
Second Harvest Heartland (serves 41 counties of southwest, central and Metro MN)
1. Grant money to purchase milk is allocated to each of the six food bank according to a formula
used by Feeding America (the national network of food banks, of which these six MN food banks
are members), measuring--by population--unemployment and poverty rates based on federal
guidelines. This allocation is deemed most fair and is also used to distribute Minnesota’s TEFAP
allocations.
2. Milk purchased under the grants must be acquired from Minnesota milk processors and based
on low-costs bids.
3. The milk is purchased and distributed by the six food banks out to food shelves and made
available directly to food shelf clients.
4. Second Harvest Heartland submits quarterly reports to the commissioner and must include info
on the expenditure of funds, amount of milk purchased and the organization to which milk was
distributed. Food banks submit invoices to SHH quarterly for reimbursement using the grant
money.
Impact
In the most recent full grant year 206,323 gallons of milk were distributed through this program, an
equivalent of 3.3 million servings.
Because of food banks’ extremely efficient purchasing power based on volume and negotiated low-rate
bids, this grant money is working extremely hard—we can buy more milk and get more gallons to needy
people -- more than food shelves could do by purchasing milk on their own.
Breakout by food bank:
Channel One: 15,593 gallons/249,480 servings
Northern Lakes: 11,790 gallons/188,640 servings
North Central: 9,733 gallons/155,724 servings
North Country: 10,306 gallons/164,901 servings
Great Plains: 1,583 gallons/25,328 servings
Second Harvest Heartland: 157,318 gallons/2,517,082 servings
Background
The food banks solicit, warehouse and distribute large food donations in volumes that a single food shelf
does not have the capacity to accept. Food banks are “suppliers” and food shelves are “local
distributors” that order food from the food bank and give it to individuals and families in need.
In Minnesota, the food banks distribute to about 300 food shelves and several thousand emergency
food providers (such as soup kitchens and shelters). Second Harvest Heartland alone distributes to
nearly 1,000 food shelves and partner agencies.