LHENA Food Share Has Served Hundreds of Households

On the second Saturday and third Wednesday of each month, the Lowry Hill East Neighborhood Association runs its Food Share at SpringHouse Ministries, 610 W. 28th Street, at Lyndale Avenue South. Volunteers hand out free groceries from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. to anyone who has joined the list.

The setup is deliberately undramatic. Visitors get two bags of groceries, one of fresh produce and one of staples, and can choose their own items in person. The program aims to meet need without spectacle or stigma. To join the list, reserve groceries or ask about additional dates, residents can call or text 612-208-6044 or email [email protected].

The Food Share now serves more than 100 households a month, a figure that speaks to both the scale of the need and the neighborhood's response. In a dense neighborhood of more than 9,000 people, that the count runs into the hundreds is a reminder that hardship is closer than the area's reputation might suggest.

The program is run entirely by volunteers and sustained largely by donations from LHENA neighbors. Food, money and volunteer hours come from the same blocks the program serves, which is what distinguishes mutual aid from charity delivered from outside. That model is responsive and personal, with little bureaucracy between a donation and a bag of groceries, but it rises and falls on the energy of a volunteer base, which is why the association treats recruiting and sustaining that base as core work.

The program also depends on logistics that are easy to underestimate: securing and storing food, staffing the distributions, managing the list and keeping a steady monthly rhythm. The association has run periodic fundraisers to keep it stocked. For both those who need it and those who staff it, the distribution has become a fixed point on the Wedge's calendar.