New! Visit www.FareForAll.org
Press Release (below) - August 1, 2002
For $17.00 (plus up to $1.00 for trucking and local expenses) you can purchase a food package filled with fresh produce and frozen meats worth $35 to $40 at retail. (The Lite pak is valued $25 to $30, and the Meat Only Pak is valued at $20.) All food orders must be prepaid with cash or EBS/EBT (food stamps) at least two weeks before the distributiondate.
For sites anywhere in Minnesota call 763-450-3880 (or 1-800-582-4291) for registration information.
You can help form a NEW SITE to serve your local community! Call or e-mail Brooke Johnson (bjohnson@emergencyfoodshelf.org) for the information needed by your church, community center, or service group.
To join, just stop in during distribution times (dates below), or telephone the Metro warehouse for your local coordinators.
Typical Food Paks ( + trucking fee = total):
|
These are Saturdays; some sites also have Friday distributions.
|
These are Saturdays; some sites also have Friday distributions.
|
The January 2002 packages included:
|
FARE Share Food Pak
|
FARE Share Light Food Pak
|
It is your responsibility to pick up your food at the location, date, and time for your Host Site. The food is perishable. If you fail to pick up your food it will be distributed to others. Refunds and credit requestss cannot be honored. Your participation is appreciated. Thank you!
EFN Press Release
Fare For All stands for Food And Resource Exchange. Fare For All is a non-profit volunteer-based food-buying program that allows people to stretch their food purchasing power by buying cooperatively. Each month, individuals pay $15 per package and receive up to $35 worth of grocery items. A typical Fare For All package may include: 4 to 7 fresh vegetable items, 4 to 5 frozen meats, 3 to 4 fresh fruit items and 2 to 3 frozen packaged items. Each month, volunteers distribute Fare For All packages in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Northern Iowa and Western Wisconsin.
In addition to great cost-savings in food purchasing, Fare For All encourages community service. Fare For All participants pool their time and talents to improve their neighborhoods. Each participant is asked to contribute two or more hours of volunteer service each month. About one-third of the 40,000 volunteer hours which Fare For All generates each month go toward running the program. The other 27,000 volunteer hours go into working on community projects such as community education classes, neighborhood cleanups, soup kitchens, person to person assistance, senior centers and a myriad of other volunteer activities. Fare For All is committed to the idea of people working together to improve the community.
For the past 17 years, Fare for All has operated as a program of the Ramsey Action Project (RAP) and after a number of years of operating in the red; RAP determined that after July 31, 2002, they would no longer continue to support this program. RAP asked the Emergency FoodShelf Network to take over this program starting August 1, 2002. On June 26, 2002, the Board of Directors for the Emergency FoodShelf Network agreed to take over the Fare for All program.
All aspects of the program including assets, contacts, agency support and an established network of thousands of volunteers throughout the state have been transferred to the Emergency FoodShelf Network. EFN is committed to assuring that this quality program remains available to clients throughout the 5 state area in order to supplement their monthly food budgets. EFN's goal is to provide subsidies to low-income clients by offering food packages based on a sliding-fee ability to pay. By using EFN's already strong purchasing power, we plan to implement a program where clients can access quality nutritious food at the lowest prices possible at least twice a month. This program is anticipated to save low-income families more than $500,000 a year.
We know that there is an enormous need for cost-saving supplemental programs for low-income families. We believe that Fare for All is an excellent program that provides quality food to families throughout the 5 state area. We also know that if this program is to flourish again, that major changes are necessary in the overall management and delivery of the program. With EFN's 26 year history of providing efficient programming, our already established infrastructure for distributing quality food to people in need, our ability to support a successful network of food relief organizations, and our knowledge of issues related to hunger, places EFN in the best position to evaluate and make the necessary improvements to expand and grow this valuable program. We anticipate tapping into the already well-established volunteer base in our effort to gain a full understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of this program.
For more information on the Emergency FoodShelf Network's Fare For All program contact Karen DeClouet, EFN's Manager of Programs and Outreach at 763-450-3880 ext. 218.or kdeclouet@emergencyfoodshelf.org.