Every month is a good month to donate food, clothing, shelter and other necessities to local families in need. But there’s a little added incentive in March.
Interfaith Outreach & Community Partners (IOCP) is participating in Minnesota FoodShare’s March Campaign, the largest annual food and fund drive in the state. March is the only month of the year when contributions leverage additional funding dollars. For every $1 donated, IOCP can purchase $9 worth of food.
This year, the goal of the IOCP Food Shelf is to collect 60,000 pounds of food and $60,000 during the campaign.
Last year, IOCP collected a record of 53,316 pounds of food and $55,739 during the March Campaign, which allowed the food shelf to replenish its inventory to serve 4,000 families in the community.
There’s a creative twist that goes along with donating food this year. In partnership with The Mosaic Company Foundation, IOCP is inviting businesses, schools, churches and other groups to organize food drives and create food sculptures out of the donated items. The Mosaic Foundation will match each pound of food with $1 to the IOCP Food Shelf (up to $20,000)
Click here to see the food shelf grocery list. The deadline for receiving nonperishable food items for the donation creation is March 16, sculptures must be completed by March 18, and voting will run through March 28. Winners will be announced in early April for five categories: people’s choice, most creative, most items, business, school, and faith community. See more contest details here.
Or, if you’re creative juices aren’t flowing, simply make a financial donation and select “Food Shelf” from the dropdown menu, or write a check to “IOCP Food Shelf” and mail to IOCP, MN FoodShare Campaign, 1605 County Road 101, N. Plymouth, MN 554447. You can drop off donations to the office Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. For more information, call IOCP at 763.489.7500.
