GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. - Sara Kemp loves helping people. As the financial and case service manager for People Responding in Social Ministry, or PRISM for short, she knows how hard helping can get. Their food shelf serves 200 families a week and that number is growing.
"Our food shelf is constantly struggling. We see so many families. We know we can't keep up with demand. We do the best we can," she said.
A new USDA report shows that roughly 10 percent of Minnesota households are food insecure meaning they don't know where their next meal will be coming from. Food shelves often fill that gap but these days they too are strapped.
Colleen Moriarty, executive director of Hunger Solutions Minnesota, said all food shelves in the state are operating at maximum capacity.
"I think we are a very generous state and I think that we have people in this community that are very generous...but I question how long we can keep going at this pace," she said.
The need is expected to grow for at least the next two years. The hope for places like PRISM is to still be there for people in need. Kemp said they don't know when they will be able to fill their shelves again but they will give what they can.
