This year’s Chili Challenge will help the Hubbard County Food Shelf meet the growing needs of its clients.

Food shelf director Bob Hansen said the Chili Challenge helps them in two important ways. First, they receive 100% of the money raised. Secondly, it helps determine the amount of money they receive through the March Minnesota FoodShare campaign.

“It’s extremely important,” he said. “Our client count has gone up. Food costs are going up, and it’s getting tougher and tougher to provide the volume of food we’ve been doing. Thank heavens for all of our local grocery stores that are donating to us on a weekly basis – Hugo’s, Coborn’s, Walmart and now ALDI is helping, too. With inflation, food is costing us more, so this really helps.”

Hansen said that cash donations, such as the check they receive from the Chili Challenge, get the most food for the money because the food shelf uses it to buy from North Country Food bank at a greatly reduced cost.

“For instance, we had 18,662 pounds of groceries that came from the food bank one day last week,” he said. “That 18,662 pounds of food cost $10,621. The shelves were looking pretty empty before that delivery.”

The Sentenced to Serve program brings people to help unload the food, and food shelf volunteers help stock the shelves.

Samples of a variety of chilis from 22 teams will be available from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, March 6 at the Park Rapids American Legion for $1 per serving.

Sweet treats and water will also be available, and there will be a quilt raffle.

Teams will be competing for awards as the top fundraiser and votes for the best chili.

“The most successful teams are those who talk to neighbors and friends and get donations for the food shelf that they can turn in on March 6,” Hansen said.

Donations may also be made at the Chili Challenge.

The event is sponsored by the American Legion, Living at Home of the Park Rapids Area, the Park Rapids Enterprise, the Lions Club, the Rotary Club, Prudential Insurance, De La Hunt Media and Nei Bottling.

A committee of sponsor representatives and community members have been busy planning and organizing the Chili Challenge, including Jean Ruzicka, who has been helping with the event since it was started by the Park Rapids Enterprise.

Donations during March are especially important for the food shelf.

“We get an allocation of funds based on the percentage of funds and food that we get donated to us compared to all of the other food shelves in the state,” said Hansen.

Hansen said, in 2023, they served 961 households.

“We gave them 452,700 pounds of food at no charge,” he said. “The number of households served was up 48% over the last two years. The number of household members served was up 52% and the number of pounds of food we gave away was up 37%. The number of household visits was up 66%. That number is an indication that more households are needing help since COVID money ended and SNAP benefits rolled back to what they were prior to COVID.”

He said higher food prices have greatly impacted seniors and working families.

“We see more seniors finding it more and more challenging to stretch their food budget,” he said. “Working families with kids are also having a harder time stretching their food dollars because of inflation.”

Vickie DeSchane has been a food shelf volunteer since the 1990s. She said the volume of people using the food shelf has really grown.

“Back when I started volunteering, we had two workers,” she said. “If we had 10 families use the food shelf in a day, we were really busy. Now if we have 10 families in a day that’s a slow day. And we have four or five volunteers, plus those who are picking up groceries and delivering them.”

Checks made out to the Hubbard County Food Shelf may be dropped off during food shelf hours (Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.) or mailed to Hubbard County Food Shelf, 308 Pleasant Ave. S., Park Rapids, MN, 56470.

Donations may also be dropped off during food shelf hours. Items needed include flour, sugar, rice, macaroni and cheese, baked beans, peanut butter, pastas, spaghetti sauce, soups and dry cereal.

Volunteers are needed to pick up groceries from stores and to help at the food shelf. Call 218-732-1282 for more information.