(soft music) - Since the beginning of the pandemic food insecurity has really been a primary importance in our food system.

Hunger is a bigger problem than it was before and getting nutritious local produce is often a part that's missing when it comes to food access.

- The data shows us that even in a moment, like COVID-19, millions of America, largely Black and Brown, are today even more food insecure.

We're seeing a more dependency on our own emergency food solutions because of the fragile nature of the entire system.

So in the land where there's an abundance of resources, we still have millions of families that are food insecure.

- And it's really a logistics problem.

It's about connecting.

In the Heartland we have more than enough food to go around for everyone, so our job is to make sure we help connect it with the people who need it, and so we have some of the biggest corporations working in the food industry here in our backyards that help us do this.

We have an amazing and wonderfully powerful agricultural community here.

- Typically, in hunger relief work, funders want their dollars to just stretch as far as they can.

So they wanna buy the most food, the most calories for as little money.

But of course it's really important for local farmers to get a share of that money too and in a year like this one when so many markets are disrupted hunger relief has been a huge way to support local farmers.

- COVID impacted my farm season greatly.

I sold all of my produce to the CSA Box and to the food bank 'cause the need was so high.

- Partnerships are really important to us with other organizations around here.

Appetite For Change is an organization on the Northside that we work with and they got together with a couple of organizations to design a food box for families on the Northside, and they pulled us in because of our experience sourcing a large quantity of produce from all local farmers.

- We have been meeting weekly here on Mondays to distribute these kits.

Every single kit has a series of different ingredients; fresh, unique.

They're sourced from some of the best places here locally in Minnesota.

I know I even had one person call me up and say, "Where did y'all get that chicken from?

I have never had free range chicken.

It was so delicious."

- [Man] See you next week.

- Have a good day.

- [Woman] You too.

- It comes with the recipe and all the ingredients that you need to make it.

Then it's just a different way of cooking and learning how to use different types of foods that you normally won't use and it's all locally grown, down from the vegetables to the meats, so it's pretty great.

- [Anna] Why not solve a local problem with a local solution?