2024 Year in Review

Wow, was 2024 a big year for us! We started the year on W 2nd Street, bursting at the seams, and ended it at our new location off Milligan Ave in our beautiful new space!

Here’s the numbers:

• 309,914 pounds of food, water, hygiene items and pet food distributed
• On average we distributed 22 lbs per individual served, 3,104 lbs per open day, and 25,545 lbs per month
• 14,164 “duplicated individuals” served over the course of 5,317 visits, or an average of 443 visits a month.
• 31% of these individuals were under the age of 18, and 13% were seniors.
• 1,710 unique individuals in 635 unique households served over the course of the year
• 42% of households served were new in 2024
• 36% of households served contained only one person
• 25% of households (158 households) only use the food shelf once in 2024
• 19% (126 households) only used it twice or three times in 2024
• We served households from all over Wabasha County:
• 43% of households were from Wabasha or Kellogg
• 26% of households were from Plainview or Elgin
• 11% of households were from Lake City
• Of the remaining households, 6% were homeless or had out of state addresses, 3% were from Rochester, 3% from Winona and 8% were from all other locations, including many small communities in Wabasha County
• October was our busiest month with 501 visits to the food shelf
• April we distributed the most pounds in a month with 30,191 lbs distributed to 495 households

 

• Over 50 active volunteers put in over 2,000 hours serving our organization, including retail rescue, serving on the Board of Directors, writing thank you notes, and renovating and moving us into our new location
• We moved from approximately 1,200 square feet at our old location to 21,600 square feet at our new location
• Increased open hours from 6 hours a week to 8 hours a week and aligned open days with twice weekly deliveries from the Channel One Food Bank to maximize fresh produce, milk and egg availability
• Added a walk-in cooler and walk-in freezer
• Cut wait times from 1 hour+ on busy days to less than 10 minutes. Now able to serve approximately 50 households an hour at our new location
• over $88,000 of donations from individuals–THANK YOU!
• over $30,000 of grants from organizations and foundations with an additional $38,000 awarded from South Country Health Alliance to cover the cost of the new walk-ins!
• Food costs average 34 cents per pound, or $7.48 for each individual served or $19.79 for the average 58 pounds received by a household on each food shelf visit