Is "Fare for All" a Possibility for Wadena County?

By Pat Ervasti, NEA University of Minnesota Extension in Todd County

     Is the “Fare for All” food program a possibility for our communities? The answer depends on you! In order to start a program like this we need many responsible and reliable people who will volunteer a few hours each month.
     First of all, let me describe what the “Fare for All” (FFA) program is. It is a program in which you can buy a box of food at a reduced price and two hours of community volunteer work. There are no income guidelines or restrictions on the number of boxes you can purchase as long as you have contributed two hours of volunteer work per box. There is also a $2 charge per box for a transportation fee. The volunteer work can be of your choosing.
     The distribution is usually the third Friday of each month. If you fail to pick up your box or don’t make arrangements for someone to pick it up for you, then your box can be sold to someone else and your money will be refunded. If no one else wants your box, the box can be donated to a local food shelf and you are simply out the money you paid. When you pick up your box you pay for and order the box/boxes you want the following month, along with turning in the volunteers hours that you have done.
     You must pre-order and pre-pay for your box/boxes of food. You can use cash, check, debit, credit card or an EBT to pay for your box. However, you must pay for the $2 transportation fee separately in case and that cannot be charged to an EBT card. There are five different types of boxes that you can purchase. A regular box ($17) which includes four or more fresh vegetables, two or more fresh fruits, and four or more frozen meat products. The light pack ($12) features one meat item and all the fruit and vegetable items of a regular pack. The meat only pack ($12) contains four or more meat items which may include chicken, beef, pork, and fish. The vegetarian pack ($10) contains fresh fruits, vegetables and dry food items such as rice, beans, and pasta. The family pack ($20) is a variety of staple non-perishable items.
This program will not replace your trips to the grocery store but it will help supplement what you already are buying. You do not get to choose what goes into each package and you will have an opportunity to try new items that you probably have not purchased before. However, you will pay about 50 percent less than what the box is worth. This is possible because of buying in bulk and because of the volunteer hours that go into the monthly distribution of food.
     Ideally it would be nice to have two sites in our county so that people do not have to spend so many dollars in transportation costs to pick up their boxes. In order to have that happen, we will need people who want to participate in this program as well as the following:
     1. Each site needs a leader and co-leader. These people are responsible for the collection of monies and all the paperwork that needs to be done. Volunteers are key to being able to have this program, as the paperwork must be done accurately and the money handled responsible.
     2. A handicapped accessible site to do a monthly distribution.
     3. Volunteers to help with packaging the orders and carry boxes for the elderly.
     4. Volunteers to clean the site when the distribution is done.
     5. Volunteers to transport food from the FFA office to the distribution site. NOTE: We are working on seeing if the truck that travels to Fergus Falls could make stops on the way back to the cities at our local towns to drop off the food.
     6. A sponsoring organization. This may be a church, school, senior center, VFW, 4-H club, or other community group or organization. We could use several sponsors in each town. The sponsor could provide the site for distribution or in the case of a youth group or 4-H club it could provide the muscle power to pack and carry boxes.
     Once the program is up and running, each of the sites would be individually run and managed by the leader, co-leader, sponsoring organization(s), and volunteers at that site. Therefore if this program is to be a possibility, it will depend on YOU!
     For people in the Wadena County area interested in starting this program, contact Donna Anderson at (218) 631-7794 or 218-640-0285 or via e-mail at ande8387@umn.edu. A site in Sebeka is pending until the end of May.
     For people in the Long Prairie, Browerville are interested in starting this program, contact Pat Ervasti at 320-732-4812 or via e-mail at ervas001@umn.edu.
     For the Bertha, Eagle Bend, Hewitt area, contact Pat Ervasti (evenings) at 218-924-4523 or Marilyn Dickenson at 218-924-2230 or e-mail Pat Ervasti.
     In the Staples area, contact Barb Peterson at 218-894-2627 or e-mail Pat Ervasti.
     You may choose to participate at whichever location you desire and you need not live in the county that you participate in. It just needs to be convenient site for you to go to.