A Glimpse of Dodge County

For the past couple of weeks the News Enterprise has been looking at some of the ways people in Dodge County and the surrounding areas are dealing with food insecurity problems.
Food insecurity doesn’t have to mean going hungry. Rather, it’s not having a consistent, affordable access to healthy food.
Statistics show there are more people throughout Minnesota who are in that situation than we care to believe.
I’ve found that there are many people and organizations that are concerned about the problem and doing what they can to fix it.
Last week’s issue took a look at a community dinner at the Episcopal Church in Kasson, and for this week’s story I talked to the pastor at Faith Lutheran in Dodge Center. Her congregation has started a food pantry that provides a bag of groceries, once a month, to families and individuals finding there is “too much month at the end of the paycheck.”
There are more such groups. Some are faith-based and some are not. What’s important is that people are doing something.
They also don’t all do the same thing or serve exactly the same population.
“A Place at the Table” provides a meal to anyone who wants it, although a fair number of the people eating are involved in a Kasson recovery program. “Pantry of Faith” is filling another niche. There is also a backpack program that provides weekend food for Triton youngsters on free or reduced-price meals. Semcac provides meals for seniors.
Pastor Barb Streed said that Faith Lutheran had found their “niche.” There are many “niches” to fill, and if enough people and groups find a niche to fill, there will be food enough for all.