Every quarter, Kipsu spends a day volunteering in order to give back to the community. This quarter, we decided to volunteer at Second Harvest Heartland, which is one of the nation’s largest hunger relief organizations. Second Harvest Heartland is a food bank that collects food from farmers, hotels, restaurants, manufacturers, and others so that food can be packed and delivered to their agency partners such as shelters, after-school programs, soup kitchens, and food pantries. Agencies like these then provide a place for children, parents, and seniors to have access to food.

It was then Kipsuvians’ job to pack, measure, and seal donated breakfast cereals, while building the boxes that the food would be placed into.

Although we shared a few laughs at the beard nets, we got geared up to pack as much food as possible!

1 in 10 Minnesotans are hungry on any given day, and one in 6 Minnesota children are hungry on any given day. In 2016, Second Harvest Heartland was able to deliver more than 80 million meals to nearly 1,000 food shelves, pantries, and other partner programs serving 59 counties in Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Kipsu and the other volunteer groups were able to pack 4,408 pounds of food that would then be delivered to local communities. We were very thankful for the chance to volunteer at such a wonderful organization like Second Harvest Heartland who are committed to helping support local communities in need every day. If you would like to learn more about Second Harvest Heartland, visit their website here. Let us know in the comments below if you have any ideas of where Kipsuvians should volunteer next!