Demand for assistance putting food on Minnesotans’ tables is at a record high level, as the state’s residents made more than 9 million visits to food shelves last year, according to The Food Group, a Twin Cities-based nonprofit that works with food shelves statewide to alleviate hunger and meet residents’ nutritional needs.
That’s 2.5 times more food shelf visits than in 2019, and 2025 was the fourth consecutive year of record demand for food assistance.
The Food Group released data this week showing that rising grocery prices and other costs are making it more difficult for many Minnesotans to be able to afford to stock their refrigerators and pantries on their own, said Rachel Holmes, director of advocacy and community engagement, who helped gather data for the report.
“Food is far more expensive than it was just five years ago, and even 3 percent more expensive than it was last year,” Holmes said. “And now we’re seeing a pretty steady increase in gas prices, rent costs. Life in general is becoming more unaffordable.”
Holmes and other hunger relief advocates say demand for assistance from food shelves is expected to continue to soar this year, as the massive tax and spending bill pushed through Congress by Republicans last summer slashed funding for SNAP, the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, and imposed stricter eligibility requirements.
“It’s the new normal that we’re at right now, and our food shelf partners are at capacity,” Holmes said. “They’re doing all they can, and 9 million visits isn’t just a one year big spike. What we’re seeing now is that this is likely going to be kind of the new normal.”
But Holmes said the higher number of visits is not just due to increased demand, but it is also a sign that food shelves are doing a better job of responding to Minnesotans in need. The data showed that visits hovered around 3.5 million per year in 2019, 2020 and 2021, during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic, but a significant investment of federal COVID relief funding then helped food shelves make changes to the ways they provide food assistance to people in need.
It allowed food shelves to develop ways to deliver food to families at home and also forge new community partnerships with churches, schools, tribal councils and other organizations to help reach more people.
“I believe that a heavy investment in the emergency food system allowed us to pivot to do more distribution, to be open more hours, to have different and new models that reflect [the] kind of the modern shopping patterns of families in our state,” Holmes said. “I believe that’s why we saw such a stark difference between the decade of 3 million visits and where we’re at now.”
The Food Group’s annual Food Shelf Visits report shows that many Minnesotans now rely on food shelves for more of their meals. The report indicates that 83 percent of monthly food shelf users now visit more than once a month, and 57 percent of them rely on their food shelves for at least half of half or more of their groceries each month.
“Our food shelf has become something that [families] need to rely on every week to be able to have fresh produce and milk and other essentials for their family, whereas maybe a year or two years ago, we were something that they would only use in case of emergency or during tight times,” said Jessica Francis, executive director of Open Cupboard, which operates food shelves in the Twin Cities suburbs of Oakdale and Maplewood.
In 2025, Open Cupboard saw more than 1.18 million visits to its various programs, and the nonprofit distributed about 6.7 million pounds of food. During the federal government shutdown in October and November, when SNAP benefits were frozen, more than 1,300 households that had never used the food shelf before turned to Open Cupboard to help feed their families.
Francis said the continuation of rising costs for basic necessities, along with skyrocketing gas prices due to the war in Iran, will squeeze family budgets even more. Francis said the vast majority of their clients are working but are increasingly unable to make ends meet, so the food shelf is preparing for even more demand.
“We have to be thinking about what’s coming next and making sure that we have everything we need in place, and so that’s what’s really keeping me up at night, is making sure that we are building systems that can be responsive,” Francis said. “Because we know that things can change overnight and they can change within a week.”
Earlier this week, about 300 hunger relief advocates met with state lawmakers to discuss legislative priorities. They’re pushing for increased state funding in the Minnesota Food Shelf Program, and support for a new regional food bank grant that’ll allow food banks to purchase and distribute more food to food shelf partners.
Other priorities include having the state step in to help keep people enrolled in SNAP, the federal food assistance program, and providing prepared meals tailored to the medical needs for seniors and the nutritional needs of families across the state.
