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Fairmont area food shelves get boost

FAIRMONT — For 12 years, Martin County Kids Against Hunger has held a food pack in February to aid hungry people overseas.

Now the Fairmont area is a recipient of Kids Against Hunger’s good will.

According to Karen Sandhurst, a local organizer for Kids Against Hunger, area food shelves are offered as much of the food from the local pack as they feel they can use within the next year. This year, that was 10,368 meals, out of 131,976 packed on Feb. 15. Most of the meals were sent to Haiti.

The Sioux Falls satellite of Kids Against Hunger, the organization that helps organize and orchestrate the Martin County pack, has since been stockpiling boxes of food packed in Sioux Falls to make another big shipment to Africa. However, given the economic effects of coronavirus in the Midwest, the local need has gone up significantly. So Sioux Falls Kids Against Hunger decided to cancel the shipment to Africa and instead offer more food to groups in the Midwest.

Sandhurst says that because Martin County has held packs and donated funds to cover the cost of the food packed, Jeff Behrend, executive director of Sioux Falls Kids Against Hunger, called and offered more boxes of food to local food shelves, which are seeing increased demand.

On Wednesday, 21 boxes, representing an additional 4,536 meals, were hauled from Sioux Falls to Martin County and are being delivered to Ruby’s Pantry in Sherburn, Heaven’s Table in Fairmont and Salvation Army in Fairmont.

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