FAIRMONT — Produce, meat and dairy products will be distributed to Martin County residents from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday in the Fairmont High School parking lot.

The food drop, as it is called, is a free emergency food distribution that is part of the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program. It is being coordinated through Second Harvest Heartland, a Twin Cities food bank, and Heaven’s Table Food Shelf of Fairmont.

“Each family will get three boxes. The produce is in one box. Meat products, chicken and pork, are in the second box, and they’ll get a third box that had dairy products,” said Greta Lintelman, Heaven’s Table board member, who is coordinating the food drop.

The food drop is open to all Martin County residents. There are no income guidelines.

“The information we’re looking for is how many people are in the household and what ages they are,” Lintelman said. “That’s so we have the statistics to show the range of people we are serving.”

Through information provided by the state, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers CFAP, determined that Martin County has a need for the CFAP program, which links farm products to people in need. When Second Harvest was asked to distribute the products, the food bank asked Heaven’s Table to host the food drop.

“This is a great opportunity for us. For them to be able to pinpoint that there is a need here is nothing but good for us so we can help as many people as possible,” Lintelman said.

“There are so many families that would not normally have a need. They are stressed by layoffs or medical bills or maybe they might not be shopping because they are at risk or fearful of the COVID situation,” she said.

Windom hosted the first CFAP food drop earlier this week, and Lintelman reported the event went smoothly.

Last month, Heaven’s Table hosted a produce drop at the high school. Volunteers from the food shelf boxed up and distributed 10 pallets of fresh produce from Second Harvest to 315 local families in a two-hour time span.

Monday’s distribution point will be at the end of the high school horseshoe. Participants should enter the high school parking lot through the west entrance by the football field and drive to the end of the parking lot before turning left toward the school. After a vehicle is loaded, it will leave the parking lot through the east exit closest to the school.

Each vehicle will be loaded with products for a maximum of two families, and one representative from each family should be in the vehicle.

“Make sure you have space for the boxes because we’re going to want to load them quickly and get them on their way,” Lintelman said. “In this case, you’ve got three boxes per family. If there are two families in the car, you’ve got six boxes to stow.”