March is Minnesota Foodshare Month. As of March 16, the community raised 34,000 pounds of food and $35,000 towards the goal of 50,000 pounds and $100,000 for the Channel One Inc. Food Bank and Food Shelf campaign.

In addition to providing food for individuals in need, Channel One provides food to many other programs including two that I volunteer for: Saturday Noon Meals and Interfaith Hospitality Network.

Saturday Noon Meals has served a nutritious hot meal to persons in need every Saturday for 12 years. Saturday Noon Meals serves between 60 - 90 people every week. The people served are needy for many reasons - some have mental illness or addiction problems, many are seniors with a limited income, some are homeless, others have serious health problems. Because of the low cost food available from Channel One (Saturday Noon Meals pays 4 -18 cents per pound of food for processing fees) and the many volunteers who help cook and serve the meals, Saturday Noon Meals can afford to feed people every Saturday.

In addition to food, many of the people attending Saturday Noon Meals need a place where they can feel welcome and socialize with other people. Saturday Noon Meals treats the people who attend as our friends and neighbors. Meals are served family style. Once a month we celebrate birthdays and we often have special treats for Holidays. The social skills of the people attending have greatly improved since we started the program! One Saturday Ruth told me she really enjoyed coming to Saturday Noon Meals because we treat her like a "real person".

Please consider giving a donation to Channel One this month. For every dollar donated to Channel One, they are able to provide enough food for 5 meals and programs such as Saturday Noon Meals can continue. Many churches, businesses and organizations are collecting food and money this month. For additional information see the Channel One web site at http://www.channel-one.org/minnesota_foodshare.htm [1].