Prior Lake, Minnesota - The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community has recently made donations totaling $23,750 to provide food for food shelves and other organizations which primarily serve Native Americans.

The SMSC is supporting the Native American Community Board in Lake Andes, South Dakota, with $5,000 for a community food shelf which serves the Yankton Sioux Reservation. NACB provides thousands of pounds of food to tribal and community members that would run out of food to feed their families if it were not for the food pantry assistance they receive.

A $5,000 donation went to Hunger Solutions Minnesota of Arden Hills to support their hunger and food distribution program. Hunger Solutions with its member food shelves distributed over 47 million pounds of food in 2007. In the first quarter of 2008 there was an 11% rise in food shelf usage in the Twin Cities.

The Slim Buttes Agricultural Development Project on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota received $5,000 to support a gardening project for tribal members to grow their own fresh, healthy foods.

Miigeweyon Native American Funeral Project of Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $2,000 for funeral and wake services which includes their food pantry which supplies food for families to prepare to feed extended family members and guests during wakes and funerals.

Loaves and Fishes of Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a supplementary $2,000 for their feeding program, which runs eight feeding centers in the Twin Cities. They received $5,000 from the SMSC earlier this year.

The Cass Lake Community Family Service Center of Cass Lake, Minnesota received $2,000 for their food shelf. The Leech Lake, White Earth, and the Red Lake Ojibwe reservations are near Cass Lake.

The Centre for Asians and Pacific Islanders of Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $1,500 for their food shelf. In 2007 they distributed over 200,000 pounds of food.

The Emergency Foodshelf Network of New Hope, Minnesota, received $1,000 towards the construction of a clean repackaging room in order to increase their capacity to distribute nutritious foods. Two hundred different food shelves belong to the EFN. The clean room will be used to repackage bulk food products such as rice, pinto beans, and other dry staples to save money.

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