STRETCHING FOOD DOLLARS FOR THE COMMUNITY
Ruby’s Pantry making a difference with grocery shopping alternative By Johanna Armstrong The Daily Journal
R JOHANNA ARMSTRONG / DAILY JOURNAL
ORGANIZING THE PANTRY: Ruby’s Pantry site organizers, leaders and volunteers include (left to right) Kristen and Lee Danielson, Tim Rostad, Carol and Pete Bertram and Kim Skramstead. The pantry provides an affordable food option for community members.
uby’s Pantry has been running in Fergus Falls for a little over a year now, providing residents with an affordable alternative to grocery shopping once a month through Church of the Nazarene. Ruby’s Pantry itself has been around for 16 years with locations throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin, including Detroit Lakes, Perham, Breckenridge and Moorhead. The organization receives donations from different companies, entire pallets of food that are then distributed in “shares” one
night a month. Participants have no say in what constitutes their share; when it’s their turn to go through the distribution, they receive a set amount of everything that’s available, whether they want it or not. If they don’t want something, they’re encouraged to share it with their friends and neighbors. “Typically there’s milk, dairy, dry goods, there could be eggs, there could be cottage cheese, there could be pizzas, typically there’s a meat product,” says Carol Bertram, one of the organizers at the Fergus Falls site. There are SEE PANTRY PAGE 36
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