Channel One Food Bank

Mission

Channel One Regional Food Bank serves seniors, people with physical or mental-health disabilities, working families and individuals, people in times of crisis due to job loss, medical problems or personal disaster, and food shelves, programs and agencies in 14 counties. These counties include Faribault, Waseca, Rice, Goodhue, Wabasha, Steele, Dodge, Olmsted, Freeborn, Mower, Fillmore, Winona, Houston, and La Crosse County in Wisconsin.

At Channel One Regional Food Bank, our mission is to strengthen food access and build healthy communities with a vision that every community in our region is food secure. We supply charitable emergency feeding organizations in 14 counties with food products to help them meet the needs of more than 100,000 hungry and food insecure people in our communities. We also distribute supplemental groceries to lower-income people living in Olmsted County.

Programs

Food Bank: distributes industry and government donated food supplies to 187 regional non-profit programs in SE Minnesota and La Crosse County, WI. 

Food Shelf: distributes free groceries to lower-income residents of Olmsted County, MN, providing a 5-day supply of supplemental food to eligible households each month. Commodity Distribution: distributes pre-packed boxes of nutritious federal commodity foods once a month to eligible senior citizens throughout our service area.

Mobile Food Pantry: sites are based upon an increased need for food in these locations and/or limited access to food shelves

Childhood Hunger Program: Channel One works with Rochester, Stewartville, and Byron Public Schools to connect families with full-service food offerings, which include fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, dairy, and shelf-stable products. Channel One provides schools with ‘food stability boxes’, which contain two days of shelf-stable meals for a family of four while school staff work to connect families with full-service offerings. Additionally, Channel One Food Bank distributes food to school pantries and backpack programs outside of Olmsted County.

Green Gardens: With the generous sharing of several acres at Rochester Covenant Church and Community Presbyterian Church in Rochester, Channel One offers the Green Garden program to families who wish to supplement their food budgets with fresh produce that is grown in the garden.

Nutrition Assistance for Seniors Program (NAPS): Through the Commodity Supplemental Food Programs or NAPS, Channel One provides an approximately 35-pound box of free food each month to seniors who meet income guidelines. The program is funded by the United States Department of Agriculture.