Where do Minnesota State Fair leftovers go?

More than 200 Minnesota State Fair food vendors are donating leftover food to Minnesota’s hunger relief network through Second Harvest Heartland and its partner food shelves.

Tuesday’s donations exceeded 10,000 pounds of food, according to Second Harvest CEO Sarah Moberg, who said the food could benefit more than 1,000 families. Second Harvest distributes food through a statewide network of food shelves and meal programs.

“We do believe this food will have an important impact. You know, September today, so many kiddos are going back to school,” she said. “We also know that one in three families with children are struggling right now to put food on their table, and so whenever we can come together as a community and help families get the food that they need, that’s important, and that’s what we are here to do as Minnesotans.”

Vendors who have donated so far include Sweet Martha’s Cookie Jar, Fresh French Fries and the Perfect Pickle. Moberg said Second Harvest divides the donated food among partner food shelves, which then provide it to communities across the state.

Tuesday’s partners included Freedom Works, The Sanneh Foundation and Loaves and Fishes. It’s the first time the fair has consolidated the donated food at a single pickup location.

FreedomWorks is a Minneapolis-based Christian food shelf that also supports people returning to the community after incarceration. Sheldon McMahon-Desmond, FreedomWorks volunteer engagement manager, said he and eight other formerly incarcerated men showed up to help.

“When we commit a crime, it’s a scar, and when we serve our sentence, we commit our parole,” McMahon-Desmond said. “That scar is still there, but how we can heal that scar is by giving back, helping others, making sure we don’t think of ourselves and help others first. And so that’s what we always have when we’re giving food to other people; and to give that, we’re healing that scar and making it completely go away by doing that.”

He said the food will come to FreedomWorks’s facility in North Minneapolis and be distributed at their food shelf next Wednesday. The food shelf is open every other Wednesday from 5-7 p.m. and does not require a sign-up process, McMahon-Desmond said.

Loaves and Fishes Executive Director Michael Tankenoff said the organization rescued more than 4,000 pounds of food from the fair last year, enough for nearly 4,000 meals. Before this year’s partnership, he said they had been rescuing food from the fair for at least the last five years.

“We have a good pulse on what an event like this will yield, but for us, that could operate and feed one of our larger meal sites for the month,” he said. “We get thousands of folks coming through on a monthly basis, depending on the location, so every little bit helps.”

Tankenoff said the partnership adds more structure and order. He hopes they’ll match their food distribution numbers from last year.

“Even if it’s a couple thousand, it’ll still find a good home,” he said. “We’ll turn it in a matter of days, and someone needing food assistance will benefit from it.”

He added the food will be distributed in their larger North Minneapolis warehouse, meal sites across the metro area and a smaller facility near the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus.

People can register on the Loaves and Fishes website for Friday’s community food distribution, which runs from 9 a.m. to noon at its larger warehouse.