Harvest Church of Crookston will be hosting food distribution events at the Crookston High School parking lot on Saturday, October 24, and Saturday, October 31. The events will be held from 10 a.m. – noon both days with church members along with their partners from the Farmers to Families program handing out boxes of food.
Jason Tangquist said they received the food truck deliveries through the church’s connection with a large church in Oklahoma that provides relief around the country. “We’ve got a connection with a church down in Tulsa, Oklahoma,” said Tangquist. “As part of their church, it’s a bigger church, they run a disaster relief non-profit. They mostly do like big thunderstorms, tornado, storm disaster relief, and in the gulf like when they have hurricanes and stuff down south. Apparently through the PPE or some of these government monies for COVID relief they were given a contract to bring like 26 trucks to Minnesota by the end of the month. They connected with us and asked if we’d be willing to help by taking a truck or two. We said we would and have it set up for the next two Saturdays. And it’s two trucks a Saturday because they thought that would probably work well for the size of a town we are.”
Just like with past food distribution events in Crookston, anyone in the community can pick up a box of food. “There’s already been a couple of food distribution events put on like this put on by the food shelf, Tri-Valley, and a couple of other agencies in town,” said Tangquist. “We’re set up again to do that. It’s open to anybody. Some people have said – well, you know I want to make sure we’re not coming and taking food somebody else might need – but basically, the program is open to anyone in the community. Of course, we want to get the food to people who really need it. But I think everybody could use some free groceries during this time. We just want to encourage people to come out and if they know somebody who can’t come out on their own because they can’t get to the parking lot. They can let us know and bring it to them.”
Tangquist said boxes will contain a variety of products. “What we’ve been told is it’s mostly fruit, vegetables, meat, and some dairy products,” said Tangquist. “So, probably like cheese and milk, and then a couple of meat/protein products as well. I think it changes depending on what the Farmer to Families group has available at the time in your area, so we don’t know specifically but that’s what we’ve been told. They say that a box feeds a family of four for a number of days but if people show up and they need more than a box, we’re going to have plenty of food. And we don’t want the food to go to waste, so we’re going to be diligent getting what people need, so it can be used.”
Tangquist said it’s encouraging to know people in the community can help in times of need and hopes people take advantage of the opportunity. “We’re glad we can do this through Harvest Church and we just want to encourage people to know during this time that the community is here for people,” said Tangquist. “And it’s a good opportunity to use some of these gifts that are out there. We just hope people show up.”
