The Brainerd Food Pantry is celebrating its fifth anniversary of serving the community. They have served over one million meals to nearly 25,000 families in the Brainerd community.

The pantry started back in October 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Organizers wanted to help address the rise of food costs, but prices continued to increase.

"At that time, we were seeing about 185 families per pantry. We operate twice a month. Now we're serving over 400 families a month," said Bess Steverson, President of the Brainerd Food Pantry Board.

This increase heightened the need for access to fresh food. In 2018, the Brainerd community lost its BI-LO grocery store. Now, the nearest grocery store is nearly an hour-walk away.

"We realized that all of a sudden there were no gro

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