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Carl Klienschmidt braced for a rush of residents in need of help at his western Wisconsin food pantry. But surprisingly, the opposite happened.
In the tiny town of Turtle Lake, the volunteer-run pantry is serving fewer people than pre-pandemic, bucking the national trend of growing hunger. Across the border in Minnesota, Christi Dickey is also still waiting for the surge in need she and other volunteers expected at Fergus Falls food shelf. We ve been scratching our heads just wondering what s going on, she said.
It s a puzzling paradox at a time when Minnesota and Wisconsin are recording rising statewide hunger. In Minnesota, the state s 350 food shelves saw a record 3.8 million visits statewide in 2020 more than any other year and several Twin Cities nonprofits are dishing up free meals or groceries to double or triple the number of people as pre-pandemic.