ABOVE: Senator Tina Smith, left, takes information in and discusses Heaven’s Table food shelf with Board Member Jennifer Nielsen, right, during Smith’s visit Tuesday.

FAIRMONT – Senator Tina Smith was in Fairmont Tuesday and learned about Heaven’s Table’s food shelf operations.

Heaven’s Table Board Member Jennifer Nielsen said they feed around 300 households a month, with households ranging from one to 13 people. People can only come once a month, with the food shelf open 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays and 9 to 11 a.m. on Saturdays.

They do make exceptions when applicable. Smith said she is grateful to see food shelves help people from diverse walks of life.

“[With] your clients, sometimes something bad happens,” she said. “You have a rough three or four months, and then you get back on your feet again. Sometimes you’re living with, like a long-term challenge, that means you’re always struggling. [For example, if] you have a disability.”

Smith stressed that food shelves are as important as ever, because of the many people who are on the edge of major struggles.

“Something I’ve learned talking to so many folks doing this work is it could be a family that was doing just fine,” she said. “Then the parent lost their job and it takes them a while to find another job. Rent is expensive, groceries are expensive, and you need this.”

The tour took Smith through the dry goods, perishables and household item sections. They surveyed the Friday lunch bag program Heaven’s Table does for nearly 400 children at Fairmont, Granada-Huntley-East Chain and Martin County West.

From a recent statewide study, Smith said one in five Minnesota households have trouble finding enough food to live healthily. She said this problem is hitting rural Minnesota especially hard.

“Rural counties are two-thirds of all counties, but they’re 90 percent of places where there’s the most food insecurity,” Smith said.

For supply, Nielsen said they get a majority of their food from Second Harvest Heartland food bank. She said they will also buy locally to fill in gaps and take in food donations from people and businesses. Some businesses, like Valero, make philanthropy a point of importance and volunteer some of their time with Heaven’s Table.

Around 130 people volunteer at least once. Nielsen said some come once a month while others will come once or more a week.

The last stop on the tour was the packaging area for rural distribution. For those in communities like Ceylon, Dunnell, and Ormsby who cannot make it to Fairmont, Nielsen said they send out boxes to around 50 households monthly.

A recent development impacting Heaven’s Table is federal funding. From April through December, 20 truckloads with 565,000 pounds of Emergency Food Assistance (EFA) were scheduled to go to food shelves across southern Minnesota through Second Harvest Heartland.

Due to a funding cut to USDA Institution Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC), those truckloads have been canceled.

Meat and dairy were to be the main items in these deliveries. While they’ll be fine on dry goods, Board Member Greta Lintelman said without those deliveries they will have to limit protein options.

“Right now [once a month] they’re getting a main meat choice plus two to three additional proteins,” she said. “As that decreases, we’ll have to decrease the amount to our families. We’ll try to always maintain that one choice of meat as much as possible.”

Smith said she has seen the negative impacts of Elon Musk and DOGE’s national-level federal program and department cuts on Minnesota, with the CCC cuts being one example. Through visits to organizations like Heaven’s Table, Smith said she is getting a full snapshot of Minnesota to inform her next steps in Washington.

“My number one priority is to make sure the big budget Congress is working on isn’t cutting access to food, both through USDA and nutrition programs like SNAP,” Smith said. “I will be voting against any efforts to cut those programs. I don’t think they’re waste and fraud. [They’re] what we agree to do together to make sure our neighbors and families have the food they need to be healthy and productive.”