Leisha Martinez, Sleepy Eye FFA Historian, is helping out with putting the boxes into the vehicles for the Brown County Food Redistribution Service Project.

SLEEPY EYE — On Tuesday, June 23, from 3 to 6 p.m., approximately 36,564 pounds of food was distributed to 554 Brown County families and the Sleepy Eye Public lunch program. The fresh food given out was a dairy box, a produce box, and a meat box. Items inside included: PRODUCE BOX- lettuce, celery, onions, apples, oranges, baby carrots, radishes, potatoes, green peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers. DAIRY BOX- milk, cheese, and yogurt. MEAT BOX- bacon, chicken patties, and chicken hot dogs .

Volunteers for the event included:12 Sleepy Eye FFA members, 3 FFA advisors, Sleepy Eye FFA Summer Intern, Trinity Lutheran members, Sleepy Eye Food Shelf board members, Mark Thomas Co employees, Miss Sleepy Eye and the Princesses as well as several community members and the Sleepy Eye Police Department.

Advisor Mary Hoffmann states, “The Sleepy Eye FFA was more than happy to help with this amazing service project! Covid has been hard on everyone and to be able to redistribute this fresh food to members of our community and county makes me so proud to be a part of it!”

Morgan Hoffmann, Sleepy Eye FFA President adds, “It was cool to work with so many other volunteers in our Sleepy Eye Community to help those in need. One of the main goals of the Sleepy Eye FFA is service and we were more than willing to help with this project!”

The food that was given out was part of a $3 billion USDA Food Box program. The USDA bought it from regional and local distributors who bought it from farmers and didn’t have any place to distribute it because of closings of restaurants due to COVID-19. They partnered with Second Harvest to get it into the hands of those who could use it.