ROCHESTER - Southeast Minnesota's largest food bank is stopping deliveries to some of the region's smallest food shelves, citing the need for more efficiency with resources as demand for food assistance continues to climb.

Rochester-based Channel One Regional Food Bank says food shelf visits increased by nearly 40% year-to-year in the first half of 2024. The food bank now serves 33,000 households across a 14-county region from Blue Earth, Minn., to La Crosse, Wis.

"We have to drive efficiency right now," said Virginia Witherspoon, Channel One's executive director. "We are facing an insurmountable need and we have got to make sure that every time we go out in a truck that we are taking it to the highest-need areas."

Channel One said it will no longer serve 11 area programs, but declined to provide a list of the food shelves it is ending deliveries to. The programs collectively serve about 300 households a month, the organization said. The changes also affect 225 students who use Channel One's backpack programs.

All Seasons Community Services in Kenyon, Minn., says it learned last month that Channel One would discontinue service to its shelf, located about 45 minutes northwest of Rochester. The change took effect Aug. 16.

Mary Frutiger, director of All Seasons, said the letter came as a blow for the food shelf, which serves between 25 and 100 households a month from five towns, including Kenyon, Wanamingo and Nerstrand.

"We are going to band together; we are going to figure this out," Frutiger said. "But we shouldn't have been put in this situation on such short notice."

Witherspoon said some of the programs no longer served by Channel One had an opportunity in 2022 to receive grant funding to "increase choice and access at their food shelf, therefore serving more people in their region," but declined to participate in the program.

Channel One, she added, also factored in proximity to other food shelves nearby when considering where to discontinue service. Channel One maintains more than 100 partnerships with area food shelves and programs.

"Many of the programs we discontinued partnership with, we expect will still continue to run," said Witherspoon. "It just might make sense for them to get their food from a different source."

For All Seasons, it is uncertain what that new food source may be. Frutiger said she already tried another area food bank with no luck. Her next steps are to contact other wholesalers and grocery chains about food availability, while continuing outreach to local farms, churches and community groups.

"It's going to be tighter, it's going to be more difficult, but it's not impossible," Frutiger said.

The food shelf — open three days a week and run mostly by volunteers — has no plans to close, she said. If it did, the nearest food shelf would be at least 20 minutes away. Frutiger said she is concerned with what kind of message that would send to clients in rural areas already struggling to make ends meet.

"Small towns still have seniors, veterans, single families and children," Frutiger said. "Hunger does not know a city boundary, small or large."