360 Communities is Providing Food, Support, and Kindness in Rosemount

When you enter 360 Communities food shelf location in Rosemount, a southern suburb of the Twin Cities, you are immediately welcomed into the space by bright murals and pictures of fruits and vegetables. It's clean and inviting. There's a variety of different foods to choose from. And, most of all, you are greeted by staff and volunteers showing true kindness.

But 360 Communities does more than provide food. Along with operating a food shelf, the Second Harvest Heartland partner organization delivers programs and resources around violence prevention and intervention, school success, and reducing homelessness, providing wrap-around—or 360—support to community members.

“One thing that is really unique about our model is when folks come in here, they get to come in and—yes, they get to get food—but we also sit them down with a Resource Support Worker,” said Sara Felix, food shelf site coordinator for 360 Communities. “That person's job is to help identify what other barriers they are going through. How can we help meet the whole needs that you have and really think about things holistically?”

Sara Felix is the site coordinator for the Rosemount 360 Communities food shelf.

The 360 Communities food shelf in Rosemount serves roughly 500 people each month. “We go through so, so much food and we couldn't do what we do without the partnership with Second Harvest [Heartland],” said Sara. “Being able to have those food trucks come in is absolutely vital for us so we can serve the community and people that need it because the need is there.”

Second Harvest Heartland also recently helped 360 Communities update their retail rescue van, which goes around the community to different grocery and convenience stores picking up food for their food shelf that is not saleable, but perfectly good to eat. The updates to the van included refrigeration to keep food at the right temperature as it’s in transit. “It's a huge game changer for how we're able to do things, especially as it's starting to get warm out,” said Sara. “It’s making things the right temperature and we're giving out safe, quality food.”

Second Harvest Heartland helped 360 Communities outfit their retail rescue van with refrigeration.

With the pandemic, 360 Communities saw a big change in the number of neighbors they were serving, and that growth has not subsided. “It used to be that people could get an appointment the same week. Now people are out about six weeks,” Sara explained. The organization’s goal is for families to be able to have one appointment per month. Although, if a family comes without an appointment, they aren’t turned away. There are always pre-packed bags of shelf-stable foods, as well as milk and eggs, available for anyone who needs it between appointments.

360 Communities also hosts a free market outside their doors on the days when they are open with extra food that is available to the community to take, no questions asked. “It might be stuff that is at the end of its life, or we’re out of space and trying to maximize what we can do,” said Sara. But aside from helping them get rid of excess products, the free market is also helping to break the stigma of picking up food from a food shelf.

Thanks to the work of Sara and her team of staff and volunteers, citizens of Rosemount see 360 Communities as a vital part of the fabric of their community. “People absolutely love being here,” said Sara. “They appreciate how welcoming everyone is and that they come in and we're going to care.”