Woman in pink shirt picking out produce from a shelf of bins

CROSS Services’ Food Shelf is a Positive Place for Volunteers and Shoppers Alike

by Samantha Solberg
Sep 19, 2025

Kathryn, Deb, and Dan are all regular faces at CROSS Services’ Food Shelf, a Second Harvest Heartland partner in the northwest suburbs of the Twin Cities. 

Kathryn volunteers one day a week at the food shelf, helping neighbors by bagging their groceries and loading their cars. “Coming here is honestly a highlight of my week,” she says. “I like the people I work with. I like the clients. I just enjoy being with people and helping. You can see first-hand how it can positively affect people's lives.”

Woman in black shirt smiling in front of a cooler of food.

Kathryn, CROSS Services bagging volunteer

Deb and Dan have been making the one-hour drive to CROSS Services from Ogilvie, MN, once a month for over a year now to pick up groceries. The retired couple lives on a fixed income and says the extra food makes a big difference in their lives. “It's a ways for us to drive, but the quantity [of food] you get makes the drive worth it,” says Deb.

Deb appreciates that the food shelf provides “a little bit of everything.” Between items like fresh produce, ready-made meals, and canned goods, she says the food they get will last them a couple of weeks, especially if she is able to freeze some of it. “It really, really helps with what we don't have to buy at the grocery store,” she says. “Here you can pick what you need and will actually use, so that's really nice.” 

A woman and man shopping with a shopping cart in a food market

Deb and Dan shopping at CROSS Services

The atmosphere provided by CROSS Services makes it a great place to be for both shoppers and volunteers. As Kathryn describes it, the food shelf is a fun, positive, and dignified space. “This very much feels like a grocery store shopping experience,” she says.

Dan and Deb keep coming back to CROSS Services, not just because of the variety of food and limitations of a fixed income, but because of the people. “The people are really friendly, they’re helpful,” Dan says. “This is the best [food shelf] we ever went to.”

Three people loading groceries from a cart into the back of a car

Kathryn helping Deb and Dan put groceries in their car

Kathryn says she keeps volunteering because of the importance of food in the lives of families. “I think some people forget that you have different points of your life, and some times are not as good as other times,” says Kathryn. “This might just be a time when people are using [the food shelf] until life gets better or changes.”