How public policy advocacy secured April Rog’s decade-long goal of providing more eggs to neighbors

Although the 2026 state legislative session featured the most closely divided legislature in Minnesota history, Second Harvest Heartland managed to successfully advocate for legislation that will update the state’s egg labeling and donation laws so that more eggs will be available to neighbors visiting food shelves. The law, which passed with unanimous support, will take effect on August 1, 2026.

“Food shelves desperately need eggs, a high-value protein. They fit into a lot of cuisine. They’re easy to manage,” said April Rog, Director of Strategic Partnerships and Special Projects at Today's Harvest, one of more than 1,000 food programs that Second Harvest Heartland partners with across the state. 

Having previously occupied senior roles on Second Harvest Heartland’s Retail Rescue team, April first came across the need to update Minnesota’s egg labeling and donation laws in 2014. However, at the time, Second Harvest Heartland did not have a Public Affairs team, which they would have needed to help pass this legislation. 

“We understood that, to change the laws, we'd need to pass a bill. And you know, I was a food rescue director. I was not an advocacy manager. I was not in a position to engage with lawmakers on that scale,” April said. 

For April, this legislation brought her work full circle. After testifying in support of the bill before the Minnesota Senate, she saw a decade-long effort become law—helping ensure more neighbors can get the food they need to thrive. 

Here’s more on how April first encountered the need to update Minnesota’s egg labeling and donation laws and why advancing public policy was the only path forward.

This interview has been edited for length.

How did you first come across the need to update Minnesota’s egg labeling and donation laws?

During my time at Second Harvest Heartland, we worked with hundreds of retailers to expand donation practices previously limited to shelf-stable and bakery items into sophisticated food rescue programs, which enabled food retailers to safely donate perishable items.

As we rolled out the programs, we learned Minnesota had different rules for eggs than other states: they couldn't be donated past the "quality assurance" date printed on the package, even though they were still perfectly safe to eat. Including them in donation programs required re-candling, which was outside of what we were equipped to do.

Why was public policy advocacy the only solution to make more eggs available to neighbors?

The only obstacle was this outdated state law. Otherwise, retailers wanted to donate their eggs, food shelves needed the protein, and food banks had the infrastructure to move them.

We had genuinely productive conversations with legislators about what needed to change and why. But translating that into an actual bill required a different kind of advocacy: building coalitions, monitoring the legislative calendar, and tracking the bill through committee. That skillset sits with a public affairs team, not a food rescue program, and at the time we didn't have one. So, although we identified the issue, it remained unresolved for years.

That changed once Sophie Wallerstedt, Second Harvest Heartland’s Public Affairs Manager, convened all the stakeholders at the table ahead of the last legislative session. She had the roadmap. We spent over a year before the session making the case for a change in Minnesota’s egg labeling and donation laws to the right decisionmakers.

Having testified in support of this legislation, how did you feel when both the Minnesota House and Senate passed the bill unanimously?

It was a fantastic moment to see something I'd worked on for so long come to pass. I felt proud to have been part of the group that made this policy change possible, and I felt grateful for the chance to testify before the Senate. The whole process brought things full circle for me.

I'm also proud of how the hunger-relief network came together to change this law. I think the entire network and food retailers are thrilled to put it into practice once it takes effect on August 1, 2026, because in Minnesota, it’s against our nature to waste food, especially when it can go to our neighbors.