How Walmart is Providing Food and Care to Worthington’s Global Market Food Shelf
Opened in 2024, Global Market is a United Community Action Partnership (UCAP) food shelf in Worthington, a city of nearly 14,000 in southwest Minnesota. The new food shelf focuses on providing much-needed food to the growing community, serving more than 100 families a month. They are currently in a temporary space and in the process of building a permanent home in a former bowling alley.
Since opening, Global Market has been a Retail Rescue partner for their local Walmart store, accepting a variety of fresh food to stock the food shelf fridges. Walmart provides Global Market with 4,000-7,000 pounds of food each month. These pounds are made up of a little bit of everything: deli items, baked goods, frozen foods, fresh meat, dry goods, and produce. Walmart has also been responsive to requests from the food shelf when they need to cut back on donations due to capacity.
“Walmart – Worthington has been wonderful,” says Second Harvest Heartland Senior Retail Rescue Specialist Karla Bauer. “There’s been a lot that’s happened over the last few years in Worthington, and this store has been flexible, supportive, and communicative through it all.”
In November 2025, Global Market faced multiple challenges. In the same week they had staff transitions occurring, they were negotiating new terms for their lease that involved shifting their hours of operation. During that time, Walmart managed tough circumstances and schedule changes smoothly, always accommodating the food shelf.
“Walmart has been really supportive and often asks how they can help,” said UCAP Food and Nutrition Manager Nikki Knobloch. “When all this went down, Karla told me Walmart reached out to ask about how our site coordinator was doing. It's nice to know that they care about us too.”
In addition to Retail Rescue donations, Walmart supports Second Harvest Heartland and Feedings America’s network of food banks across the country through the company’s annual Fight Hunger. Spark Change. campaign. Together, Walmart and Sam’s Club are making it easy for customers to make a difference.
Now through May 6, you can help fight hunger by:
- Donating or rounding up at checkout – both in-store and online
- Purchasing participating products marked in-store and online
- Giving directly online at www.feedingamerica.org/Walmart
Every action, big or small, helps nourish our neighbors because all donations stay here in our community.