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Appetite for Change senior engagement officer Princess Titus loads boxes onto a cart to load onto Shipt drivers’ cars in Falcon Heights on Sept. 25. (Elizabeth Flores/The Minnesota Star Tribune) More than 2,300 boxes have gone out since the latest deal with Shipt started in June, almost two-thirds of the goal to provide 42,000 meals, or 3,640 boxes, by December. Appetite for Change typically spends about $65 per box, including delivery. “Our main goal is to have people rethink food,” said Nicole Powell, Community Cooks program manager at Appetite for Change. “We found that a lot of people looking to change their eating habits don’t know where to start.” Shipt first awarded the program a grant in 2023, which was renewed the following year, as part of its investment in organizations expanding food access. The planned number of boxes delivered and average cost per box puts the total funding at more than $235,000. But Shipt declined to say how much money it has contributed toward the meal box program. “We believe that access to healthy food plays a critical role in strengthening communities at large, whether that’s improving student outcomes [or] promoting wellness,” said Khadijah Abdullah, vice president of culture and community at Shipt. Minnesota saw a record number of food shelf visits in 2024, and many fear demand will rise after Congress cut federal SNAP benefits and President Donald Trump is cutting off funding temporarily on Saturday because of the shutdown.
