Garrison Keillor’s Minnesota — where people are “above average” — may be more and more a myth as the years go on.
A recent statewide report on food shelf use in Minnesota showed a rather large increase in use in some places we would expect it least: the typically wealthy Twin Cities suburbs.
Eden Prairie, Minnetonka and Golden Valley residents are apparently visiting food shelves in records numbers, according to the study by Hunger Solutions Minnesota.
In a span of five years, food shelf visits in Eden Prairie more than quadrupled from about 1,500 in 2000 to 10,000 last year.
Experts say there are a number of factors at work and suggest the hungry are not just the homeless people walking the streets of downtown Minneapolis. The use of food shelves in Minneapolis remained the same.
The large growth in affordable housing in some of the Twin Cities suburbs also suggest, the group says, that low- or moderate-income people may be drawn by the expansion of jobs in the suburbs but face higher housing costs.
A study of western metro food shelf recipients shows that while wages have increased a total of about 12 percent during the last five years, rents have increased 20 percent.
Part of the problem lies in education as well. Many food shelf patrons do not know they qualify for government food stamps or other kinds of assistance. About a third, nationally, who qualify for such assistance do not know it.
In any case, it’s a trend worth putting on the public policy agenda. While we suspect food shelf patrons are happy for the help, we also suspect they do not like to make a habit of going to one.
The solutions are variable. Democrats may see a need to increase subsidized housing grants, expand day-care assistance eligibility or eligibility for public assistance and costly health care. Republicans may want to extend tax breaks to employers so they can provide higher paying job opportunities to those who may be patrons of the food shelf.
Whatever the solutions, maybe a bit of both philosophies would work. It appears hunger is a growing problem, one that we’re not used to dealing with in Minnesota on this grand a scale, and one we shouldn’t be afraid to attack.
