The Open Table, a local nonprofit, works to eliminate hunger in Hastings through a spirit of compassion and companionship. Their many programs help make ends meet by providing canned and packaged goods as well as grab and go sack lunches.

Funding from the Hastings Community Foundation’s grant program paid for crates, carts, and a rolling wire shelf. The crates are used for sack lunch storage, the carts are used in making food boxes and the rolling wire shelf is used for handing out groceries from the Food Recovery program.

“These carts have increased the ease and efficiency with which thousands of pounds of food is distributed to those receiving a sack lunch”, said John McDonald, Regional Director of Catholic Social Services, which oversees the Open Table program. “They are an essential tool in our daily distribution of food.”

The Hastings area is benefiting through the distribution of 23,989 sack lunches from the Downtown Hastings pickup and the distribution of 189 food boxes through CSS’s food pantry so far this year.