Photo by Deb Gau Community support makes a difference for United Community Action Partnership's area food shelves. UCAP food and nutrition manager Nicole Knobloch said signs at the Marshall Hy-Vee point out suggested donation items for UCAP's March for Meals campaign this month.

MARSHALL — Demand at area food shelves has been rising over the past year, Nicole Knobloch said.

“We’re still seeing an increase in need,” said Knobloch, the food and nutrition manager with United Community Action Partnership. UCAP operates five different area food shelves, including the Kitchen Table Food Shelf in Marshall. In 2025, the food shelf served an average of 463 households a month, compared to an average of 416 households a month in 2024.

But at the same time, community partnerships have also been working to help feed people in southwest Minnesota. Individual donors, businesses, community groups and even area farmers and cooperatives have all helped provide food at United Community Action Partnership’s area food shelf locations, Knobloch said. Over the last year or so, donations have even included locally-raised and processed meat, she said.

“It helps us a lot,” Knobloch said. “It gives us more options.”

Donating meat to Minnesota food shelves is something that even hunters have helped out with over the past year, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture said this week. In a news release, the MDA said hunters donated nearly 14,000 pounds of venison to Minnesota food banks and food shelves in 2025, through a cooperative effort by the MDA and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

Second Harvest Heartland, which works with area food shelves, participates in the venison donation program, Knobloch said. Knobloch said UCAP food shelves hadn’t received venison donations. However, she said an area farmer has donated locally-raised pork, and donations from area agriculture cooperatives have helped cover processing fees. The meat is processed in Lucan, she said. She said the food shelf can accept meat processed at USDA-inspected facilities, she said.

Over the past year, hundreds of pounds of ground pork were distributed to UCAP food shelf locations in Marshall, Tracy and Westbrook, Knobloch said.

UCAP is currently in the middle of its March for Meals campaign, which runs until April 6. UCAP food shelves have a goal of raising $50,000 for the 45th annual Feeding Minnesota campaign. As part of the campaign, UCAP also has a food donation dropoff at the Marshall Hy-Vee location. Shoppers can keep an eye out for signs in the supermarket’s aisles suggesting good donation items, Knobloch said.

The MDA said the amount of donations from the Hunter-Harvested Venison Donation Program grew by more than 50% in 2025. Hunters donated a total of 13,883 pounds of venison from 403 deer. That amount exceeded the program’s previous record for the past decade. The previous donation record, from 2019, was 13,206 pounds of venison.

According to the MDA, the list of charitable organizations that had registered to participate in the venison donation program in 2025 included food shelves in Sleepy Eye, New Ulm, Luverne, and the Lower Sioux Community. Nathan Polfliet, associate vice president of advancement at Southwest Minnesota State University, said the SMSU Foundation had also signed up for the program for the Mustang Market, a food and resource pantry that serves SMSU students.

The Minnesota Legislature established the Hunter-Harvested Venison Donation Program in 2007. Hunters and licensed meat processors participating in the program have to meet standards that are designed to prevent food-borne illness, the MDA said.