Minnesota State Fair vendors donate over 10K pounds of leftovers to local food shelves

FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. (FOX 9) - More Minnesota families will soon get a taste of the Great Minnesota Get-Together. 

Second Harvest Heartland collecting extra fair food

What we know:

Second Harvest Heartland collected leftover ingredients and supplies from Minnesota State Fair vendors for Minnesota’s hunger relief network. 

More than 200 vendors expressed interest in the initiative prior to the start of the fair, Sarah Moberg, CEO of Second Harvest Heartland, told FOX 9. The organization brought refrigerated trucks to the fairgrounds on Tuesday for vendors to drop off unused food and paper products to go to local families in need. 

Dig deeper:

Moberg said vendors dropped off items including frozen hamburgers, egg rolls, frozen grapes and hot dog buns, among others. 

"Some of the foods that we're seeing today, particularly in that frozen state, are ones that are not typically seen at food shelves," she said. "We're super excited about those egg rolls and a lot of French fries coming through. Those are going to be really, really exciting products for our food shelves." 

She said families who come to the food shelves won’t be sent home with just corn dogs and pronto pups for dinner. The items will be paired with existing food at the food shelves so they can be made into an entire meal. 

By the numbers:

As of 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, Second Harvest had already collected over 10,000 pounds of food. 

Why you should care:

While there have been efforts to collect extra fair food in the past, this is the first year there has been a centralized location where vendors can bring unused food that may otherwise go to waste. 

"Our hope and intent is to make it as easy as possible to donate that food," said Moberg.

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