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The Chisago County Health and Human Services department held its third food distribution last week in a cooperative program with the statewide Fare For All food network. The HHS building in North Branch was bustling with people picking up meat, bread and produce items that they purchase at about half of what the items would cost in a grocery store.

HHS has provided the distribution site since April, otherwise the food is made available at no county expense. Fare For All supplies food at distribution sites in a number locations; such as at Linwood Senior Center outside of Stacy and a couple locations in Cambridge and Forest Lake but this is the only Chisago County site.

HHS Director Mary Sheehan said 86 families participated in the April distribution, 126 participated in May and ..... came to last week's event.

Registration is simple, there are no intrusive forms to fill out, the program mostly just needs to track where participants reside. Anybody of any income level is welcome to stretch their grocery budget by participating. The "meat pack" is available for $12 and items vary but there's beef, chicken, pork, sausages, etc. The "vegetarian pack" contains produce and a grain item like rice or whole grain pasta. This is $10. The "regular pack" includes items from both and is $17.

The HHS building is open at 2 p.m. for the distribution and the event usually runs until 4 p.m. The HHS building is west, off 400th Street in the new North Branch ESSBY Business Park. (The only other structure in the park right now is the Topline Automotive building, so it's easy to find.)

The next distribution dates are July 23, August 20 and Sept. 24. Fare For All has a website at www.fareforall.org or you can contact the organization at 1-800-582-4291. This is a program of the Emergency Foodshelf Network, a non-profit that works with hunger relief organizations.

Melissa Schuler is one of the volunteers, who was helping at last week's distribution.

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