A message from our CEO, Tracy Maki

Dear friends of Valley Outreach,

In response to the Stay at Home order issued by the Minnesota governor’s office this week, Valley Outreach is further streamlining processes to encourage people to stay home and limit interactions with the public. Effective Monday, March 30, we will no longer accept drive-up food and personal care item donations – for the time being. This change also empowers our team to focus on our top priorities of drive-up food distribution to people in need and phone support for additional resources and assistance.

We will continue to offer drive-up food service Monday, Wednesday and Friday 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. and Tuesday and Thursday from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Over the past two weeks we have served hundreds of households, providing them with enough food for a week or two. The packages of food include fresh produce, meat, milk, eggs, deli, bakery, dry goods and pet food by request. Families are welcome to come back as often as they need to. In Minnesota, we have robust support from our major food banks, The Food Group and Second Harvest Heartland, to ensure that we have food for everyone who comes to us for help.

I can’t say it enough, it’s been really inspiring to see the community pull together – even from a distance. We’re incredibly grateful for the financial and food donations we have received to date whether it was in response to the Minnesota FoodShare campaign or the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s been amazing to see our supporters truly rise to the occasion.

When it’s safe to do so, we will get back to our normal operations. At that time, we’ll need your continued support. We’ll need volunteers to help us get back up and running. We’ll also continue to need financial donations to ensure Valley Outreach is here to help the community bounce back.

With that, please take care of yourself and stay home if you can. If possible, support our local businesses by checking the Greater Stillwater Chamber of Commerce and by joining virtual events like the Great Valley Take-Out Rally. We encourage you to call your friends, family and neighbors to see how they are doing. We’ll all get through this together and sometimes the smallest actions can make the biggest difference.

We’re so grateful to do this work. We are simply honored to serve this community – thanks to generous support from the community.

Let’s make it better. Together.

Take care,

Tracy Maki, Chief Executive Officer