MAC & NAPS Distribution

The next Mother and Children (MAC) and Nutritional Assistance Program for Seniors (NAPS) commodity food distribution is scheduled at the Moorhead Armory from 9-11 a.m. on the following dates.

• January 7th
• February 4th
• March 4th
• April 8th
• May 6th
• June 10th

For more information on this program please contact Dale Rollie (218) 291-5857 or toll free at (800) 452-3646.

New Food Support Changes Take Effect

New changes to the MN Food Support program mean you or some one you know may now be eligible!
Changes include:

• Increased income eligibility requirements for food support. A family of four with a gross monthly income of roughly $3,000 or less now qualifies.
• No asset limits

For more information on Food Support please contact Family & Community Services at (218) 299-7314 or toll-free (800) 452-3646 or visit our website.

Pederson receives the Poverty Warrior Award

Joe Pederson, Executive Director of Lakes & Prairies Community Action, is one of three Executive Directors in the state of Minnesota to receive a Poverty Warrior Award at the Minnesota Community Action Partnership Conference. To read more go here.

Thank you Joe, for your continued contributions to the fight to end poverty in Minnesota!

Wilkin County Food Drop a success thanks to volunteers

On Thursday, July 29th, Lakes & Prairies staff and volunteers from Rothsay, Breckenridge, Campbell and surrounding communities stepped up to the challenge of providing food to Wilkin County households. Between 9 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., food drop sites were set up and more than 500 households showed up at the 3 locations.

Thank you to the following groups/partners:

• North County Food Bank
• Rothsay Public School
• St. Mary's School
• Campbell Public School
• Campbell Lions

We would like to extend special thank you to each and every person that volunteered to help bring surplus foods to those in need. Your time and energy really made a difference!

Rothsay...










Breckenridge...

Campbell...

Lakes & Prairies Community Action Partnership

Lakes & Prairies Administrative offices in Moorhead are open Monday - Friday, 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Call 218-299-7000 or toll free at 800-452-3646. Visit us at www.lakesandprairies.net

Clay-Wilkin Head Start

Clay-Wilkin Head Start is enrolling children for the coming Head Start school year. For more information please call 218-299-7021 or visit our website.

Family & Community Services (FCS)

Lakes & Prairies Family & Community Services offices are open Monday-Friday, 8:00-4:30. Call 218-299-7314 or toll free 800-452-3646 or visit us at http://www.lakesandprairies.net/.

Run & Fun a Sucess

Run & Fun for Rainbow Bridge was a success! Our event was held in coordination with the Fargo Marathon 5k race. It featured game, music and food and was a family friendly event for the whole community.We would like to thank Gjesdahl Law Office, P.C., and Kennelly & O'Keeffe Attorneys who hosted this event and the dozens of other sponsors and contributors who donated items for the silent auction. The event helped raise $8,000, in support of Rainbow Bridge Safe Exchange/Visitation Center! For more photos please visit our website.

2010 Flood Updates

The following links are provided for flood information updates in the greater F-M area including Clay County, MN, Wilkin County, MN and Fargo, ND.

City of Moorhead Flood Information
Clay County Flood Information
Wilkin County
U of M/Extension Flood Recovery/Disaster Response
Flood Forecast Display Tool
KFGO Radio
City of Fargo

RAINBOW BRIDGE - Safe Exchange/Visitation Ctr

May is Rainbow Bridge - Safe Exchange/Visitation month.

A MINNESOTA WITHOUT POVERTY by 2020

"A Minnesota Without Poverty" gathering. was held on Saturday, February 27, 2010 at the Knutson Campus Center, Centrum, at Concordia College, Moorhead, MN.

This gathering joined with others who were attending similar gatherings is Rochester, Duluth and Wilmar. Portions of the event wwere streamed live from St. Paul and featured keynote speaker Don Samuels, activist business leader, pastor and city council member.

Local presenters at the Knutson Campus Center include:

• MN House Representative Morrie Lanning, District 09A, who served on the LCEP 2020 Commisison
• Gregory Gray, who served as Director of the MN Legislative Commission to End Poverty (LCEP) by 2020;
• Bishop Larry Wohlrabe, Northwestern Minnesota Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Churches in America (ELCA), and
• Bishop Michael Hoeppner, Catholic Bishop of the Crookston Diocese.
  

Donations were accepted with the money going towar gas and transit cards to assist workers and people seeking employment.

Service Learning

Lakes & Prairies staff visited Minnesota State University - Moorhead and talked to Dr. Steve Bolduc's Economics and Women's Studies 305AM -- Poverty, Discrimination, Inequality class about Service Learning opportunities. Already, 2 students have contacted us about the opportunities available -- one about the tax site and the other about working with low income and special needs students.



Opportunities available include:

• Tax Site Assistance (Tuesday and Thursday evenings) either from 5-7 or 7-9 p.m. This opportunity includes greeting clients, offering to do a benefits analysis of what services or programs families may be eligible for, and/or providing clients with the completed tax papers and having them sign. Opportunities are available with some Saturday opportunities as well. Contact.


• A Minnesota Without Poverty event (Saturday, February 27 evening). Help is needed at the event and in some pre-planning and promotion in early February. Contact.


• Project Homeless Connect event (April 6th training and April 7th providing services and assistance to homeless individuals and families. At the last event more than 500 people in need of assistance attended. Services ranges from food, haircuts, dental care, and helping people to get a drivers license, to connecting people with employment and housing assistance services. In all, more than 100 volunteers are needed. Students who volunteer on April 7th must attend the evening training on April 6th. Students volunteering as part of a service learning project should indicate their interest in Frebruary. Training is about 2 to 3 hours and the day of the event will have 3 hour shifts including 9 a.m. - noon; noon to 3 p.m and 3 p.m - 6 p.m. Contact.

Other opportunities include working in the following Lakes & Prairies programs. These programs include:

• Head Start is a state and federally funded program for children ages 3 and 4. The program offers comprehensive services to enroll children and families, giving priority to limited income families and children with special needs. Volunteering can include work in the classroom with teachers or helping with special events.


• Rainbow Bridge - Safe Exchange and Visitation Center provide safe exchanges and monitored visits for parents/guardians visiting their children. Training for this is about 3 hours and each visit is about 2 hours. Those volunteering should be able to commit to 18 hours of visitations and exchanges. Hours for this can be some afternoons, evenings and weekends.


• Family & Community Services programs work in a number of areas including homelessness prevention, food support, heathcare application assistance, self-sufficiency, and asset development.

All of these can be found on our website.

Please mail your interest to info@lakesandprairies.net and we will pass along your interest to the appropriate staff members. If, for any reason, you haven't had some response after 3 workdays after you contacted us, please send a second email and we will follow up. This should not happen but everything from snow days, to out of office meetings can occur and we will be happy to respond to a second request. (We don't expect that will happen too often.)

Community Discusses GAMC

General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC) is being replaced by MN Care health coverage for some 70,000 individuals in Minnesota. On January 7, Lakes & Prairies Community Action Partnership collaborated with St. Joseph Parish to hold a community conversation on the ending GAMC assistance and its negative impact on low-income indivduals. Hospital representatives spoke to the increased costs that they will incur. County Social Service staff spoke of the plight of those who would be unable to pay the MN Care co-pays or to purchase needed prescriptions. The County Sheriff spoke to anticipated increases in a variety of emergency responses such as for those who are unstable without their required medications. Representatives Morrie Lanning and Paul Marquart spoke about upcoming discussions at the MN Legislature when it convenes on February 4 and how this was a priority issue to be addressed. Brian Rusche, Executive Director of the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition in St. Paul, spoke to many of these same concerns as well as the need for fairness, equity and justice in how we help those who are most in need. For many, this is truly a life and death situation. Rusche reminded those attending that there were plans to go to the State Capital on February 4th, day one of this legislative session and for the statewide "Justice We Pursue -- Day on the Hill" gathering on Thursday, March 25, 2010. For information on these two dates go to http://www.jrlc.org/.