In 2008, the Missing Meals Report (U.S. governmental report documenting on a county-by-county basis how many meals were missed by occupants of that county) was presented to concerned citizens, business leaders, social service providers and local policy makers. This report showed that in Blue Earth County alone, 1.26 million meals were missed annually.

Out of concern over the local state of hunger, a coalition of caring, compassionate leaders emerged: Feeding Our Communities Partners. Our founding members saw solutions to fill those missing meals, and today FOCP is working to build collaboration, fill service gaps and influence stakeholders.
 
Our first service gap project, the BackPack Food Program, was launched in 2010 to serve food-insecure elementary school students by providing meals on weekends and over school breaks. Beginning in the 2010-2011 school year, we served 230 students from 3 different schools. Our very first school was actually Franklin Elementary, where we served just 30 students. Today at that same school we serve over 70 students.
 
In 2013, we launched the Winter Break Feed & Read event which served students with enough meal and snack items to sustain them over the entire 12-day winter break. By partnering with local nonprofit A-OK, we also provided students with books they could take home and keep during the event. This initiative has continued in some form and has grown to serve 100% of students enrolled in FOCP programs.

By the end of the 2015-2016 school year we were serving all 15 local elementary schools for a total of 176,962 meals to 960 students. However, knowing hunger doesn’t end after elementary school, in 2017 we launched the Power Pack Program which addresses the complex needs of middle school students who may require an additional boost of nutrition and energy to sustain, them after school, between extra-curricular activities plus on weekends/school breaks.
 
 In 2019, we launched the Summer Pack Program which provides weekend food boxes delivered over the summer months. In 2020, we launched STOMP (Summertime Outreach Meal Program) which provides weekday lunches over the summer, filling service gaps within local food deserts.

Our last addition to our programs is the start of a High School Pantry. Initially piloted in 2020, the program was officially launched in 6 local high schools at the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year. With the addition of that program, FOCP grew to feed local students grades K-12. 

​Since our inception in 2010 we have served roughly 3 million meals to the children in our community. Today we are continuing to provide additional meals and food resources to food-insecure students each year.