Free, fresh food market opens its second location in Maplewood

MAPLEWOOD, Minn. — A second-of-its-kind free grocery store accessible to anyone as often as they need, and only requires providing a zip code, is now open in the Twin Cities.

The Today's Harvest markets in Oakdale and Maplewood are operated by Open Cupboard, which also has drive-up, delivery and mobile food shelf services. Jessica Francis, executive director of the organization, said the two locations combine to serve over 1,000 families a day. 

Dec. 17 was the grand opening of Today's Harvest in Maplewood, which is conveniently located along a city bus line. 

"It's very much serving the Eastside of St. Paul and Maplewood, where we were getting a lot of people who were coming to our Oakdale market," Francis said. "We knew that they were making it over there, but their neighbors and their family members weren't always able to. They were saying, can't you build one here?"

Open Cupboard was serving about 420 households before the pandemic hit and required the organization to change the way it provided services. When a drive-up option for food became available, Francis said the number of visitors skyrocketed, showing that many people were reticent to walk into a food shelf.

"Somehow the anonymity of driving up and staying in their vehicle and just having food loaded, that really reduced the stigma, and so a lot of people found us that way," Francis said. 

Open Cupboard increased visits by 177% over the pandemic, according to the organization, and a more efficient service model was needed to keep up with the surge in food insecurity. A volunteer of the organization suggested following the food rescue model used by an Australian company called OzHarvest. 

"What if we made food that we rescue from grocery stores or agricultural surplus just really accessible, and we're not asking names, and not asking addresses or any personal information," Francis said. "We quickly got a lease on a little strip mall location in 2021, and we opened it up there."

Noah Fish / Agweek

Today's Harvest in Oakdale offered milk, meat and fresh produce every day because those were the items people looked for the most, according to a survey of food bank visitors in Minnesota. The other focus was removing all gates to entry and requirements for personal information. Instead, when people walked through the front door of Today's Harvest, they were given a shopping cart. 

"When we started doing that, we discovered how much need there really was," Francis said. 

The Oakdale market which opened in 2021 was expected to serve between 80 to 100 families a day, but was serving 250 a day almost immediately after opening, Francis said, with people coming from 140 different zip codes. In 2022, Open Cupboard expanded the location at the site to help meet the community’s needs. The continued growth in Oakdale led to pursuing its second location last year.

Over a dozen types of fresh produce were offered at Today's Harvest in Maplewood on Dec. 20, along with brand-named meat, dairy and other products including things like hot sauce and pancake mix. Each section of the market has a fruit or vegetable cutout with a number on it, clarifying how many products a person can take from the section. On that Friday, a surplus of sweet potatoes meant visitors could take as many as they wanted. Products are stocked and displayed as they would be in a grocery store. 

Today's Harvest removes the hardest part for many people who seek a food shelf for the first time, which is having to provide personal information in order to take food home.

"I've been doing this for 20-some years, and I've seen so many people fall apart in that little room, because it was so difficult for them to walk through the door to begin with, and when they're answering those questions it's just such an emotional experience," Francis said. "It was important to me that we designed something that just removed that entirely."

The collection of personal information by food shelves across the country is required by ones receiving food from the federal commodity program, which Today's Harvest does not. 

"For Today's Harvest, all we have to collect is the person's zip code and how many adults, children and seniors are in their household," she said. "We don't need their name. We don't need their address."

Today's Harvest market director is Kayla Glaraton, who started working for Open Cupboard in 2020. She said that seeing the reaction from the people utilizing Today's Harvest feels like a turning point for the hunger relief industry. 

"The only experience I had with food shelves prior to this was the few times I used it because I was a broke college kid," she said. "I never knew all the requirements and appointments, and I was like, why can't people just come get this food?"

Instead of relying on federal commodity items, Today's Harvest relies entirely on rescued retail food and agricultural surplus. A mix of professional staff and volunteers for Open Cupboard pick up food on the verge of expiring from a long list of retail, farm and food bank partners daily.

"The retailers are happy because we can go and get those items out of their warehouse or off their dock area and because we're open six days a week, and we're serving so many people, it lands on the plate of somebody that needs it, usually the same day," Francis said. "If it's a manufacturer or a dairy, where they say I have a big surplus of sour cream, or a big surplus of this one item but it's only got two or three days left of life left in it, very few organizations can say yes to that because it'll spoil."

Noah Fish / Agweek

Today's Harvest works with farms and at farmers markets to be able to offer locally grown items. Thanks to a program with Second Harvest Heartland and the St. Paul Farmers Market, produce that doesn't sell at the market is donated to Today's Harvest and the growers get paid for it.

Farmers near the Twin Cities can donate surplus product in any amount to Today's Harvest, said Glaraton. She added they've yet to turn one away.

"I think that's one of the benefits of this model, is if a farmer does show up with their pickup truck full of potatoes — which happens about twice a year — we're able to say, OK, we have a lot of potatoes, so it's unlimited potatoes for the rest of the day," Glaraton said. 

Open Cupboard signed the lease for Today's Harvest in Maplewood in November 2023 and began a long year of construction and renovation. Francis said they were "thrilled" to finally open and show the community and partners what had been built. 

"We built this market so that we can serve the 700-some families that we expect to shop here every day, but we also built it with enough space so that we can demonstrate and we can show other food shelves how this model works, so that they can go and do this in their own community."