A few years ago, Second Harvest Heartland commissioned a study with other local hunger-relief organizations. The news was distressing.

One in 10 Minnesotans misses 10 meals per month.

"The recession exacerbated a problem that's always been there," said Rob Zeaske, who was hired as the food bank's chief executive five years ago just as the economy was shedding jobs. "We've always had neighbors in Minnesota who haven't had enough to eat. But the recession drove more people to the food shelves, the homeless shelters and the meal programs. And we suddenly had a pressing need to find more food and do something differently."

What Second Harvest did was recruit free labor, and lots of it. In two years, Second Harvest more than doubled the number of hours volunteers contributed to the organization, to nearly 100,000 hours last year. The nonprofit organization has deployed people to repack potatoes, sort frozen meat, bag pasta and even harvest apples in an effort to divert food that would often otherwise go to waste and get it to the tables of families in need.

This year, Second Harvest, based in Maplewood, opened a new volunteer-friendly warehouse in Golden Valley designed to run shifts of volunteers six days a week, in groups of up to 100 people.

"The leadership at Second Harvest decided there needed to be a paradigm shift in how we use volunteers," said Jessica Hultgren, Second Harvest's director of volunteer services.


"When I was hired 2 1/2 years ago, I was told, 'Your job is to make Second Harvest the premier volunteer destination in the upper Midwest.' I was like: 'Wow. OK. I'm up for it.' So we have really taken a different approach. We're viewing our volunteers more as a constituency, not just able hands to get work done."

Second Harvest rolled out online registration to make signing up as convenient as possible and added weekend and evening hours to attract families. The new Golden Valley facility includes a meeting room to cater to corporations, which increasingly are looking for ways employees can volunteer in the community, often pairing food sorting with team-building sessions.

Volunteers are just part of what has enabled Second Harvest to double the amount of food it distributes, from 38 million pounds in 2008 to more than 76 million pounds last year. The nonprofit also has tapped new funding, engaged communities around the issue of hunger and streamlined operations. But volunteers have been crucial.

Last year alone, volunteers performed the work of nearly 50 full-time employees.

"That's huge," Zeaske said. "That lets us keep our costs down and stretch our dollars.

Audrey Wethington scoops up and bags pasta as one hundred fifth graders from Edina&#8217;s Normandale Elementary School volunteer at Second Harvest&#8217;s
Audrey Wethington scoops up and bags pasta as one hundred fifth graders from Edina's Normandale Elementary School volunteer at Second Harvest's packing facility in Golden Valley on Dec. 21, 2012. (Pioneer Press: Scott Takushi)

Second Harvest's success lies in how well it has paired a compelling mission with convenience.

"Second Harvest is a leader in adapting to so many of the trends in volunteering," said Kristin Schurrer, executive director of HandsOn Twin Cities. "They do a really, really good job at making it simple and easy and as welcoming as possible."

It doesn't hurt, she noted, that volunteers don't need a background check and can sign up at the last minute. "Many people don't want to be tied into a commitment; they want flexibility. We call it episodic volunteering -- I can drop in for a night or a day, or I'm free on a Thursday night, and hey, lets's get together a group of friends and go volunteer together. People want to volunteer as a social activity, with groups, with people they know."

Volunteers come as youth groups, sports teams, sororities and extended families with kids as young as 8 accepted for some tasks. Last month, the new Golden Valley center welcomed its first school group, 100 fifth-graders from Edina's Normandale Elementary, prompting the staff to rethink strategies to separate forklifts and kids.

The majority of volunteers come on weekdays through employee programs at 3M, Target, General Mills, UnitedHealth Care and other local companies.

"The issue of hunger has, unfortunately, grown. It resonates with our employees," said Jill Bickford, Bremer Bank's Twin Cities branch director, who also serves on the Second Harvest board. Every June, the bank sends employees to sort food in the warehouses, and this year it is promoting a family volunteering day at Second Harvest on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Most of what volunteers do can be summed up as breaking down large piles of food into family-sized portions. For example, last year Second Harvest's growing agriculture surplus program received 4 million pounds of potatoes, sweet corn and other crops donated by growers who would have otherwise plowed it under or fed it to livestock. The produce generally arrives in huge containers that need to be repacked into smaller bags.

"You may have a food shelf in a small town that serves 50 families a month, and that's not uncommon," said Tony Mans, director of food sourcing. "There is no way that food shelf could take 500 pounds of potatoes. But, with volunteers, we can offer them a 40-pound box that has eight 5-pound bags of potatoes inside it. And now every family can walk out with a bag of potatoes."

One of Mans' favorite examples of the usefulness of volunteer labor relates to tortillas.

Four years ago, Mans was touring Catallia Mexican Foods in Eagan, which makes tortillas for fast-food restaurants.

"When the tortillas come off the line, there is a computer that scans it, and if it's a little off spec, maybe it's oval instead of round, the machine kicks it into a bin and then they process those tortillas into animal feed," Mans recalled. "I said, 'What's the story with this?' "

The factory manager said he was bothered by the waste but didn't know what to do about it, because he couldn't pay an employee to pack the rejected tortillas.

"I said, 'I have volunteers who could do that,' " Mans said. Soon, a truck of misshapen tortillas was arriving at Second Harvest one morning every week. When the Golden Valley site opened and more volunteers poured in, they added another truck. Volunteers pull tortillas out of 400-pound plastic bins, repack 12 tortillas in a bag, seal it, slap on a label, box it and stick it in a huge freezer until it's picked up by a food shelf. Volunteers sort a ton of tortillas every Wednesday and Thursday morning.

"And there is more tortillas there, if we had the volunteers to cover it," said Mans, clearly excited by the prospect. "They do production five days a week. They've just said, 'Let us know when you want to pick up another day.' They love it. Nobody feels good about perfectly edible food going to waste."

Maja Beckstrom can be reached at 651-228-5295.