The Bag Hunger Campaign is a state-wide campaign coordinated annually by the MGA that engages Minnesotans in the fight to bag hunger in their neighborhoods. The 2023 Bag Hunger Campaign will donate $16,500 to neighborhood hunger relief partners all across the state. In this year alone, the organized efforts of the campaign and its participating companies reached its goal and collectively raised over 1.5 million meals. Since 2008, participants in the MGA’s hunger campaign programs have provided over 44 million meals to hungry families in Minnesota.

The Bag Hunger Campaign brought together numerous retail members, vendor partners, and community hunger relief partners to fill the plates of those in need across the state. Participating stores and vendors offered multiple opportunities for consumers to contribute to the campaign. Some stores encouraged customers to donate grocery items in-store or round up their purchase totals at the register, contributing the price difference to feed local families. Others prominently displayed the names of customers who donated money on shopping list icons in their stores.

The success of this year’s program brought impressive results – reaching our goal and raising over 1.5 million meals! The winners of the Silver Plate Awards created in-store displays that best depicted the campaign’s theme to Bag Hunger in their neighborhood and were required to use a combination of in-store advertising and vendor products. Each winning company will receive a Silver Plate award and $1,000 to donate to the food charity of its choice with an in-store presentation and press release sent to local media.