Hugo Community Food Shelf Seeks New Home
Soccer Field Project To Displace Hosanna Lutheran
HUGO - The Hugo Community Food Shelf is only open a few hours a week, but its impact is felt year 'round. That's why the news that it will have to move has really hit home for its volunteers and clients.
As a service of Hosanna Harbors, the non-pro t run by Hosanna Lutheran Church, the food shelf currently operates out of a trailer located on land the city of Hugo owns at 7032 - 137th Street. But in response to a need for more soccer fields, within the community as identified in a 2004 feasibility study, the city plans to move forward with plans for a construction project in 2008, to be located east of the Public Works Building. The old gun club building located on that site has been leased to Hosanna for years.
Although the food shelf was originally told they had to leave by the end of 2007, Food Shelf Director Kim Corbett was gratified when the city relaxed its time frame to permit an early spring move.
"Food is a basic necessity of life," Corbett said, "and we just have to be there [in Hugo]. We were told we could stay there for as long as possible, but the church has to leave."
Although a new location has not yet been identified, Corbett is optimistic that a site will be found. She said, "Right now, our trailer is perfect. Everyone has appreciated the remoteness. A lot of people don't want their neighbors to know [they're using the food shelf services]."
The food shelf has begun to provide other kinds of help for its clients as well. "We have an information center here that a local dentist in town donated," Corbett said.
The information center provides assistance, including forms for applying for heating help, or simply finding a doctor.
"[But] we don't want to multi-task too much, because it's a full-time job keeping that food shelf going," she added. "People don't want a lot of extras from us."
One of the food shelf's recent success stories was the job seminar it held last August: a number of attendees found work aft er the training session. "We're going to do that again, probably next August," Corbett said.
Hugo Public Works Director Chris Petree is working to implement the plans the city has laid out for the area.
Petree explained, "[The implementation team] has met with the White Bear Soccer Club, one of the top two or three soccer associations in the state with 1,700 members. Nearly 30 percent of those [members] are Hugo residents.
"Their desire is to have fields so Hugo residents don't have to travel outside the city."
Petree says that the potential users of the park, including the WBSC, have committed to providing revenues which will help pay for construction and maintenance of the facilities.
The club is willing to assist in any way it can, WBSC representative Dave Scheer notes, and has its own fi eld crew that takes care of painting lines, seeding, fertilizer, and the like.
"The park would be an ideal location to host high-profi le tournaments such as the Minnesota State Cup Tournament, [or] the District Tournament," Scheer said.
Short-term plans include up to 5 soccer fields, a play area, picnic shelter, trails, and approximately 200 new parking stalls to augment parking at the Public Works Building.
The fields will potentially be playable in the summer of 2009. Michael Sparby, Hosanna's lead pastor, is hopeful the church will be able to fi nd a new building for worship. "We'll be looking for someplace in the community that is available," he said.
"We don't want to be the typical church. We want to do these things that are more service-oriented. We're still figuring that out as a congregation, too.
Some people would like to build another building [in Hugo], but others want to be more service-oriented."
But Sparby indicated that one of their biggest concerns is what will happen to the food shelf. "When we first came to Hugo, that was one of the needs we saw. Everybody was either having to go to White Bear Lake or Forest Lake. We started with a few hours, and now we've expanded those hours and we hope to keep expanding it."
Corbett agrees with that assessment. "The clientèle defi nitely has increased. When we ended our busy season this year, we were around 15 families a week. It was averaging closer to ten in the fall of 2006. We're picking up new families almost weekly, now."