BAXTER — Tamara Larsen sat down late Wednesday afternoon, April 22, for what she said felt like the first time in two days.
The executive director of the Lakes Area Food Shelf overlooked the nonprofit's new Baxter location from a perch upstairs. She's spent the last year bringing the vision to life.
"[It's] fantastic," Larsen said. "Just beyond my wildest dreams, I think."
She said this expansion in Crow Wing County will help a significant number of households experiencing food insecurity, with current estimates of 1,100 households per month by June. The food shelf also purchases personal hygiene products such as soap, shampoo, deodorant, feminine hygiene products and laundry soap for its grocery store shelves.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, food shelves opened their doors to everyone in need, instead of just those in their local communities. This led to a significant increase in patrons at the food shelf’s Pequot Lakes site, which has operated for 48 years. For many people, this means a round trip of 50-75 miles or more.
"Pretty much all of 2025, 40% of the shoppers that were coming to Pequot were from Brainerd, 56401," Larsen said. "And they were coming from further, from Pierz, from Fort Ripley, from Randall, from Little Falls."
Previously, the Salvation Army operated the only food shelf in Brainerd. The food shelf there limits visits to once every 30 days, according to the organization’s website. The Lakes Area Food Shelf moved into the space once occupied by local business The Feet People, next door to Super One Foods on Excelsior Road.
A few knocked-down walls, an automatic sliding glass door, a fresh coat of paint and refreshed flooring later, the site is open for shopping. Tuesday was intended to be a soft opening, but the first day alone drew 68 households.
A woman in her early 30s shopping Wednesday, who asked not to be identified, said a lot of working people are tremendously impacted by inflation right now.
"So this helps us to be able to get back on our feet and be able to afford something," she said.
Larsen said the project took grit and determination from the Board of Directors, who voted to seek the expansion last spring.
"We just had a Board that was behind having a good food shelf," she said. " ... Some food shelves, they're volunteers, and they're open two days a month, and that's just the reality, you know."
Because of the long-standing location in northern Crow Wing, Larsen said the donor base is almost exclusively based there, which made it harder for the group to justify expansion to the population centers of Brainerd and Baxter.
"But we had a lot of local people at the county, people at Brainerd Lakes Area Community Foundation, that said, 'Why aren't you doing this? Please go do this,'" Larsen said. " ... Our shoppers have been so excited. I mean, it's a half-hour drive from many parts in Brainerd to get up to Pequot on a good day, and their drive is five minutes or three minutes now to get here."
Shopping appointments are strongly encouraged to minimize wait times and can be made at Lakes Area Food Shelf's website. Larsen said the next step is to work on expanding the parking lot to accommodate more shoppers at once.
The Baxter location is open 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays and 1-6 p.m. Wednesdays.
The Kitchigami Regional Library has installed its second “Food for Thought” free library at the Baxter food shelf, where visitors can also browse and select from a collection of free books.
The food shelf acquires food from donations, partnerships with Brainerd lakes area grocers, grocery and convenience store food rescue, produce purchased from area farmers and produce bought from Second Harvest Northland. Lakes Area Food Shelf is a "SuperShelf" as defined by the University of Minnesota, facilitating “food shelf shoppers to access a variety of nutritious food in the easiest and most dignified way possible.“
Shoppers seeking aid navigating social services are helped on site by experts from governmental and nonprofit agency partners. Partners include Bridges of Hope, Crow Wing County and Lutheran Social Service.
Donations for the Baxter location's monthly operations, including food purchases, are still needed, the organization reported.
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