History: Section 601(a) of the Social Security Act, as added by section 5001 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), established the Coronavirus Relief Fund (Fund) and appropriated $150 billion to the Fund. Under the CARES Act, the Fund is to be used to make payments for specified uses to states and certain local governments; the District of Columbia and U.S. Territories; and Tribal governments. Hennepin County received a direct payment out of the Fund from the U.S. Treasury.

The CARES Act provides that money from the Fund may only be used to cover costs that:

1. are necessary expenditures incurred due to the public health emergency with respect to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID–19);
2. were not accounted for in the budget most recently approved as of March 27, 2020 (the date of enactment of the CARES Act) for the State or government; and
3. were incurred during the period that begins on March 1, 2020 and ends on December 30, 2020.

Allowable expenditures include those incurred to respond to food delivery to residents, including, for example, senior citizens and other vulnerable populations, to enable compliance with COVID-19 public health precautions. In addition, Treasury guidance provides that the cost of goods purchased in bulk and delivered during the covered period may be covered using CARES Act dollars if a portion of the goods is ordered for use by December 30, 2020, the bulk purchase is consistent with the recipient’s usual procurement policies and practices, and it is impractical to track and record when the items were used.

From our active and ongoing conversations with food distributors and food shelves across Hennepin County as well as the Minnesota Department of Human Services, we know that the need for food assistance has grown dramatically because of the pandemic. The economic hardships as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has created ever-increasing and sustained demands on food banks, non-profit providers, and community service partners to provide perishable and non-perishable food items, and culturally appropriate food such as halal meat and other vegetables for the different ethnic communities.

Resolution 20-0246 allocated $2 million of CARES act funding to non-profit organizations throughout Hennepin County for food distribution. A total of 58 organizations were awarded grants between $7,000 and $50,000. A variety of types of organizations applied, including churches, non-profits, food pantries, food shelves and community organizations that serve Somali, Oromo, Asian, Latino, African American and American Indian communities, seniors and the general population.

Current Request: The recommendation is that $1 million in the Federal CARES Act funding be allocated to larger capacity food distribution organizations in Hennepin County. In Resolution 20-0173, the County Board made a special delegation of authority for the County Administrator to establish supplemental appropriations and transfer funds between departments relating to Hennepin County’s COVID-19 pandemic related funding awards; accordingly, no supplemental appropriation is specifically requested here.