02/26/2026
I would like to address what happened yesterday (Wednesday) at our rescheduled distribution after the truck was not being able to make it to Bemidji on Wednesday, the 18th. We had a list of 101 prepays for the distribution on the 18th. Ruby's Pantry decided somehow to re-open the purchasing of shares for the rescheduled distribution on the 25th. On the 25th we received 39 MORE prepays. So on the 25th we had 140 prepay shares. Plus we had 9 volunteer shares that volunteers paid for. We didn't know if the newest 39 were for that day, or if guests bought the newer shares for use at the MARCH distribution. The amount of shares we received from Rubys was only 168. That meant we only had 19 shares that we could sell to the public IF all the people showed up to pick up the 140 prepays. We are only allowed a certain percentage of our shares (168) to be sold by prepay. That is why if a person tries to purchase a share and it says it's closed, it's because that percentage of shares has been sold by prepay. I want you all to know that it was nothing that we at Bemidji Ruby's did. Ruby's (in my opinion) should not have re-opened the share buying for the 25th. If they hadn't done that, we would have had many more shares to sell by cash. It was a very difficult decision to make on what to do. We are very sorry to have had to turn people away at the distribution. We hope it never has to happen again. It made us sad to have to turn people away. It is our ethic to serve this community in the best way possible. We appreciate that opportunity. We can always use volunteers to help us out, too. The more volunteers we have, the better it goes. If you are interested in volunteering, please put in an application at www.rubyspantry.org. If you have any questions about anything, please message on our page, or email us at [email protected] Thank you all! julie, volunteer coordinator
Ruby’s Pantry holds Pop-Up Pantry’s in a number of locations across Minnesota and Wisconsin every month. Ruby’s Pantry is faith-based and is organized and hosted by a group of volunteers from a local church. A Pop-Up Pantry is held either at the church location or at a site easily accessible f...
