Lueken's Village Foods provides roughly 1,200 meals in wake of storm recovery

070225.N.BP.LUEKENSMEALS.jpg — People line up to receive meals from Lueken's Village Foods North on Friday, June 27, 2025, after a severe storm rolled through the area the previous weekend and left many without power for days.

By Daltyn Lofstrom

June 30, 2025 at 12:19 PM

BEMIDJI 鈥� In the face of its own adversity and the community鈥檚 as a whole, Lueken鈥檚 Village Foods recently gave back to the Bemidji area one meal at a time.

Setting up shop in the Lueken鈥檚 North parking lot on Friday, staff handed out roughly 1,200 free meals to passersby as well as free gallons of water to offer support to everyone affected by the June 21 storm.

With hot dogs and brats on the grill, Lueken鈥檚 President Craig Little and other employees fulfilled the role of a safety net for community members even when storm damage hit close to home.

鈥淚t took a village, it took a team (to reopen),鈥� Little said. 鈥淥ur main priority was just getting the stores open.鈥�

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Lueken鈥檚 North and South were without power for 36 and 22 hours respectively, and though difficult to calculate in terms of cost to the company, all perishable products had to be removed and restocked once power came back.

鈥淲e lost all of our refrigerated and frozen product in our stores, so we had to get all of that product out of our stores before we could reopen,鈥� Little said. 鈥淥nce we reopened, we had to get our vendor partners to replenish us so that we could give our customers the shopping experience they鈥檝e come to expect with us.鈥�

Throughout the reopening process, Little commended the work of Lueken鈥檚 employees.

鈥淲e had staff that left trees on their houses to get these stores open for the community,鈥� he added. 鈥淥nce we got our stores open, then we turned to helping our staff. Now, we鈥檙e just trying to feed the community and take things one day at a time.鈥�

On top of Friday鈥檚 meals, Lueken鈥檚 accepted donations for the Bemidji Community Food Shelf 鈥� namely non-perishable goods and monetary donations.

Little hopes for continual community support as the storm recovery process progresses, particularly with the Fourth of July weekend quickly approaching.

鈥淭he Fourth of July, it鈥檚 like Christmas up here in Bemidji,鈥� he left off. 鈥淲e鈥檙e just focused on giving our guests what they need so they can try to celebrate a little bit in a time of need.鈥�