When the board met this fall to talk about the kinds of help neighbors need, food and rent kept coming up. So we built a Resources page — en español, Recursos — with food, rent help, health care, legal help and more, starting right here in Bloomington. Before we did, we wanted to understand the need. Here’s what we found.
What the numbers say about us
Bryant Park sits inside a Census area (Tract 1255) that also takes in the blocks just south of us and east of Lyndale. According to the Census Bureau’s most recent five-year survey:
- About 1 in 7 households used SNAP (food assistance) in the past year — about 15%, compared with 6% across Bloomington.
- About 1 in 6 residents lives below the poverty line — 16%, compared with 9% citywide.
- More than half of renters spend 30% or more of their income on rent, and about 1 in 5 spend half or more.
- The typical household earns about $77,500 a year, compared with about $93,000 across Bloomington.
- About 1 in 8 households speaks Spanish at home — twice the city rate — which is why the Resources page is fully in Spanish too.
And our neighbors on every side
The pattern doesn’t stop at our borders. In the Census areas just south and southeast of ours, estimates reach toward one in four residents below the poverty line, and the City’s own planning documents identify them as lower-income areas. North of I-494 in Richfield, about 4 in 10 renters spend half or more of their income on rent. West across I-35W, incomes and poverty look closer to the city average.
The bigger picture
The Census numbers lag a few years behind, and the last two years have been harder:
- VEAP, just south of us on Aldrich, recorded more than 255,000 food visits in 2025 and served 21,760 people — 6,631 of them children. The number of neighbors it serves has more than doubled since 2021.
- Minnesota food shelves set a record for the fourth year in a row in 2025: more than 9 million visits.
- 45% of Bloomington Public Schools students qualify for free or reduced-price meals.
- Eviction filings in Minnesota hit a likely all-time high in 2025, and Hennepin County is running higher still this year.
None of this is a label on anyone. It’s our neighbors — people who work, raise kids, and care for parents — dealing with costs that have outrun paychecks.
What we’re doing
The Resources page puts the help in one place, with what’s closest to home at the top — like the free weekday dinner at Christ the King on Fremont, the Nativity of Mary food giveaway, and church-run help with rent and utility bills. Every listing says what that place will ask you for, from “nothing at all” to “ID or paperwork,” so you can decide what you’re comfortable sharing. You can filter by area, or show only places that don’t ask for ID.
How you can help
- Tell us what’s missing. Know a pantry, meal, or program we should list? Get in touch.
- Share the page with a neighbor, a coworker, or your kid’s school.
- Give or volunteer. VEAP, Loaves & Fishes at Christ the King, and the 24/7 Bloomington Community Pantry all run on neighbors. BPNA will be donating, too.
About the numbers: Census figures are from the American Community Survey 2020–2024 five-year estimates for Census Tract 1255 and the tracts around it (256.01, 254.01, 254.03, 253.02 and Richfield’s 246). Estimates for small areas have wide margins of error, so read them as “about,” not exact. Other sources: VEAP’s 2025 annual report; The Food Group; Bloomington Public Schools (October 2025); HOME Line; and the City of Bloomington.