By MICHELLE SHAW
Are you interested in being part of a community that listens to what you and your neighbors have to say? Minneapolis Edible Boulevards is a small initiative, we create partnerships in both Green Zones and adjacent neighborhoods so that we can listen to the concerns of the community. As a part of our volunteer team, we are looking for folks who are willing to share their input, problem-solve, help us share our events more effectively, and identify the best ways to get community input. Perhaps that’s attending a bi-monthly or quarterly meeting. Perhaps it’s something else. We can’t do it without you. If you’re interested, please reach out to minneapolisedibleboulevards@gmail.com.
This was our best year for applications! 55 applications! Clearly, there’s a demand for growing our own food, sharing fruit with one another, and being in community with others, and we’re excited to learn and grow with you. Thank you so much for taking the time to apply! We’ll be going through the applications and reaching out to everyone who applied. The great news is that even if we’re not able to gift you resources through our funding, you’ll still be able to plant food on your own with the recent revelation that the 2014 ordinance change made it possible to grow fruits and vegetables in the city. One way or another, let’s grow some food!
By the time this went to press, we were still lining up our two Southside and two Northside Minneapolis cooking class locations. Check out our Instagram and Facebook pages to find our schedule. They’ll be livestreamed on Facebook too, just in case you can’t get there in person.
We’re also awaiting news from the city on the grant we wrote with the South High Garden Club and the Corcoran neighborhood to create a community food forest at South High. In the meantime, we created an Edible Boulevard and put in three fruit trees: apple, cherry and plum, at the May 18 Garden Party with the support of Tree Trust and the City of Minneapolis. This is a shared community space, and we especially want our South High youth involved in the creation of these garden spaces. If your youth currently attends South High and wants to learn more about urban agriculture though participating in the creation of the food forest, they can contact Mrs. Peterson or myself.
Finally, if you’re between the ages of 14 and 24, join us for the Youth Juneteenth Celebration at the South High Food Forest on June 19. The event is sponsored by the South High Garden Club, CEED, Minneapolis Edible Boulevards, and the Minneapolis host committee for Jim Embry’s Joy and Justice Journey 2023. Jim is from Lexington, Kentucky, where he has built an impressive resume: winner of the 2023 James Beard Leadership Award, a co-founder of Lexington’s first co-op, and a board member of the Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance. He’ll discuss the history of Juneteenth and how it’s gotten us to the food injustice we see in so many of our neighborhoods today. The Ujamaa folks are always excited about turning youth on to urban agriculture jobs they take part in right now as well. Food will be served; have your youth register on our Facebook or Instagram pages.
Questions? Please reach out to minneapolisedibleboulevards@gmail.com .
As a Northeaster, Michelle Shaw joined the City’s Community Environmental Advisory Commission in 2017 and became a fierce advocate for the Roof Depot and for the Northside community to be included in creating Upper Harbor Terminal. After spending time with community members in both Green Zones, the area she knew she could best partner with community (and you can find her subbing at a Southside school!) was food injustice; Minneapolis Edible Boulevards was born in 2019.
