Increasing Healthy Food Access in North Minneapolis

A full-service supermarket that offers health services and food education; a mobile grocery store; a youth-led bakery selling veggie-filled baked goods and a farmer’s market are a few examples of north Minneapolis-based programs receiving $1.5 million in funding under Greater Twin Cities United Way’s newly launched North Minneapolis Food Systems Grant Program.

Funded through a grant from the General Mills Foundation, the program operates under the premise everyone needs access to affordable, healthy and nutritious food in order to live a full and productive life, and that a person’s zip code should not be a deterrent to access.

The city’s own residents are leading the charge to change an area of the Twin Cities that the federal government has declared a “food desert”.  Individuals, community coalitions, entrepreneurs and nonprofits are at the forefront of designing and implementing new solutions that have the potential to significantly improve food access across the Northside.

“We believe that people living in the community have the best insight into true local needs and opportunities; have the ability to create and lead solutions; and are also much more likely think about what will be good for the community in the long and short-term,” said Nicola Dixon, associate director of the General Mills Foundation.

The grant recipients listed below reflect a wide variety of approaches to address food access challenges.

“These grants move beyond the ‘traditional’ hunger relief and emergency food models. These are organizations doing excellent work and we recognized that interconnections are just as important. We believe the Twin Cities region will thrive only when all people have the opportunity to lead full lives and have the opportunity to reach their full potential,” said United Way president and CEO Sarah Caruso.

To learn more, read the April 6 press release.

North Minneapolis Food Systems Grant Recipients

A * denotes new agency partners