We held our fourth video conference on Thursday, March 4, and the featured examples about rural urban connections were local food networks and entrepreneurship in southern Minnesota.
Here are some of the great examples that were discussed during the video conference:
Kay Sauck, from Sauck Media Group, has created two successful magazines, Caregiving in America and Women Inc. that are based in Fairmont, MN. She has a staff of 12 people, (half are under the age of 30) and some of whom travel from Mankato and the Twin Cities to work with her on the magazines.
Pam Benike, from Prairie Hollow Farm talked about the Southeast Minnesota Food Network, which is a collaborative of over 90 farms in southeast Minnesota that supply restaurants, caterers, retail stores, food co-ops and institutions in the Twin Cities metro area with meats, cheeses, fruits and vegetables, honey and other specialty items. They are able to offer a one call – one delivery – one invoice system, making it easy for both the farmer and the buyer to source locally grown products. This also allows more time for farmers to do what they love, grow and produce food!
Annalisa Hultberg, from Minnesota Project, explained how the Heartland Food Network works with Minnesota chefs, caterers, colleges, and other food service professionals to help them purchase and use more locally grown ingredients in their establishments. In 2010, the Heartland Food Network received funding from the USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant Program and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture Minnesota Grown Program. They will be hosting several local food learning days to facilitate information exchange among chefs. The first workshop will be held on Monday, March 22. Check out their website for more details.
We also learned how Riverway Learning Community, a charter school in Minnesota City, recognizes the relationship between nutrition, food, and education. Students maintain a close relationship with their food at Riverway, participating in all aspects from caring for chickens and planting seeds to composting. Over the next five years, Riverway Learning Community hopes to farm, grow and prepare 50% of all cafeteria food on site.
We heard a workforce development example that involved several high tech companies in Martin County and along the I-90 Corridor that use the “Grandma network” when recruiting for new and young employees. The companies put advertisements in local newspapers during the holidays and when young people from the Twin Cites, Mankato, Sioux Falls, or other metropolitan areas are visiting relatives in southern Minnesota, they get a “pitch” from their relatives about the great paying high tech jobs in the area. So far, this has worked as a successful recruitment tool for these businesses!
Additional resources that were discussed during the video conference are:
Finding Food in Farm Country: The Economics of Food & Farming in Southeast Minnesota, a study conducted by Ken Meter at the Crossroads Resource Center, that examines how food networks thrive and strengthen local economies.
The documentary, Food, Inc., which examines the way food is produced in our country.
These featured rural urban connections are only a starting point, and we encourage and welcome other examples from you such as health care, education, arts, renewable energy, and workforce development connections, just to name a few!
Share your rural and urban connections with us! Click on the Submit Examples of Rural Urban Connections button on this page or fill out the Rural Urban Connections Form.
