Moving Lives Minnesota is made possible by the Minnesota Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund with money by the vote of the people, November 4th, 2008.

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Every Minnesotan has a story of origin and migration.

In fact it's one of the things that we all have in common.

Most Minnesotans but not all are originally from somewhere else.

As a result Minnesota is a culturally diverse state and that both enhances and enriches our lives and our communities.

As part of a statewide initiative by all the PBS stations called Moving Lives Minnesota Stories of Origin and Migration.

I'd like to welcome my next two guests, Adrienne Dorn is the Executive Director of Greater Minneapolis Community Connections and Monica Segura-Schwartz is a Business Development Associate at the Latino Economic Development Center in St.

Cloud.

Adrienne and Monica I'd like to welcome you both to the program and thank you so much for your time today.

[Thanks for having us] [thank you] Absolutely.

Well first of all Adrienne, I'd like to start with you.

I'd like to learn just a little bit more globally about what greater Minneapolis Community Connections does and please bear in mind that most of our viewers are in central and north central Minnesota.

So how does your work affect greater Minnesota?

Adrienne: Yeah well greater Minneapolis Community Connections we are formerly known as the Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches and so we are a social services agency based in Minneapolis that has been around for about 115 years and so we've done a variety of social services programs for a community in that time.

One of our long-standing programs and efforts is Minnesota FoodShare.

Minnesota FoodShare is a program that was created in the early 80s in response to federal funding cutbacks under the Reagan Administration that really necessitated the food shelf system that we have today throughout Minnesota.

While we don't have our own food shelf in, in Minneapolis we do partner with almost 300 food shelves that are all over Minnesota to help with capacity building, advocacy and in particular raising food and funds during the month of March through our March Campaign and our 40th Annual March Campaign is actually coming up in 2021 in the month of March and so that's really our big investment in in the region is through the our food shelf partners and in addressing food security and it's something that we've had a long-standing commitment to.

Jason: Interesting, well speaking of origin stories I had no idea that greater Minneapolis Community Connections was 115 years old.

What is its origin story?

Why did it start?

Adrienne: It started over a century ago with largely from congregational volunteers.

Folks who belonged to the variety of churches that really were looking to do good in their community and like I said have done a variety of things in that time including support services for the elderly, youth mentoring programs, starting in the 80's food security programs and also a lot of social justice, social justice and equity work during that time as well.

Jason: Interesting, so Monica I have kind of a similar two-pronged question for you.

I'm wondering if you can tell us just a little bit generally about what the Latino Economic Development Center does but also I'm curious about how that work affects greater Minnesota?

Monica: So Latino Economic Development Center is an organization that was born actually out of the Mercado Central on Lake Street in Minneapolis.

They are a or we are an organization that focuses basically in Latino Economic Development helping a small business especially to learn how to do a business, what regulations they need to do, helping immigrants to figure out how to work with local regulations about licensing or anything taxes, whatever they need to have and development to do business.

So that's what Latino Economic Development Center specializes on and has done for many, many years.

We have a large agricultural program or a growing agricultural program that is focusing in helping entrepreneurship in the agricultural sector area but we are a statewide organization.

Has been mostly towards the Twin Cities but with we're developing more and more in other areas.

Right now I am particularly working with a project with the Initiative Foundation of Little Falls, a focus in central Minnesota to provide extra support and coverage relief to immigrant families in this area that has been desperately adverse by affected by Covid so we are extending a little bit more about not only economic development of business but we are a working with a workforce development we're also working with families during this time just when a providing aid and additional resources that they might need because of as a result of Covid.

Jason: Well I'm relieved to hear that and I actually wanted to learn more about your Covid response.

I recently read an article from I believe it was the Minnesota Council on Latino Affairs which disclosed the fact that the infection rate, the Covid infection rate in like in the Latino community is five times what it is in the white community and I'm wondering how are you seeing that with the community that you serve with your clients and why is that the case?

Monica: Well in the area where I am working we have about three packing plants where we have a large labor force that are Latino community.

We saw, we saw a sparks of Covid in the Latino community in early March before everybody else was really a March or April before everybody else was really aware of really thinking about Covid so we, we saw that in the Latino communities in these rural areas and, and and that was one of the the main reasons because of the proximity and the way that they were working in these industries.

We have a lot of manufacturers around here that are also a places where many of Latino families are employed.

We also are working with agricultural workers, people that work in what they call the ranchos, dairies and other places.

In not all of these places are up-to-date in equipment and there are many struggles around that.

Not everybody provides a equipment or let people or or are enforcing regulations the way that we are supposed to be enforcing them.

So we, we see that and that is there has been historically around this area not a lot of effort information that is culturally appropriate or even in spanish for people and there are a lot of large population of the Latino families around here.

So that's, that's another factor that includes there is misinformation and there is a there has been not a targeted efforts with this community.

In the bright side of it because of Covid and because these disparities have existed for awhile but Covid has exaggerated everything excessively a lot, a lot more so we are actually seeing more resources and have been being put to help these communities that we did not see before so in the the bright side I would say that my position for example or is, is through this collaboration with the Initiative Foundation of Little Falls that have and the Center for Disasters and Philanthropy that have put resources in developing this position and having us working specifically with this population.

Jaon: Well that's encouraging news.

It's my understanding that there are approximately 300, 000 Minnesotans of Latino descent.

Is that correct?

Monica: That is according to the census information we do believe that there are a lot more that are under unreported.

People that are not being part of the census, yes.

Jason: So among that population is food security a concern right now?

Is food security a concern in the Latino community here in Minnesota?

Monica: Yes it is.

Food security has always been an issue.

I, I will say that in some of the assessments that I had been doing when I had been working with families one of the programs that we have trying to help families to, trying to reach out to families to take advantage of is the housing program that is happening through Minnesota for housing assistance through the state and what we have found doing actually outreach for that program is that families do pay rent before anything else so being, being that housing is, not because it's not issue housing is an issue but it's such an issue for Latino families that they don't want to risk it so because they don't want to risk it for any reason they have not been we haven't found, we have found some families that are really struggling, that are behind rent and bills.

However many families that are struggling are not behind rents and bills because they will put their funding towards that before some other needs.

One of those needs is food so they will be affected in food.

They will be eating less quality of meals or they have been looking for reducing how they do it or being able to pay other things so that's one, one of the pieces about food security.

Then after that I will say medical bills is the other one that get put aside and for the next priority but food security is that but food security is more than just people being hungry so it's, it's, it's a way of being many of many of immigrant families that don't so, so when you, when you are in a new place and, and you're not familiar with the culture and anything many of the old connections that you have, the only connections that you have, where to you will come from, come through food.

Also through families food is, is also a way of sharing, is a way of being together, is a way of showing love to your loved ones, so it is very important.

I used to work for a non-profit local in St.

Cloud before and I was in connection with at the food shelf of this organization and then a what one of the things that, that we will see different in immigrant families than local families is that immigrant families do cook more than, than local families so, so in food shelves you usually find a lot of canned foods or prepared meals and that's not the best solution for immigrant families because cooking is such an important piece of well for one is cheaper or it has been cheaper at least in, in our countries but to, to get a better quality of meal that you cook yourself is that is culturally but it's also a way that you, you show love to loved ones, preparing a good meal that they are going to like and especially during these times of Christmas.

There are so many meals, pieces, meal dishes that people want to share that are looking for that are looking forward to it so it is part of the mental health as well.

Jason: Interesting connection.

Well I'm interested in learning a little bit more now about how Greater Minneapolis Community Connections supports food security in the Latino community.

I'm wondering Adrienne if you can tell us a little bit more about this network of 300 food shelves and how it's made available to the community?

Adrienne: What was the impetus behind our connection with Monica on the Latino Economic Development group was that we were granted because of our long-standing relationships with with food shelves all across Minnesota we were, we were granted a significant grant from a local family foundation to re-grant specifically to rural food shelves or efforts that were supporting food security for rural Minnesotans.

Because the foundation in because of Covid was really anticipating that was going to be a significant area that needed to be addressed.

However at the time what we were hearing from our food shelf partners in rural Minnesota was that funding wasn't actually the biggest challenge at that moment in time, right when Covid started because as a matter of fact a lot of these food shelves were receiving an influx of grants and relief funding but the challenge was, was that they were having a difficult time finding supplies.

They were having a difficult time accessing protein, fresh produce.

They could really only get their hands on dried goods.

Meanwhile we were reading articles in the newspaper as everyone was about processing plants that were being closed due to Covid and farmers that were having to bury, euthanize and bury pigs and chickens and also dump a lot of produce because they're, they're, they were sourcing restaurants that were now closed and so what we saw was this pretty immediate food supply challenge that of course is very relevant to rural Minnesota and we partnered up with the Initiative Foundation to, to do a sort of what we called a sprint because it was really fast and furious almost that where we got together some farmers and producers and food researchers, food shelf volunteers and staff in Region 5 in order to sort of talk about well what's going on here?

Who has what and where is what needed and how can we partner and collaborate to make sure that food is getting where it needs to go and then of course the the needs have been flowed when the like kind of initial influx of funding run out ran out, when the food shelves were seeing an increase in usage after the weekly unemployment benefits ran out and also we're seeing people who had never used a food shelf before needing to start using, accessing food shelves and so while we are not not necessarily specifically focused on the Latinx community, the Latinx community, there is a large Latinx community in that Region 5 and so that's how we started to really understand that there were needs as Monica is, is describing and for culturally specific foods and so we want to so we wanted to support not just the long-standing food shelves but also we wanted to pay attention to maybe new food distribution efforts that were popping up in response to Covid that really were playing a significant role in helping to address food access for, for rural communities.

Jason: Speaking of food access for rural communities I learned on your website that one of your partners is also Sprout Minnesota now and I'm wondering if you can tell us a little bit more about how they factor into this support that you're providing for our rural food shelves?

Adrienne: Yeah, so Sprout is a food hub and marketplace located in Little Falls and they were actually our partner, our primary partner and for this sprint that I'm describing where we brought folks together.

Sprout is very connected in, in Region 5, has a very important role that they're playing there as far as partnering with, with farmers and, and addressing food security.

They have a really amazing CSA program where they do free, free CSA boxes for, for families that need it.

I mean so that, that was our primary partner where we got together and said who are the farmers that we should bring to the table?

Who are the food shelf volunteers and staff that we should bring to the table to talk about what's going on here so that we weren't just addressing sort of this immediate urgent need for food but also going what's going on kind of behind the scenes and how can we kind of partner and adjust in order to really improve the situation for everybody?

Jason: That's very nimble and adaptive.

Is that atypical in food security initiatives?

I'm surprised to hear how quickly you can react to what you're learning from the ground?

Adrienne: Yeah I'm not sure.

I will say that I think that the food shelf is a very old model and I think that there, there are people who have worked very, very hard for many, many decades and some of them were engaged in this month-long kind of project that, that, that we did and just done some amazing work in the in food security especially in Region 5.

However I do think that there's an opportunity here to sort of turn the food shelf model on its head and something else that Monica was sort of alluding to was that it's not just about food.

I mean food affects everything else too.

It's, it's about, it's about what food symbolizes but it's also you know if you if someone is food insecure and you provide food that doesn't solve all the problems.

I mean if they're if there's food insecurity problems there's likely to be access to education problems and equity and housing problems and so one of the things that we're doing at the GMCC is one really making sure that, that in all of our initiatives and efforts we're really looking at the whole family and that we're approaching it from the needs of the whole family and also that we're really being responsive to community and that we don't think about our work as serving community.

We think about it as co-designing with community and and building with our partners, building something that's responsive and so I do think that there is an opportunity to sort of reimagine the, the food shelf and the food shelves role as we struggle through these last several months of Covid and moving forward in the future.

Jason: Interesting.

Well one of the ways in which our viewers can really understand the impact of your work is if we can hear a story of someone that has benefited directly from your services, so Monica I'd like to start with you.

Can you tell us about someone from greater Minnesota who's directly benefited from your entrepreneur program or your business development program or any aspect of the Latino Economic Development Center.

Monica: Business owners are also a very, very ready to help and ready to help with, with other families and other people there so business owners have helped us to do distribution, to be a site for distributions but have also helped us to reach out to community and they are leaders in the community and they help us to, they know who is, who is struggling more than others.

They have those intimate conversations with, with families.

So business owners or, or people, leaders in the communities are the ones that actually carry the the deep of end of the story that you're looking for.

They are the ones who tell me about so and so that receive this help with tears in their in, in, in their eyes that I sometimes don't get to to experience that, so they're the local people that are connected with the families are the people that explain to me who is who and and what do they need to they talk about the single mother that is trying to to get them in and please just don't leave this person out of the out of your list.

Just keep them there.

This is the need that they have.

We do have a also efforts that happen within the community.

One story that happens in the Melrose area is that the, the, the community the Latino community they, they have a group which is the Knights of Columbus and they the Latino side of the Knights of Columbus decided to do as their faith a, a, a effort through the land area which was kind of a to the towards the time that Covid was kind of impacted a lot they, they found food they donated food themselves and they built a pantry themselves and they distributed that pantry to families that were affected by Covid so they will have these their, their own distribution, distribution ways.

They will put their food in baskets and they would bring it to the door of the people that they knew had been quarantined or were were with Covid and they left it at the doorsteps and they left and that was their their faith way to contribute.

The way what they did through their faith and because it was Lent but it also a way that they contributed.

It was really at the right moment because that was the moment that many many Latino families got infected and they were a... so those are some of the examples that I'm finding about... Jason: Well that's fantastic Monica.

I really appreciate you sharing that and unfortunately we only have a couple minutes left here and I want to make sure that I ask you both a couple more questions.

One of which is you're obviously both doing important critical work in our communities but I'm wondering if there's something that the public sector is not doing that necessitates your work?

In other words is there some public sector deficiency that you would like to see addressed and you advocate for any public policies, briefly?

Adrienne: Historically our program Minnesota FoodShare has done some work in partnership with Hunger Solutions and some other advocacy organizations at the Capitol but I think that the I mean the big answer to your question is yes, absolutely there's a deficiency.

I mean we have a real problem with our with systemic inequity and, and you know there's a yeah I mean our what we're doing now is and and have been doing for, for a long time pre-covid isn't working and inequities in Minnesota are huge and getting worse and so you know nonprofits are looked to, to come in and fill the gap but I mean that's I don't think that that's the right solution and I don't think that's a long-term solution and that's also part of the reason why in our work we understand that there are immediate relief efforts that are needed.

I mean people need food now and people need to eat every day.

At the same time we look at well what can we do to try to make it so that in the future the people don't need that food from us every day?

That, that there's a a big enough holistic change that we can start addressing these equity gaps and I mean that's a lot for for just the non-profit sector to try to figure out.

Jason: So I want to follow up with that very briefly.

If your organization were to accomplish its mission and become irrelevant what would Minnesota look like Adrienne?

Adrienne: I think that people wouldn't be struggling with food insecurity in, in the way that they certainly are in unprecedented ways during Covid but, but really always have and that we wouldn't have these you know really troubling and gaping and equity gaps.

Jason: Monica, I want to end with you and I'm curious if you can tell me a little bit about what motivates you to do the work that you do and what can your neighbors in Minnesota do in order to help foster an equitable community?

Monica: What motivates me is different definitely the people that I get to interact with.

I, I see people every day, all day that they wanted to do their work.

They wanted to do it right and they wanted to do it safely.

In terms of policy and what you asked Adrienne earlier, definitely we need, we need more oversight, over workplaces in rural areas.

There is very lack of oversight and there are, there are illegal things that happen in these workplaces, beyond PPP Equipment and to, to really I have had people that have told me that their, their, their boss told them who to vote for and, and that's, that happens and, and that people don't get asked to this.

There are so many also so very little opportunities for immigrant families to change their workplace that they will not denounce this.

They will not denounce it because they won't raise the jobs.

So in terms of policy oversight and external oversight is important and maybe should change the ways that you need to have somebody to put their face and their and everything in front to be able to have an investigation, gotta be more proactive than that and in terms of what other Minnesotans can do?

I, I will say observe better.

Observe better what happens with our immigrant families and, and assume less.

Ask questions.

There are in terms of food and how they use food that is when we talk about food there is a lot of oversight of people about okay, we gave food to this person and they were not hungry.

What are they doing with that food?

Why do they get this and, and they...

I don't think that there is people getting free food that really don't need it.

There, there is that they might I mean even if you see, I mean we didn't talk about overweight people.

We, we have overweight people in our communities but it's because they eating empty calories.

Not because they didn't have you know because they have a really good meals and on it and, and it's, and it's [inaudible] about that.

Yeah, sorry.

Jason: There's so much more that we discuss and I really hope we have an opportunity to do so again but I want to thank you both for your work and thank you so much for joining the conversations and I really appreciate it.

Adrienne: Thanks for having us.

[Thank you.]

Jason: And thank all of you for joining us once again.

This has been a segment of Moving Lives Minnesota Stories of Origin and Immigration.

I'm Jason Edens, your host of Lakeland Currents.

Thanks for joining us today.

Be kind, be well.

We'll see you next week.

Moving Lives Minnesota is made possible by the Minnesota Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund with money by the vote of the people, November 4th, 2008.