Fall – harvest time, canning and freezing time. A time of year when families aren’t hurting for food, right? Not necessarily. Last week, the USDA released this year’s report on household food security. It breaks down like this: Households that faced food insecurity in 2012: 14.5 percent in the US 10.6 percent in Minnesota 11 …
Michelle waits with her two children at the front door of the Second Harvest North Central Food Bank as the clock ticks towards 11 a.m. She explains to me that summer is usually a time for fun and sun, but for parents who rely on subsidized school lunches for their children, summer can bring unexpected …
By Jane E. Tigan, Minnesota Compass Rural Minnesotans believe that access to high-quality jobs is the most important issue facing their communities, and that not enough is being done to make that happen, according to the Rural Pulse survey. This perception presents major challenges for community and business leaders, especially since Greater Minnesota has more …
What does Gloria Estefan, pianist Michael Feinstein, singer/songwriter James Taylor and the Deer River High School Choir have in common? The answer: a passion for music and the technology to bring them together. On May 22, 2013, the 3rd annual Bridging the Gap Concert kicked off with a performance by Emerson Middle School in Los Angeles, …
For more than a century, ownership of American Indian land in the United States has been sliced and slivered. The Dawes Act of 1887 divided Indian land among tribal members. Today, when a tribal land owner dies, the title is divided up amongst heirs, but the land itself is not physically divided. This practice has …
Minnesota has work to do. While we generally are quite optimistic about the future, economic recovery is not reaching all Minnesotans, especially those older, with lower incomes, and small businesses. That’s the top line gleaned from interviews with nearly 2,000 rural and urban Minnesotans. Thanks to a grant from the Minnesota Community Foundation, we were …
We’re celebrating tonight with our Minnesota Intelligent Rural Communities (MIRC) Partners. Together, we were named the 2012 Innovative Collaboration of the Year at this evening’s Tekne Awards, sponsored by the Minnesota High Tech Association. Over the past two years, our coalition of 10 rural Minnesota communities and dozens of regional and statewide partners has worked …
The 2012 Road to Equality Tour made a stop July 18 at the Blandin Foundation to share findings from the recent Status of Women & Girls in Minnesota report. A Blandin Foundation grantee, the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota, along with their research partner, University of MN Humphrey School’s Center on Women & Public Policy, offered …
Go Run! American Indian women can do this! This message repeatedly resounded at the GO RUN convening on November 18-20, 2011 at the Deep Portage Learning Center near Hackensack, where twenty-eight American Indian women gathered to share knowledge and resources with the objective of facilitating a conversation centered on developing political leadership. GO RUN is …
For Michael Wade, every minute holds the possibility to change a community. “Give me a half-hour, I can help someone move into a new home. Give me an hour, and I can start a food shelf,” says this resident of Virginia, Minnesota, and driving force behind the new Virginia Indian Center, a drop-in center for …