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Join us at Living Green Expo, May 6

In continuing our work to promote an agenda of healthy food access and community empowerment in North Minneapolis, the Northside Food Project will lead a workshop at the Living Green Expo on Saturday May 6, at 2:00 p.m.

We will be in the Grandstand on upper level, a link to the workshop is here: http://www.livinggreen.org/workshop.cfm?id=-65667986

Join us as we learn more and share best practices for buiding a sustainable, community based healthy food system.

Organizational updates

Calling our name

We've been organizing for over a year now without a formal name. Since we are getting to formal business, many questions have been asked about what exactly we call ourselves. (A co-op group, a food group, nutrition, health, what?) Since all of those initiatives are part of our strategy, we've decided on a simple, yet descriptive name - The Northside Food Project.

Mission and vision

Our mission is to be a catalyst for resident empowerment for social, economic and nutritional improvement in the community.

We're still doing some work on the vision, but it will be close to this: Our vision is to create a vibrant food advocacy organization that puts the residents of North Minneapolis at the center of their food system by educating, engaging and organizing the larger community around the economic, social and nutritional impact of our food choices.

Values

Our values include using the cooperative approach to build community; and collaborating with the private sector to develop market opportunities, jobs and an entrepreneurial environment in North Minneapolis. The cooperative values are part of our organizing mandate: Cooperatives are based on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity, and solidarity.

We believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility, and caring for others. We embrace and work toward demonstrating these values everyday.

Our structure

The Northside Food Project (NFP) will engage many initiatives, partnerships and programs to fulfill its mission. In addition to research, evaluation and policy work, we will engage in the following programs and partnerships:

Programs of the Northside Food Project

• Northside Cooperative Development Initiative
• Community Supported Agriculture (including Farmer's Markets)
• Nutrition education and outreach (in partnership with MNA and others)
• Northside Food Summit (a community food conference)
• Farm-to-School Programs
• Northside Youth Food Movement (in partnership with MASK)