Minnesota Food News

By Eva Lewandowski

March is an exciting time for food news here in Minnesota. This month is Minnesota FoodShare’s biggest campaign to restock food shelves throughout the state, and many co-ops, grocery stores, and community groups are collecting food donations to help the program. I have many fond memories of volunteering with my grandparents at our local food pantry as a child, and it’s nice to know there are so many people working together to prevent hunger.

In addition, there is a great deal of terrific food-related news in the Twin Cities this month. The Mississippi Market Co-op is making progress towards opening a third location, and the Seward Co-op is planning to expand in a second location. Mississippi Market also recently revealed its LIME program, which allows low income members of the community to become co-op member owners at a substantial upfront discount and offers them 10% off their groceries every single day! I was so happy to read about the LIME program, and I hope many people will take advantage of the access to high-quality food that it provides.

While it may seem hard to believe, given the amount of snow still on the ground, March is also the beginning of spring. That means a return of backyard gardens, CSAs, and farmer’s markets. I’m especially excited for the expected return of the Kickstarter-funded Honeybee Mobile Market, a farmer’s market on wheels that uses a single trailer to bring healthy, local food to locations throughout the Twin Cities. If you haven’t heard of them before, check out their website here: www.honeybeemobilemarket.com. I have no doubt that as spring and summer approach, we’ll be hearing even more news about new businesses, organizations, and programs focused on healthy, local foods here in Minnesota.

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