On one corner in north Minneapolis, you’ll find more than just an urban farm. You’ll also find opportunity, thanks to Appetite for Change.
Not only is the nonprofit teaching kids about healthy eating habits, but they’re helping the entire community in the process.
“I felt like north Minneapolis was lacking access, access to knowledge and access to food,” co-founder Princess Titus said. “We grow about 7,700 pounds of chemical-free produce a year on three urban farms, which is about a third acre. We have the 30 young people that we’re training every year. We also have 150 meal boxes that are being distributed for 25 weeks throughout the year. We have community cooks for 25 times out of the year.”
All of that food is staying within a two-mile radius for little or no cost at all. Without it, Titus says the area would be a food desert.
With so many programs on its plate, Appetite for Change is always looking for helping hands.
“I’m on a mission to make sure that we’re building community beyond our neighborhood,” Titus said. “When we can come together in the farms, or we can come together around food, it has a social change that we’re not able to quantify yet.”
Taylure Powell is a youth leader this year. Along with youth intern Demagio Vasquez, they have both learned lessons from volunteers even beyond the kitchen.
“When people come and they cook with us, we learn things about how to chop, slice, dice, like all that stuff. They teach us how to season food,” Powell said. “Getting to know people that, like, can help us out with, like, college or help us out and give us scholarships, or even just to have a new connection that they have connections to other colleges. It helps us a lot.”
A few blocks away sits the organization’s deep winter greenhouse. There isn’t much growing inside now, but that’ll change, meaning a need for more volunteers year-round.
To learn more about Appetite for Change, click here.
