Our July Seedlings recipient is North Country Food Alliance. Round up your purchases all month long to support their work.

North Country Food Alliance (NCFA) is a cooperatively run nonprofit dedicated to eliminating commercial food waste and increasing access to fresh produce in the Twin Cities. NCFA rescues food that businesses typically waste and safely transports it to local hunger relief organizations. They educate and engage communities directly through food donation gardens, in which folks from the neighborhood help tend the garden for a share of the harvest. The community meals program collaborates with neighborhood kitchens to provide hot meals to vulnerable populations. 

In 2020 we saw a surge in new community-led food projects. North Country Food Alliance responded by seeking out more local sources of food donations to support these emergent mutual aid distributions and new community kitchens cooking for encampments. They purchased surplus produce each week after the Four Sisters Farmers Market and coordinated two volunteer days at the Woodbury Farmers Market, recovering and sharing over 10,000 pounds of local produce in 2020. NCFA is committed to sustaining a purchasing program from BIPOC farmers and their North Minneapolis garden is producing more food and engaging the surrounding community more than ever before. They are also in the process of transitioning stewardship of their large community garden at Horn Towers Public Housing over to Somali American Farmers Association. In these ways, they strive to support BIPOC land access and culturally-specific food production in the Twin Cities.