Last Thursday was a corker! Starting at 8:30 the Fabulous Flying Flinks joined the Fantastic Field Family and picked bushels and bushels of sweetcorn. I brought the haul to The Camden Promise in North Minneapolis who took all they could use then visited Waite House and Pillsbury United Communities who also took all they wanted. Next was Groveland Food Shelf and finally Joyce Uptown Foodshelf: one harvest served four food banks!

L-R Jordan Fields (arms only – sorry!), Trenne Fields, Sebastian Lawler, Iris Flink, Freyja Flink, Willa Flink, Carl Flink, Emilie Flink

To provide a bit of perspective, I asked the various food shelves about their work. Every one told me that the need is greater today than it was before the pandemic. At the moment, Camden Promise is open 6 days a week and serves 60-80 families each day. In the Phillips neighborhood Pillsbury United Communities at Waite House serves 80 families per day, 4 days a week. At Groveland Food Shelf Jaye and new executive director Kerry Ann measure things differently serving 265 people per day, 5 days a week. Finally, Matthew Ayres at Joyce Uptown Foodshelf  noted that in June they served nearly 1,000 households of which 183 were first time users of the service. As I drive to the farm it breaks my heart to see acres and acres of GMO corn and soy that no human can eat. The soil and climate here is – even with climate change – amazingly productive. That anyone in this state should ever be hungry is an absolute indictment of our food “system”. This should not be.

That said, thank you to (L-R) Jordan Fields (arms only – blame the photographer!), Trenne Fields, Sebastian Lawler, The Fabulous Flying Flinks: Iris, Freyja, Willa, Carl and Emilie.