Princess Haley: Co-founder and Director of Individual Giving
The mission and vision of Appetite for Change:
We build health, wealth, and social change.
“We believe food is the key ingredient to nourishing wellbeing. Systemic barriers make accessing fresh food in North Minneapolis a challenge for many. Through youth and workforce development programs, social enterprises, and policy initiatives, we build community capacity to engage with the food system in a fresh and sustainable way.” -AFC website
Can you talk about the community your organization is in and how or why the idea for AFC was born?
Appetite for Change is located in North Minneapolis which often takes on a negative stereotype because people don’t know all the good that is happening there. North Minneapolis has one full service grocery store to serve all of the residents, but multiple fast food restaurants, 38 in a 2 mile radius. The full service grocery store has not been shut down due to the protests and riots surrounding the murder of George Floyd. Currently this part of Minneapolis only has Aldi. There is a food scarcity issue and residents have to go outside of their neighborhood to find fresh food. Appetite for Change wanted to make access to fresh, local food easier in this community. The food movement helps bring people together over cooking, eating, and talking. It helps expose people to new, local, fresh foods that they might not have had access to before.
How did you get started with Appetite for Change?
11/11/2011- I met with Michelle Horivitz and we shared stories about food and motherhood and we found we had more in common than not. We then came together with Latasha Powell. The 3 of us came together and we had an interest in North Mpls for different reasons. Latasha and I both knew that we didn’t grocery shop in North Mpls and the foodscape needed to be changed. The 3 of us knew we could come up with solutions, but knew we needed to involve the community so we cooked, and ate, and talked about what the community wanted. We did not want to just impose our ideas and values on the community. The community input drove all of the programs you see today.
Describe the team that makes up AFC
We currently have 48 full time employees, 62 full-time staff when Breaking Bread Cafe is open. We employ 12 youth right now. We have had to downsize a little since the pandemic. Community members that are volunteering often step up and interview for our team. We also have people job shadow and intern with us. We want community members and volunteers to apply for positions.
What types of programs does Appetite for Change offer?
- Community Cooks: plus a youth night, new moms night
- Catering
- Breaking Bread Cafe
- Station 81
- Farmers Market
- Northside Fresh-food justice work
- Appetite for Growing
- Kindred Kitchen
- Youth Training and Opportunity Program
Can you share more about Breaking Bread Cafe and Station 81?
Breaking Bread Cafe represents what the community wanted. They wanted a good soul food restaurant in their community. Breaking Bread Cafe serves soul food with options for many different kinds of people and diets. It is also a gathering space in the community to see and speak with different community organizers. The food is priced good and it’s delicious.
Station 81 is in St. Paul, inside Union Depot. The idea that if we could offer fresh and local food we wanted to offer it at a higher price point, but then it couldn’t be afforded by the Appetite for Change community. Station 81 would help us sustain Appetite for Change because we could charge higher prices. Quick, fresh and local food across the river. If you are about the food movement, you are about the food movement, and we should connect with everyone- so that’s why we wanted to move across the river. Most of the food is fresh and local. We try to grow the food ourselves and if we can’t we look to local farms and food distributors.
How does Appetite for Change work with youth in the community?
We employ youth to work in our gardens to learn growing and employments skills. We want people to heal from the past trauma that growing food is often associated with slavery. We also have a youth training and intern program where they helped us create a video and music to help people understand what is happening in the food movement and in North Minneapolis.
How can people help contribute to the mission of Appetite for Change? Are there any volunteer opportunities?
Start with the Grow Food video and learn the message behind it. I would also invite people to watch The Day in Advisory and listen to the Trap and Grow. YOu can also go to the AFC website and check out our efforts and ways of engagement. We won’t be hosting the farmers market this year. There are also volunteer opportunities on the website.
How has COVID-19 affected the AFC? Is there a large increase of food needs?
Community Cooks over video conferencing, Community Gardens is still being done with less volunteers to limit exposure. We are still running our catering program. Station 81 and Breaking Bread Cafe are both looking at reopening dates as this episode airs.
How has the murder of George Floyd impacted AFC?
I have noticed that people were able to protected Breaking Bread Cafe was safe and protected. People have reached out and asked us what we are going to do about it. We would normally cook and eat and talk about it and so we are trying to figure out how to do that. People have reached out with mad love and they want to help us with our garden. People now know how important it is to grow their own food. This is a time we can come together and have courageous conversation. I would love to mix cooking with many people of faith, healing, mental health services.
How has the N Mpls community responded to your organization? Has that changed over time?
Residents have responded well to Appetite for Change because everything the community said they wanted during those first Community Cooks events drove our programs. Residents volunteer in the gardens and then they teach their friends, neighbors, and children how to garden. Residents are now growing their own gardens. Many volunteers end up applying for positions and working for Appetite for change. It has brought many people together and made them realize they are more alike than different.
What do you hope to see in the future for AFC? Any new future programs coming up?
Before Covid we had done some work to be able to simplify our work and replicate and connect with other communities to spread our message. We want to show other people to do this. We want to hire enough people to do the work and have our building and space. We want to travel to other places to reduce violence in other areas.
How does the programing work during winter?
The programming starts around March, we start to plant seedlings and we do blanching, and freezing in the river. We also get some local produce from other organizations. We connect with other growers an develop relationships. Doing the best we can to try to get the food as close to Minnesota as possible
Do you have a kitchen that others can use?
We use our space for a number of different things. We have a kitchen space called Kindred Kitchen. Food truck owners use it and other people who need a commercial kitchen. This is also the space used for community cooks. If we have space and are not using it, we want the community to be able to use it.