Amanda Hess is a senior at the University of Minnesota who has designed her own major through the Inter-College Program, a triple focus on Public Health, Sustainability Studies, and Holistic Health. She chose to spend a semester with HECUA, studying food systems, environmental justice, and community organizing in our Agriculture and Justice Program, with interim Program Director LaDonna Redmond and field organizer Siri Simons.
Amanda is one of a few students who chose to add a for-credit internship to her Agriculture and Justice semester program. After completing the two linked courses that make up the spring semester course load, she embarked on a three day a week internship with Hope Community, a Minneapolis non-profit focused on housing development and community building. All summer you can find Amanda in Hope’s commercial kitchen and gardens, researching recipes and sourcing produce for the cooking classes that she helps to coordinate.
These classes, open to all residents, are a crucial part of Hope’s vision for their future in Minneapolis’ Phillips neighborhood. Hope’s mission is to “create connections that strengthen the power of community members and communities...cultivate community leaders, build community capacity, care for the housing and community spaces we develop, and pursue equity and diversity in all we do.” It’s a big dream, but founded on decades of concrete progress. Amanda stopped by the HECUA office today to give a quick presentation to our staff on her role at Hope, and Hope’s role in the community.
Photo via: http://www.hope-community.org
“Hope was founded in 1977,” Amanda told us, “ and was initially a ‘hospitality house’ for homeless women and their children. In the 1990s, when the crack epidemic hit the Phillips neighborhood, Hope radically shifted their mission, moving from housing to neighborhood revitalization.” (You can see Hope's before and after gallery of images here: http://www.hope-community.org/revitalization/before-after).
A more recent partnership with the Land Stewardship Project has allowed Hope to expand neighborhood revitalization efforts into the land surrounding their properties, building out a fantastic community garden. This garden has a large communal lot and 16 individual plots, all farmed and tended.
Photo via: http://www.hope-community.org
HECUA intern Amanda splits her time between the garden sites and planning the aforementioned group cooking classes in Hope’s commercial kitchen. “There are usually about 5 participants in each bi-weekly class,” she tells us, and the hardest part of her job is finding recipes that reflect what class participants would actually like to eat. With the help of a member of Hope’s staff, she prepares shopping lists, looks over available garden produce, and makes sure that the meals prepared are healthful and cost effective. Recent recipes have included a black bean and corn salad and veggie burgers.
When Amanda completes her internship, she’ll leave behind a resource guide for future participants. The guide will cover a range of topics, from eating healthy foods on a budget, to preparing foods for folks with specific dietary needs. She’ll include a list of the “dirty dozen” and the “clean fifteen,” foods with the highest and lowest levels of pesticides, respectively, and close with a resource page for community members.
Amanda will return to the University of Minnesota campus in the fall, ready to complete her individualized degree, but the work she’s done with Hope will remain, as will the connections she’s made in the non-profit community.
If you or someone you know is interested in participating in HECUA’s Agriculture and Justice Program, click here!