New Stories From 'Urban Agriculture Notes'
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‘Restore hope, one garden at a time’: Urban farmer helps change landscape in north Minneapolis

In April 2019, she and her partner, Michael Kuykindall, started R. Roots Garden, a private urban farm on Penn Avenue.

“Eating fresh foods, eating fresh produce, especially if it’s locally grown, can help raise your conscience,” Frye said.

By Richard Reeve
July 14, 2021
KSTP

Excerpt:

Starting with $2,000 of their own money, Frye and Kuykindall began growing and selling produce at the Broadway Farmers Market and building a food chain for those in need.

In 2020, Frye said the couple sold $1,200 worth of produce and gave away 100 pounds of food to people in the neighborhood.

After all she had been through, it was an epiphany for Frye.

“I still have a purpose. I still have reason to live, to thrive, to connect with people,” she said. “It was hard because my mom was my biggest supporter, and I know she would be out here telling everyone to come to the garden and telling everyone to volunteer with me. I feel her showing up in different ways.”

That neighborhood connection became even more important during the pandemic and the riots that followed the death of George Floyd.

Stores were looted and burned. Volunteers scrambled to set up free food pantries.

Frye said even now, more than a year later, the food desert label still applies.

“In 2019, and 2020, and 2021, we have the same,” she said. “Two grocery stores. We have Cub Foods on Broadway, and then you go 5 miles north, you get to the North Market in the Camden neighborhood.”

Read the complete article here.