Event Honors Native American Women

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“I just don’t want to see Native American women feel invisible anymore,” said White Earth band of Ojibwe activist Winona LaDuke An event at the  Woman’s Club of Minneapolis made sure that Native women did not feel invisible. A panel discussion and musical event featuring Eve Ensler, Winona LaDuke, Louise Erdrich, Patina Clark  and Chastity Brown highlighted some of the main issues facing Native American women today, including sexual and domestic violence. Eve Ensler, author of the Vagina Monologues and the founder of One Billion Rising, a global campaign where people come together and dance to celebrate. Their name reflects a statistic that 1 in 3 women across the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. In other words, that is one billion women and girls. Their website, onebillionrising.org, says, “We rise through dance to express joy and community and celebrate the fact that we have not been defeated by this violence. We rise to show we are determined to create a new kind of consciousness – one where violence will be resisted until it is unthinkable.” LaDuke envisioned Tuesday’s event. Continue Reading

Twin Cities Veg Fest shows eating vegetarian doesn’t mean losing taste

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When Sal Kravik became a vegan 12 years ago, she didn’t eat the way she does now.”When I first changed my diet … there were so few options,” Kravik said. “Vegan cheesecake was not a thing.”Now Kravik volunteers for Compassionate Action for Animals (CAA) and wants people to understand that living the vegan lifestyle doesn’t mean eating bad tasting food. And the word is spreading.The nonprofit, which advocates empathy for animals and a move towards plant-based diets, held their third annual Twin Cities Veg Fest on Sept. 28 at the University of Minnesota with record high attendance. About 2,300 people attended the festival, which hosted a variety of vegetarian and vegan vendors.The Herbivorous Butcher, which creates vegan substitute meat, made their debut at Veg Fest this year. Continue Reading

New Minnesota State Fair vendors reflect broader demographic changes

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When you think of Minnesota State Fair food, you may think of cheese curds, corn dogs and gooey cookies. But over the years, that narrative has been changing, and Minnesotans have been seeing more culturally diverse foods popping up on the fair grounds.Many ethnic food vendors from South Minneapolis’ Midtown Global Market (MGM) have made the fair their home, and this year that number is increasing. Panaderia el Mexicano made their debut appearance at the fair selling Mexican bakery items. Other MGM booths include Holy Land Grocery and Deli, La Loma Tamales, Taqueria los Ocampo, Manny’s Tortas, Salty Tart Bakery and Cafe, Fiesta in America, Café Finspång, and The Produce Exchange.”I expect within 5 years ethnic foods will take over the State Fair,” said Holy Land Grocery and Deli owner Majdi Wadi. “People are coming to the fair to try different, cultural foods.”Holy Land is making their seventh appearance at the fair this year with their location at the International Bazaar, and Wadi said that every year he has noticed an increase in sales and an increase in the acceptance of his food and other ethnic foods.Two years ago the lamb fries were so popular that Holy Land ran out, Wadi said, so now the meat has to be reserved far in advance and it’s hard to procure enough quantities for the fair. Wadi said he hopes to be able to bring the item back to the fair next year, but for this year fairgoers will have to look for their other items, like falafel-on-a-stick, kushari rice and tabouleh salad.After a three-year hiatus from the fair, La Loma Tamales is back for their fifth year as one of the featured restaurants at the MGM booth inside the International Bazaar. Continue Reading

This city bus will soon be a mobile grocery store

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In an ideal world, grocery shopping can just be an in-and-out trip, but for some locals, grocery shopping can sometimes take several hours. A local organization is trying to fix that by bringing a mobile grocery store to areas with poor access to healthy foods.The Twin Cities Mobile Market will provide people access to healthy, affordable food who otherwise would have to travel one or more miles to obtain it. They are converting a retired Metro Transit bus into a mobile grocery store to travel to neighborhoods in need and help fill in gaps in healthy food access. But they say they aren’t trying to replace larger grocery stores, food shelves or farmers markets.”The mobile market will be nice, because it’s kind of hard for me to get to the grocery store because I have medical problems,” said St. Paul resident Yolanda Jones. Continue Reading