Latino Enterprise Center

This piece aired this morning on Minnesota Public Radio about our work launching new immigrant farming entrepreneurs or “agripreneurs”.

Audio:

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Invisible Minority is the title of a new series that is being published by the Northfield News and started with the first edition last Saturday. I will be posting their web link to these special edition as it becomes available the Tuesday after it is printed. Stay tuned.

It was over a year ago, when I heard of Riverbend Market Cooperative organizing meetings in Red Wing. I had already met with Latino families there in an effort to establish a presence and link local farmers with low income families. Our efforts in reaching out to potential future farmers in the Latino community in Red Wing were happening parallel to other efforts to organize the market cooperative, both would come produce a very attractive partnership.

Three weeks ago, Hillside Farmers Cooperative started providing frozen chickens to Riverbend Market Cooperative with very positive results and the development of a closer working relationship that promises to re-invigorate the engagement of Latino families in that community and region and an increase capacity of the Rural Enterprise Center to continue to reach out to new agripreneurs and community leaders in the area.

Here is a recent video produced on behalf of Riverbend Market Cooperative.

Northfield Area Foundation
Contact: Reginaldo Haslett-Maroquin

Northfield Area Foundation Seeks Applicants for Board of Advisors

The Northfield Area Foundation (NAF) is seeking applicants from Northfield and the surrounding area to serve on its board of advisors. The nominating committee will review applicants and submit a slate of candidates to the full board at its November, 2010 meeting. Candidates shall reflect the diversity of the Northfield community, which the Foundation seeks to serve including, but not limited to, educational, religious, economic, racial, and sexual diversity.

The NAF board meets every other month throughout the year. Currently thirteen directors serve on the NAF board. Directors actively participate in all activities of the Foundation including a variety of committees that have formed to carry out the strategic plan of the Foundation. Board terms are three years and a board member may serve two consecutive terms. A former board member is eligible for re-election following a one year absence from the board.

The NAF was formed by interested citizens in 1994 and is affiliated with the Minnesota Community Foundation. The NAF is a permanent endowment created to benefit the greater Northfield community. Contributions from individuals, families, businesses and charitable organizations build the endowment, the earnings of which are used to fund community needs and interests through applied grants. Since 2001, nearly $150,000 in grants has been awarded to assist a spectrum of non-profit organizations from the Northfield area.

The current board includes the following members: Bill Bleckwehl, Ray Cox, Craig Ellingboe, Dan Freeman, Mary Beth Hagen, Karna Halverson, Bruce King, Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin, Anne Mayer, Dale Ness, Jaci Smith, Sarah Swan-McDonald, and Ross Thompson.

Interested candidates are urged to submit a letter of interest, including a brief bio, no later than September 1, 2010, to:

Northfield Area Foundation
P.O. Box 802
Northfield, MN 55057

I just posted a brief 500 word column on the Northfield News describing one example of how we approach the issue of poverty through the development of food and agriculture enterprises. This is one more article in a series, I will place the names of all of the articles I have been writing in this series for the Northfield News below, each linking to the original article. There are more coming, I have enough titles for two years of publications once a month, so stay tuned, here is the most recent posting.

Here is the list of all of the previous articles published starting with the latest.

August 7th, 2010 Investing in New Immigrant Families

July 3rd, 2010 The Story of Prink’s Farm

June 4th, 2010 The Ecology of Food: Mercedez’s Story

May 14th, 2010 Sustainability: The New Ecology of Food