September Newsletter

August 2025 Happy September folks, As the leaves gradually change and the harvest begins, EPNI is excited to move into a new phase of growing and gathering together. In this month’s newsletter, we’ll share funding updates, information on upcoming workshops, volunteer opportunities and the details for the annual Harvest Moon Community Solutions Block Party.  As always, we’re also curious to hear from you about your projects and garden ideas for this new season, so feel free to respond and share! Peace and power,  Kieran (and the EPNI Farm Team) AUGUST RECAP August began with an exciting internal EPNI update -  we finally have an office space! We ended the month learning about edible foods around Powderhorn Park through our Outdoor Foraging Workshop with Four Seasons Foraging, and did lots in the weeks between. For those of you who signed up for the free Rain Barrel giveaway, EPNI hosted a workshop to learn about what rain barrels can do for us, how to use them effectively, and how to get one set up in a yard. We also spent some time at Little Earth’s National Night Out event where EPNI’s team proudly ranked first at the watermelon eating contest. A few days later we attended the Cumbia de la Minga event at La Doña’s Cervecería.  However, this month wasn’t all just fun and games in East Phillips. We held a press conference and encountered frustrating obstacles  in our ongoing purchase agreement negotiations. Unfortunately, EPNI and the people of East Phillips have had to jump over countless unnecessary hurdles over the last 10 years while bringing this long-held community vision to life. Fortunately, those hurdles have shown us that we have an incredible community of neighbors and organizations walking beside us.  EPNI Board Member, Cassandra Holmes, with our watermelon contest champion! CALLS TO ACTION Click here for more EPNI resources, including our volunteer form, ways to show up in solidarity with other local community efforts, a spot to donate to our work, & more! Submissions If you have upcoming events or news in the neighborhood, let us know and we might include it in our next newsletter! Submit them here.  Text Sign-up We are testing out a new method of alerting community members to our events- text blasts! If you are interested in signing up for a text blast, fill out this form UPCOMING EVENTS EPNI Seed Saturday September 13th, 11am, East Phillips Community Garden, 2428 17th Ave S, Minneapolis Help maintain and take care of the East Phillips community garden! This is a space to learn and ask questions about the East Phillips Urban Farm project while also getting your hands in the dirt. We will start at 11 and work for a few hours, with the end time determined by how long that day’s garden tasks take to get done. EPNI Pollinator Workshop September 25th, 6pm, East Phillips Community Garden, 2428 17th Ave S, Minneapolis (or Little Earth Gym if it’s raining 2501 Cedar Ave S, Minneapolis) Join us for our free monthly workshop! This time we’re focusing on pollinators, guided by our Farm Educator, Forest. More information to come soon, so keep an eye on our social media and website calendar. EPNI Seed Saturday September 27th, 11am, East Phillips Community Garden, 2428 17th Ave S, Minneapolis Help maintain and take care of the East Phillips community garden! This is a space to learn and ask questions about the East Phillips Urban Farm project while also getting your hands in the dirt. We will start at 11 and work for a few hours, with the end time determined by how long that day’s garden tasks take to get done. Harvest Moon Community Solutions Festival September 27th, 11am, Cedar Field Park Come celebrate community solutions at our annual festival in Cedar Field Park! This free event includes food, performances, and activities for kids and adults. Decades of pollution in East Phillips show a long legacy of city planners deprioritizing the health of the land and people in this neighborhood. But for just as long, people here have been building ways to increase community wellbeing on their own terms. Click this link to learn more and register (encouraged but not required) Check out and/or subscribe to our EPNI's Calendar for updates and more events FINANCIAL UPDATE On June 27th, EPNI sent the City a proposal to amend our purchase agreement for the Roof Depot site. We reached out immediately after unexpectedly losing a portion of state funding which was a key part of our original purchase agreement. Mayor Frey finally agreed to meet with EPNI on August 25th, but then cancelled our meeting days before, leaving our community and project partners in limbo. You can read more about that in EPNI’s statement here.  After waiting two long months, we were looking forward to learning what the Mayor’s intentions are for the Roof Depot site. Now, EPNI is once again working hard to re-secure a meeting with the September 15th closing deadline fast approaching. Keep an eye on your email inbox and on our social media for ways you can show up to support.  Beyond that, EPNI continues to pull in new grants and partnerships to support bringing E This Funding from the Minneapolis Foundation allows EPNI to bring a novel ownership model to East Phillips, which has the goal of transforming the economic trajectory of East Phillips. You can chip in directly to support EPNI's efforts to meet our neighbor's needs and build climate resilient infrastructure in the heart of Minneapolis through a tax-deductible one-time or sustaining donation here. We’re so grateful for the ongoing grassroots support that fuels this project! Seed Saturday Recap! Sadly both of our Seed Saturdays last month were canceled due to stormy weather and bad air quality this month from wildfire smoke. However, we were still able to corral up some volunteers to help us weed some overgrown plots and help us move wood that will become the structure of our compost piles 🪵 We hope to see you at our September Seed Saturdays! COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARD What's going on in our ecosystem? Submit to this newsletter! Do you know of any job postings in the community? Events you’d like to share? Photos from one of EPNI’s events? Submit those here. EXPOZURE Magazine Call For Submissions Deadline September 8 Deadline Expozure Magazine is a new project started by local entrepreneurs seeking writing, photography, and/or artwork for their inaugural quarterly magazine. Their goal is to showcase talent, build community, and encourage collaboration through this magazine that centers BIPOC, queer, trans, and other marginalized voices. Submit here. Seed Sorting with Plant-Grow-Share September 9, 5-7pm At Hosmer Library, 347 E 36th St, Minneapolis Sort Seeds with Neighbors! Seed Keeping and Cleaning with Plant-Grow-Share September 20, 1:30-3:30pm at 347 E 36th Street Let's save seeds from the reading garden together! WEI’s 15th Annual Will Allen Farmer Training Weekend September 27th-28th (Saturday and Sunday) This is a weekend training that will have farming and environmental justice panels, community compost lessons, mini workshops and networking. It is a great opportunity to soak in the September air and learn together! EPNI is partnering with WEI to provide free transportation to and fro! This year’s theme is Restorative Strategies- Communities Cultivating Resilience. Restorative strategies ask us to reach forward and back in time to scale up and scale down to create a thriving, equitable home for us all. For more information and registration, click here. Four Sisters Farmers Market 1414 East Franklin Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55404 Four Sisters Urban Farm Our market will be open weekly on Thursdays from 11 am - 3 pm until October 30. We welcome and accept SNAP/EBT benefits, Market Bucks, Gus Produce Market Bucks, cash, and cards. Stop by the manager’s table to see how $10 in SNAP benefits can get you *double* the money to spend on goods at the market. Be sure to check it out! Stay healthy and informed! The East Phillips Health Team seeks to understand the health needs and concerns of Minneapolis residents, primarily those living in East Phillips. Learn more and find a list of related resources here!