Food Security & Grower Enterprise in Greater Powderhorn: Challenges and Prospects for Optimizing and In-place Resources

Abstract

Food production and consumption are central to every aspect of our lives, from our rate of fossil fuel use to the health of our communities. Given the challenges facing our largely urbanized nation, the ways we recognize, create, retain, and exchange the resources that comprise food systems in city neighborhoods matters. After housing and transportation, food is the single largest expense in the American household, and the next largest expense, healthcare, is a cost closely correlated with our eating habits. As an industry, food marketing, service, and retailing supplied $1.77 trillion worth of food in 20192. And yet Minnesota, among the five most agriculturally productive states in the country, is also among the states most rife with food deserts. This paper aims to shed light on how neighborhoods challenged by both climate and economic disadvantage work to bridge this disconnect. The analysis focuses on undervalued growing resources of space, knowledge, and materials that are leveraged by local practitioners to feed, beautify, and build community in the Powderhorn neighborhoods of Minneapolis.* This study focuses on Minneapolis’ lowest-income/high cost burden communities of Powderhorn, particularly Central and Powderhorn Park, located in the community’s northwest quadrant.