Initiated by Mayor R. T. Rybak, the Homegrown Minneapolis (HGM) Initiative aims to increase the production, distribution and consumption of locally grown foods in the city of Minneapolis. In collaboration with city agencies and community partners, IATP is working to support changes in city policies, practices and related avenues to build Minneapolis' local food system.

In early 2009, the Homegrown Minneapolis initiative engaged more than 100 stakeholders to begin exploring challenges and opportunities, and develop specific recommendations by which the city government can advance healthy, sustainable, local food systems in Minneapolis. The recommendations focused on four arenas:

• Farmers Markets
• Community, School, and Home Gardens
• Small Enterprise Urban Agriculture
• Commercial Use of Local Foods

The resulting recommendations address a wide range of issues including policy, systems/tools/education, green jobs, land use and development, and communications.

In June 2009, the Minneapolis City Council unanimously passed a resolution that recognized "increasing the amount of healthy, sustainable produced, locally grown food being produced, distributed and consumed in Minneapolis" as "an important City goal" and established a Homegrown Minneapolis Implementation Task Force to implement the HGM recommendations. IATP's JoAnne Berkenkamp served on the HGM Steering Committee, co-chaired the Small Enterprise Urban Agriculture subcommittee (in collaboration with the Mayor's Office) and currently serves on the HGM Implementation Task Force.

You can learn more about the City Council resolution and the work of Homegrown Minneapolis at: http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/dhfs/homegrown-home.asp

IATP Applauds Mayor, City Council on Local Food Initiative Action will help expand Minneapolis' local food production June 26, 2009 | Press release | PDF