Amanda Rasinski - Morrison County Record

For three days, Little Falls residents had the opportunity to attend open house style events to offer their opinions and thoughts on issues, challenges, hopes and dreams for the future of Little Falls.

The OurTown56345 Steering Committee spent months meeting with various focus groups and collecting surveys to compile a list of key assets, issues, challenges and goals for the future of the community.

After reviewing surveys once they reached nearly 120 submissions and then again when there were 260, event facilitator Sharon Rodning-Bash said the top issues and key assets remained the same across the board.

Time and time again the Mississippi River was ranked as the number one asset to the community, she said. Other assets noted were local foods, agriculture, non-profits, health care and the city’s connection to Highway 10.

“Next to the Mississippi, everyone is saying, ‘The kids are our future and we have a strong school system. How can we make it stronger?’” Rodning-Bash said. “So these are the assets that the community is saying, ‘Let’s build on it, they are our future.’”

When asking for local assets, the survey also targeted challenges for the community. Affordable housing and child care access topped the list.

Rodning-Bash also said that discrimination and the community being unwelcoming to new people and ideas was noted often in the survey as well. OurTown56345 wanted to identify key issues to bring forward at the open houses.

Monday, Feb. 10 through Wednesday, Feb. 12, participants were asked to place sticky notes with their ideas and opinions on how to build on the assets and address the challenges in the community.
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Many comments were made about revitalizing the downtown area, bringing bike and recreation trails to the community — possibly along the river, supporting agriculture and protecting the river while also using it for tourism.

Some recurring challenges posted, in line with online surveys, pertained to affordable child care, housing and expanded education in skilled/trade industries.

Participants commented on the four themes identified from the focus groups: helping the next generation, building a strong local economy, preserving the Mississippi River and being a welcoming community.

These themes were listed on posters and residents were asked what their vision was for the future relating to these topics. Several comments revolved around improving city assets by adding trails, benches, bike racks and public WiFi to local parks. Many residents see a future with gardens and monuments and a cafe or restaurant along the river.

Child care, housing and workforce were yet again issues participants want to address for the future of the city.

Community members could also add to a vision board collage which displayed their hopes, dreams and aspirations for the future of Little Falls. A table full of Legos displayed infrastructure creations by visitors looking for a more tangible way to share their ideas.

The open discussion table was another popular way for people to share their ideas and opinions.

Conversations ranged from senior housing to bringing in young families with affordable child care and more wide ranging jobs with benefits. Some residents were concerned about maintaining the historical area of the city while welcoming new assets. A number of people suggested a nice eatery with views and had a general feeling that the river is an under-utilized asset to the community. Many other topics were recurring: bike trails, community gardens, a recreation center, more activities for young children.

Although the public events are over, the OurTown56345 survey will be available online until Feb. 24, and Rodning-Bash said all are encouraged to participate. The survey link can be found on the group’s Facebook page or people can go directly to the survey, here.
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In late May, the Steering Committee and the city will compile all of the findings into a document which Rodning-Bash refers to as a strategic framework. She said the document will hopefully be adopted by the City Council and used as a reference for future projects and focuses in the community.

By NORA G. HERTEL Associated Press, Published in the Star Tribune
LITTLE FALLS, Minn. — Agriculture stories this past year focused on the affects of a trade war and the impact of climate change on farmers.

Arlene Jones has a different story to tell.

She's a farmer with 80 acres and the executive director of Sprout, a food hub in Little Falls that connects local farmers with markets in schools and restaurants and with consumers directly.

"The trade wars don't impact small, biodiverse farms," Jones told the St. Cloud Times. “The trade wars are impacting the growers that have thousands and thousands of acres of mostly corn and soybeans that are sitting in grain elevators, because there's no market for them.”

The small farmers who work with Sprout don't rely on the international market, Jones said. She co-founded Sprout after she found local buyers for her own and others' produce.

"Growers that practice variety over volume are less likely to have access to markets," Jones said — and they're less vulnerable to trade actions.

The nonprofit took root in 2012 and has grown in the last three years. Sprout is home to a rental kitchen for cooking classes and small food processors, and it's a monthly marketplace in the winter and hosts other food and artistic programs.

Their marketplace expanded from 20 vendors three years ago to 45 with a waiting list.

On a recent Saturday morning the Sprout warehouse echoed with songs from the Cold Spring Area Maennerchor. Craft and food vendors displayed their wares. And the kitchen smelled like garlic as Central Minnesota farmers prepped for a cooking demonstration.

Sprout has used an arts grant over the last three years to beautify its space and highlight minority groups in the community. Staff applied for another grant and hope to get funding to tell farmers' stories and feature cooking demonstrations with their food.

"Consumers are continuing to demand the story behind their food," Jones said.

"I think it is the consumer conscience, (the) consciousness of really starting to care about the economic vitality of the communities that they live in," she said. “And you pair that with personal responsibility for our own well-being through food, and those are value propositions that no one's going to turn their back on.”​

And it's good for the environment.

Kate Droske mixed sour cream into a skillet of ground beef for the filling of pierogis, Polish dumplings, at the start of Saturday's marketplace. She prepped to demonstrate her great-grandmother's recipe with her husband Tyler Carlson. The two run Early Boots Farm in Sauk Centre and raised the beef used in the recipe.

Jim and Audra Chamberlin of Island Lake Farm in Deerwood brought garlic, onions and potatoes for the demonstration.

All four farmers in Sprout's kitchen have used Sprout for freezer space or sold their produce through the nonprofit. They attended Saturday to represent the Sustainable Farming Association's Central Chapter.
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"Agriculture done well heals," said Jim Chamberlin. “Agriculture done poorly degrades. Degrades our water. Degrades our soil. Degrades our health. Degrades our rural communities.”

LITTLE FALLS — Agriculture stories this year focused on the affects of a trade war and the impact of climate change on farmers.

Arlene Jones has a different story to tell.

She's a farmer with 80 acres and the executive director of Sprout, a food hub in Little Falls that connects local farmers with markets in schools and restaurants and with consumers directly.

​"The trade wars don't impact small, biodiverse farms," Jones said. "The trade wars are impacting the growers that have thousands and thousands of acres of mostly corn and soybeans that are sitting in grain elevators, because there's no market for them."

The small farmers who work with Sprout don't rely on the international market, Jones said. She co-founded Sprout after she found local buyers for her own and others' produce.

"Growers that practice variety over volume are less likely to have access to markets," Jones said — and they're less vulnerable to trade actions.

The nonprofit took root in 2012 and has grown in the last three years. Sprout is home to a rental kitchen for cooking classes and small food processors, and it's a monthly marketplace in the winter and hosts other food and artistic programs.

​Their marketplace expanded from 20 vendors three years ago to 45 with a waiting list. 

On Saturday morning the Sprout warehouse echoed with songs from the Cold Spring Area Maennerchor. Craft and food vendors displayed their wares. And the kitchen smelled like garlic as Central Minnesota farmers prepped for a cooking demonstration.
​
Sprout has used an arts grant over the last three years to beautify its space and highlight minority groups in the community. Staff applied for another grant and hope to get funding to tell farmers' stories and feature cooking demonstrations with their food.

"Consumers are continuing to demand the story behind their food," Jones said. 
​
"I think it is the consumer conscience, (the) consciousness of really starting to care about the economic vitality of the communities that they live in," she said. "And you pair that with personal responsibility for our own well-being through food, and those are value propositions that no one's going to turn their back on."

Kate Droske mixed sour cream into a skillet of ground beef for the filling of pierogis, Polish dumplings, at the start of Saturday's marketplace. She prepped to demonstrate her great-grandmother's recipe with her husband Tyler Carlson. The two run Early Boots Farm in Sauk Centre and raised the beef used in the recipe.

​Jim and Audra Chamberlin of Island Lake Farm in Deerwood brought garlic, onions and potatoes for the demonstration. 

All four farmers in Sprout's kitchen have used Sprout for freezer space or sold their produce through the nonprofit. They attended Saturday to represent the Sustainable Farming Association's Central Chapter. 
​
"Agriculture done well heals," said Jim Chamberlin. "Agriculture done poorly degrades. Degrades our water. Degrades our soil. Degrades our health. Degrades our rural communities."

Sustainable agriculture is tied to the local food movement and supports soil health through practices like cover crops and rotational grazing. 

Small farmers may be shielded from trade wars, but they're not protected from volatile weather and other challenges in farming, like finding a next generation of farmers. 

Jones hopes with a new grant Sprout can better equip farmers, including Amish and Hispanic growers, to compete with behemoth producers. 

The farms that Sprout works with aren't mechanized farms, Jones said. They're hand-planted, weeded and harvested. 
​
"A farmer's hand touched that food," she said. "And we want you to know the story behind it."

Note: This story is part of an intermittent series at the St. Cloud Times about the future of agriculture in Minnesota. ​

Written By: Brainerd Dispatch

LITTLE FALLS – Local farmers will showcase their products at the upcoming Holiday Growers & Makers Marketplace from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dec. 14 at Sprout in Little Falls.
The December market aims to create a cheerful holiday experience for the whole family through cooking demonstrations, tasty food samples, choir singing and shopping for handmade and homegrown food, art and gifts, it stated in a news release. The public is invited to attend the free event which also includes art activities for all ages through a traveling felting studio and community rug-making.
Entertainment at the market from 10 a.m. to noon will be The Cold Spring Area Maennerchor — German for Men’s Choir — celebrating over 80 years of bringing spirited singing to central Minnesota. The group of more than 15 singers will be dressed in German vests and hats performing a festive set with Christmas carols in German and English as well as a few German crowd favorites. Pillager Schools’ Chamber Singers will then take the stage from 1-3 p.m., singing a mix of a cappella vocal music and holiday carols.

There will be a cooking demonstration and food sampling at about noon in the Sprout kitchen, featuring central Minnesota farmers with the Sustainable Farming Association. SFA is a farmer-to-farmer network that promotes environmental stewardship, economic resilience and strong, diverse communities through education, demonstration and research. The cooking demonstration will be led by Tyler Carlson and Kate Droske of Early Boots Farm of Sauk Centre, who will prepare Pierogi featuring their own grass-fed beef, in addition to products from Ole Lake Farm of Aitkin and Island Lake Farm in Deerwood.

Pierogi, the national dish of Poland, are delicate, stuffed dumplings that date back to the 13th century. Pierogi is a staple holiday dish to celebrate Christmas, Easter, weddings, and more, often having a designated flavor for each holiday, a news release stated. The public is invited to gather in the kitchen to watch the demonstration and learn more about the SFA. SFA members are also invited to stay at Sprout for a social at 3 p.m., which will include a Local Fermentation potluck.
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Market attendees are encouraged to come to the Market day hungry, to taste the samples and to dine at the Cabin Fever “pop-up restaurant” to enjoy lunch, craft brews and wine during the market, a news release stated.

Those inspired by the art at the market can have the opportunity to try their hand at two fiber art activities during the market. Facilitated by Liz Dwyer of Dancing the Land Farm, the community will help create a felt rug as an art installation for the Sprout Marketplace. Using wool from “good-felting sheep” she raises on her farm in Clearwater, Dwyer lets the natural wool dictate the color pallet with shades of white, brown, gray and black. After many years of learning and teaching felting, Dwyer travelled to Kyrgyzstan to study a very specific, traditional Kyrgyz style of rug-making.

“There I was steeped in felt, the sounds of sheep, the dizzying heights of the high mountain pastures, the sounds of nomad horse games, the taste of vodka, and apricots, and lamb stew, and endless cups of black tea and milk. I felted until my hands were raw, and my eyes crossed. And I learned a ton,” Dwyer stated.

As one of three Western women who have been taught this art by traditional Kyrgyz artists, Dwyer has the rare permission to keep making and teaching the art. At the market, she needs the many hands of market goers to contribute to the rug-making, as she states “Traditionally, felt-making is community making.”
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Market attendees can learn other fiber art techniques at the Mobile Felting Studio by artist Lisa Jordan of Brainerd. As an ambassador for the fiber art form in the region, Jordan has introduced the art to hundreds of students through various workshops and demonstrations. At the mobile studio, Jordan sets up a “sensory feast” of raw fleeces with their sheepy scent and greasy feel, lofty wool batting, unusual looking wool tools and bowls of tiny animals made of wool to pique curiosity, a news release stated. Participants can try many aspects of processing and felting from washing fleece to needle-felting.

By: Brainerd Dispatch | Nov 13th 2019 - 12pm.

Senior Resource Director at Horizon Health Kristine Hoheisel works with caregivers each day. Through her work, it became apparent to her that many caregivers who could really benefit from a support group would not go; as they felt it would only put them behind in their caregiving duties. Others said they did not feel comfortable sitting in a group setting.

Hearing this, Hoheisel's thought was to change up the traditional support group setting so she could get more caregivers to go and receive the benefits of a great caregiver support system. 

Horizon Health has created a unique, nontraditional support group to help the many caregivers in need. 

"Soul Food" incorporates cooking into the support group, which allows caregivers the opportunity to talk with other caregivers while making meals to take home. Soul Food meets monthly at Sprout in Little Falls with a licensed social worker from Horizon Health and a chef from Sprout. 

Betty Hines, program participant, said, "It's just wonderful. It's such a great concept."

Horizon Health is partnering with United Way, Crow Wing Power and the Central Minnesota Council on Aging to provide this program. 

"It is so neat to observe this group as they are so upbeat and excited to be here," Hoheisel said, "They are having so much fun preparing meals together all while supporting each other."

This group meets the first Thursday of the month from 10 a.m. - noon at Sprout, 609 13th Ave. NE #8, Little Falls and they will leave with a meal for them and their loved one. 

Anyone interested in joining this group is asked to call Kelsey to RSVP at (320) 468-2788. 

Reservations are required so the proper amount of ingredients can be available.

Published in the Star Tribune on November 1, 2019 — 4:37PM 
By Jenna Ross 

How, exactly, did that happen? Could they do it, too?

“It took six years. It didn’t happen overnight,” said Ed Zabinski, who was on the Grand Rapids City Council when it created an Arts and Culture Commission. “If you’re watching from a distance, it’s like watching paint dry. It’s painful. But it is important, because in the process they made sure the people who had negative things to say had that opportunity.

“They checked all the boxes, touched all the bases.”
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In early October, about 350 people from 25 states gathered in this Mississippi River city of about 11,000 to talk about how the arts can boost small communities. Hosting the three-day, multivenue conference gave the city, better known for its paper mill, the chance to share its successes and struggles in the arts. It honored the old — KAXE, the longest-running rural public radio station in the country. It showed off the new — a handful of public art pieces scattered across the city.

Grand Rapids, with its state-of-the-art performance venue and its downtown art gallery, its high-profile indigenous arts community and its new city commission, seemed like an ideal spot, she said. The city is also honest about the area’s challenges, including an economy historically dependent on mining and forestry.

“The transitions the region is facing are really significant,” Anderson said. “They’re showing how to look those challenges right in the face.”

Sculptures sprouting
On a new pedestrian bridge spanning the Mississippi, flat, colorful fungi sprout.

Artist Nicole Camene affixed the final mushroom, sculpted with wood, cardboard and yarn, to the slender railing just as a tour group of conference attendees approached.

​“Public-space art is kind of like my passion, where I feel most connected to people and place,” Camene said.

The Minneapolis artist attended a workshop in Grand Rapids, learning about grants they were offering to create public art projects. Camene had been reading about the symbiotic relationship between trees and fungi. After digging into the Blandin Paper Co.’s efforts around sustainability, she thought mushrooms might make an apt metaphor for balancing consumption and protection of the area’s resources.

“It’s complicated,” she said. “We need toilet paper and things to write on. But at the same time, we can try to find a balance.”

The temporary fungi join four new permanent sculptures that have popped up in Grand Rapids this year. There are two new murals, too, and two pieces of sidewalk poetry.

The flurry of public art is rooted in the work of the Arts and Culture Commission, formed in 2013. The group drew up a plan for arts in the city. It launched an artist residency program, offering makers studio space in the Old Central School downtown. It persuaded the City Council to earmark 1.5% of funding for public-works projects for public art.

They knew little about how to pick and place public art, said Sonja Merrild, the commission’s chairwoman and director of grants for the Blandin Foundation, which plays a key role in community development here.

“We were in over our heads,” she said. A small group photographed a building where they thought a mural might look nice, a street corner where a sculpture might work. “This is where we think art would look pretty,” as she put it. Then they hired Forecast Public Art, a St. Paul nonprofit, to help create a process for selecting, paying for and placing artworks, Merrild said. “They make the process really defensible.”

Summit attendees seemed to appreciate the city leaders’ honesty, Merrild said later. Plus, “because Grand Rapids is pretty far up here in the woods, I sensed some surprise that we could have an arts community that was as significant, frankly, as it is.”

‘It is who we are’

Jenna Ross is an arts and culture reporter. 
​jross@startribune.com 612-673-7168

By Brainerd Dispatch

LITTLE FALLS -- Students from three different central Minnesota schools will be featured artists at the indoor marketplace set from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 26 at Sprout in Little Falls.

Sprout Growers and Makers Marketplace highlights cultural arts through performances and cooking demonstrations at each monthly market. The October market will highlight talented students in both music and culinary arts, a news release stated. The market will also reveal a new art installation made by a young artist, as well as have free art activities for all ages.

Sprout Growers & Makers Marketplace season includes six monthly markets from October through March. The first of the season this month will gather a variety of food producers, artisans and artists who make their homegrown, handmade products available for community members to purchase. The market takes the form of a mini monthly festival, offering entertainment through performances and cooking demonstrations. The October performance is organized by Todd Peterson, Little Falls High School band teacher, and includes a mix of students and teachers in a first-of-its-kind jazz ensemble. The six member jazz combo includes Peterson; Joel Pohland, band director at Pierz Healy High School; and Carl Mathwig, Pierz Pioneer Elementary band teacher; as well as a student from each of the schools. Playing jazz standards from the Big Band and Swing eras, plus Latin and modern jazz, the group will perform three sets during the market from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Following the band performance, there will be a cooking demonstration at 1 p.m. in the Sprout kitchen, with samples available for market attendees. Students from Sauk Rapids-Rice High School’s ProStart Program will demonstrate a butternut squash-apple bruschetta, using ingredients sourced locally from Sprout’s Food Hub. Mary Levinski, the instructor for the program states, “This is a great recipe, we tried it out and the students loved it, even though they typically do not like squash.”

Sauk Rapids-Rice High School is one of 50 schools in Minnesota that offers the ProStart Program, a national two year culinary training program that provides real-life experience opportunities, culinary techniques and management skills to high school students. Market attendees are encouraged to come to the event hungry, to taste the samples and to dine at the Cabin Fever “pop-up restaurant” that will have lunch, craft brews, and wine available during the market. Local food and art producers interested in participating in the market can become a vendor by visiting www.sproutmn.com/vendors.

Another feature of the market is a new art installation by Andreas Nordrum, a young artist from Laporte, who created a life size Migizi, Ojibwe for “Eagle” out of red willow and cedar wood. The willow was woven to create the tail feathers, and the Migizi’s head was hand carved out of cedar wood. The majestic piece now hangs from the rafters of Sprout’s facility. ​

Rachel Johnson - Lakeland PBS

Sprout, a non-profit based in Little Falls that aims to connect and strengthen the local food system, has launched a new grocery store on wheels, the Mobile Market.

“Sprout has been doing CSAs, community sustainable agriculture, for a while now, but this mobile market was more like a portable grocery store that we could also bring around with us so people have more access to fruits and vegetables,” said Dawn Espe, Region 5 Development Commission planner.

The Sprout Mobile Market as well as the art cart hits the road every other Tuesday. Today, they stopped in Staples at the Sourcewell headquarters before traveling up to Pine River.

Sprout launched the Mobile Market in order to increase access to fresh local foods in rural areas.

“We were just recognizing that there’s parts in the region that maybe didn’t have the access to the fresh fruits and vegetables that other people did,” explained Espe. “So we’re trying to make sure that everybody has a great quality of life around the region and that kind of access.”

Traveling with the Mobile Market is Sprout’s À la cARTe Initiative, a cohort of four artists that have come together to build a mobile art studio.

“A lot of times, people don’t necessarily have access to those types of experiences outside of a larger city. The initiative is to have more arts experiences in our rural communities,” said Maria Ervasti, Sprout À la cARTe artist.

The Mobile Market and the À la cARTe Initiative are coordinated by Sprout, the Region 5 Development Commission, and the Five Wings Arts Council.

When is dinner more than just dinner? When stories are told. And connections made.

That's the premise of a new documentary, which focuses on the stories of immigrants and other minorities living in the small towns and rural areas of central Minnesota. "Who's At Your Table?" brings together people of widely varying experiences to share a family-style meal and tell their stories—where they came from; how their cultures shaped them; and how they find life and acceptance in Minnesota.
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It's the extension of a TEDxGullLake Talk delivered in 2015 by Arlene Jones, a Brainerd farmer and founder of Sprout Growers and Makers Market in Little Falls. She cohosts the dinner with Martin Jennings, a grants administrator and member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. Dinner guests include two Somali refugees, a Liberian refugee and entrepreneur, three former Amish members, a mother of seven multicultural children, and a chamber of commerce director in a small town finding new growth and conflict with the influx of first-generation Americans. Most of the dinner guests met each other for the first time at the gathering.

When to watch
What: "Who's At Your Table?"—television documentary.
When: 9 p.m. Monday, June 24, repeating 8 p.m. Thursday, June 27.
Where: Lakeland Public Broadcasting.

"The face of central Minnesota is changing," narrator Jennifer Smith of Brainerd said at the outset of "Who's At Your Table?" "There is more color to who we are. More depth to our traditions. More stories about from where we came."

With that introduction, the guests begin telling their own origin stories. Abdi Daisane, a Somali immigrant who now runs a preschool in St. Cloud, discusses growing up in a refugee camp and sharing what limited food was available. Fortuna Alexander, a Liberian immigrant, tells how she became an entrepreneur to finance an orphanage in a country ravaged by civil war and Ebola. Business owners and former Amish members Enos and Mary Schwartzentruber explain what it's like moving from one culture into another without ever leaving town.

The hour-long storytelling and discussion is more about cultural understanding than conflict, Jones pointed out in a news release.

"Food was the motivator," she stated. "The heritage behind the food was what we used as the platform to bring all these people together. To share a meal as you would with your family and begin to tell our stories about what it is like to live in central Minnesota to possibly be an immigrant and to possibly be someone who is here who is different, who has had a different struggle." 

​The documentary will premiere on Lakeland Public Broadcasting, beginning 9 p.m. June 24 and repeating 8 p.m. June 27. It was created by Resilient Living MN, a production arm of Happy Dancing Turtle in Pine River, which also organized the TEDxGullLake conference. Region Five Development Commission and ArtPlace provided funding, along with assistance from Sprout and Lakeland Public Broadcasting.

The "Who's At Your Table?" dinner represented a rare opportunity for people of differing cultures to come together, tell their stories and listen to others, said co-host Jennings. "Hopefully, this work and this conversation will help others think a little more differently about communities that they typically don't see or think about," he said.