Food Access Hub

St. Catherine University is happy to have a growing resource for students struggling with access to food, no matter what your situation is because either way it’s free to every student! The St. Kate’s Food Access Hub combines multiple missions on campus in order to best serve the community: it is a garden, food shelf and also working on creating sustainability projects around campus so that they are able to continue to provide resources and help those facing food insecurity.

One of the main projects that they have is the gardens that are at locations close to campus. Gardening is a way for the Food Access Hub to get a large amount of produce without having to pay for it because they grow it themselves. While this provides fruits and vegetables to the Hub it also brings our community together. During the summer on Tuesday nights, volunteers harvest the produce that is grown in the gardens. The volunteers even get to take home as much of the produce that they want for free! The Food Access Hub enjoys giving back to all of its great volunteers.

Another project that the Hub does is finding areas to put more compost bins around campus. Every year in the US 108 billion pounds of food is wasted which puts us at a high spot when looking at other countries. Composting is the practice of processing organic waste to turn it into fertilizer rather than it going into landfills. Composting helps the Food Access Hub because it takes all of the excess food and turns it into compost that they can use in the gardens during the summer. Another great thing that composting does is reduce emissions that would be produced at a landfill in order to break down the waste.

As mentioned above, food waste is a large problem in the United States. Another way that people have started to reduce food waste is by rescuing food. Rescuing food, the practice of claiming food that would be discarded by businesses, reduces food waste and provides Food Access Hub users with perfectly good meals. Rescuing food is one of the best ways to reduce food waste, while building connections with community members so The Food Access Hub has been giving food rescuing a shot to help reduce food waste on campus. In fact, the St. Kate’s Food Access Hub has received 2,130 lbs of rescued food this year to date which is a lot of perfectly good food that would have gone to waste!

One of the final great projects that the Food Access Hub has started is the Katie’s End Hunger Program here at St. Kate’s. Each semester students that purchase a meal plan are allowed to donate a meal to Access and Success which then gives the meal points to students who are struggling to pay for food. This is a great program because it allows students to donate their leftover meal points so that they don’t go to waste because the points don’t transfer over after each semester so if not used they go to waste. It gives students the opportunity to help and give back to our community and feel that they are making a difference. On the Access and Success page on the St. Kate’s website it tells you where and how you can donate your meal points to someone who needs it.

The Food Access Hub brings a wide variety of people from different backgrounds together to make a positive impact. A main goal of the Hub is to make sure there is access to resources for not only students, but everyone that makes up the St. Kate’s community. Becoming a stronger community will allow the organization to help more people and further promote sustainability projects around campus.

Not many students are aware of the resources that are available because of the Food Access Hub. One of the main things that people should remember when it comes to the Food Access Hub is that it's free and that you don’t need to worry about what situation you’re in because anyone can use it! Everyone has a different story and a different path that they follow through life and some may struggle more than others so it’s important that we can come together as a community and support those in our community who need it the most. St. Kate’s Empty Bowls Project encourages you to join us to support and connect with others in our community!

It is obvious here at St. Catherine University we are blessed with some very dedicated people who work hard to make a difference in our lives and on our campus, but when was the last time we thanked them? With a spotlight on social justice, our educators and leaders work hard to pinpoint issues that hinder the marginalized. Numerous individuals work in collaboration to provide us and our community with beneficial resources. One of those beneficial resources that us students have at our fingertips is the St. Kate’s/CSJ Food Access Hub, and one of those amazing individuals is Deb Barone Sheats.

“Everyone deserves access to nutritious foods to keep their bodies, minds, and spirts healthy,” Deb states. Deb Sheats is the St Catherine University Co-Director of the Food Access Hub, a Registered Dietitian, Public Health Nutritionist, and Professor Emerita in Foods and Nutrition here at St. Kate’s. Her passion for aiding the community is one of things that I inquired about when I was lucky enough to be able to chat with Deb about her position within our community. In the United States, approximately 30 to 50 percent of college students have experienced some magnitude of food insecurity; it was clear to me after our conversation that Deb is passionate about changing that.

Deb started her collegiate education here at St. Catherine University (College of St. Catherine at that time) with a Bachelor of Arts in Dietetics in 1975. She then went on to get her master’s degree in public health nutrition in 1977 and became a registered dietician.

Deb’s passion for community outreach work started with seniors via elderly nutrition programs, Meals on Wheels, and Congregate Dining programs. These are created to support home and community-based nutrition services for seniors. Deb focused most of her time with these programs doing outreach in the community and providing ample education surrounding food insecurity. Deb then became involved in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children; a supplemental food, nutrition, and breastfeeding program for low-income women and children. WIC serves about half of all infants born in the United States (USDA.) In addition to WIC, she also worked with SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), the SBP (School Breakfast Program), and the NSLP (National School Lunch Program). As a registered dietician, most of Deb’s work with these programs consisted primarily of consulting on the nutrition programs to make sure that the nutritional requirements were being met by federal guidelines. We are extremely lucky to have a Registered Dietician and Public Health Nutritionist on campus that holds these qualifications.

As an integral leader of the Food Access Hub, Deb keeps very busy with her outreach work— spending approximately 10 hours a week with Food Access Hub related activities. One of her main focuses regarding the Food Access Hub is not just providing food but providing nutrient-dense foods and meals to anyone and everyone of the St. Kate’s community. Foods being perishable is an issue that consequently forces food shelves to stock mostly non-perishables, such as canned goods. These foods often lack the nutrients that our bodies need long-term, and contain preservatives, high levels of sodium, and saturated fat. “Student shoppers are often pleasantly surprised to discover the variety of fresh foods [..] we provide.” Deb told me about the struggles that the Food Access Hub faces providing fresh produce to students. There is not always much variety that is available through the Food Banks (Second Harvest Heartland Hub, and The Food Group) and fresh produce is very expensive to purchase from grocery stores. One of the ways that Deb and her fellow co-director, Jennifer Tacheny, have worked to combat the difficulties obtaining fresh produce was the implementation of a community garden.

The St. Kates/CSJ Celeste’s Dream community garden provides fresh, locally grown produce to the food shelf and gives community members an opportunity to get involved on campus. Once the ground warms up in the spring sun, the garden hosts a planting event that brings people together for an important cause. Once the garden is planted in May, the team coordinates events every Tuesday night from June until October to gather, harvest, and tend to the garden.

Stocking fresh produce is just one of the obstacles that Deb and her collaborators face. Keeping the food shelf supplied with sufficient food and personal care items gets expensive! One of Deb’s many important roles at the Food Access Hub is to secure adequate funding for product demand. “The major obstacle we face is consistent funding to operate the Food Access Hub (food, personal care items, staff). […] Also, we can always use monetary donations- for every dollar donated, we can purchase $5.00 of food and personal care items from the local Food Banks.” The Food Access Hub receives most of its funding from St Kate’s budget, grants, and donations. Deb also added that they could always use volunteers. Students interested in volunteering can email foodshelf@stkate.edu to see how they can help make a difference.

Deb hopes for continuous expansion of the Food Access Hub in the future. She would love to expand the products that they provide, focusing on things like more fresh produce and more variety of personal care items. In addition to expansion of products offered, Deb would also like to expand the Food Access Hub’s services; like implementing food preparation classes, menu planning and budgeting, and food safety workshops.

On May 5^th, 2022, St. Catherine University community members are hosting the 11^th annual Empty Bowls event. This year we are providing ice cream along with charming, handmade pottery in exchange for a donation that will go directly to aiding food insecurity. I asked Deb to describe in her own words how she would connect her work at the Food Access Hub to our Empty Bowls Project. “The beautiful pottery bowls created by volunteers through the St. Kate’s Empty Bowls project create an opportunity for a delicious food supper to be provided to raise funds to decrease food insecurity on the St. Kate’s campus as well as in the larger Twin Cities community through organizations like Open Arms MN, which provides free meals to individuals struggling with life-threatening illnesses.”

The Food Access Hub is just one place on campus where our talented community members come together to bring stability to student’s lives. We owe gratitude to the ones who provide us with it. Now let’s all say, “Thank you Deb and Food Access Hub team for making a difference!”

Turn off your phones, put your books down and come on over to the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet (CSJ) community garden! The Celeste's Dream: Young Adult Spirituality offers young adults the opportunities to integrate their education, values, spirituality, and work in the community. In Celeste's Dream, there are works such as the St. Kate's/CSJ Food Access Hub, also known as the St. Kate's CSJ Food Shelf. It is a collaboration between the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet (CSJ) and St. Catherine University to address food insecurity and personal wellness needs of the St. Kate's and CSJ communities and everyone in need of support.

Jennifer Tachney, co-director of Celeste Dream, and her team have an amazing food distribution and system for the St. Kate's/CSJ Food Shelf. The CSJ team and volunteers locally grow vegetables from the Sisters' property, the community garden. The team harvests the vegetables the night before the first and third Wednesday of every month, which is the day of the food shelf. The team also harvests greens and herbs in the morning or even an hour before the food shelf opens. Through the CSJ food shelf's partnership in the community, such as the Twin Cities Food Justice, the food shelf can get local and organic produce all year round. In some cases, the CSJ team has to purchase fresh produce through food distributors like Second Harvest Heartland. After all, the CSJ team will get as much fresh produce as possible for the food shelf and students.

The St. Kate's/CSJ Food shelf has a four-tier distribution system. The food that comes in and the team prepares is distributed through the St. Kate's food shelf on the first and third Wednesday of the month. The remaining food is distributed to the Whitby Pop Up Food Shelf for St. Mary's Health Clinic Clients on Thursday; this is the secondary food shelf and second tier. Project Home is the third tier where the CSJ food shelf gives food, such as bread and produce from the garden. Project home leases space in the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet building as a transitional housing program for folks moving from homelessness into permanent housing. Up to thirty families can live in the building temporarily, and there is a chef who makes nearly 100 meals a day for lunch and dinner for the folks. The CSJ food shelf also shares the food with Hallie Q Brown, another food shelf community that is one of their partnerships if more food remains. Lastly, food that is beyond eating will be composted.

The Food Access Hub includes the food shelf, community garden, and sustainability initiatives. The CSJ Food Shelf collaborates with St. Catherine University's Dining Hall, Sodexo, in a couple of ways. The connection with the food shelf and sustainability initiatives is the CSJ Food shelf partner with Sodexo to pick up the food they can no longer sell and distribute to the food shelf for free to students; this process is called "Food Rescue with Sodexo." The CSJ food shelf works with Sodexo and Access and Success to help implement the Katies End Hunger, another food resource where students can donate their meal points to other students. Under sustainability initiatives, other works that the CSJ food shelf support on campus is the Honey Beehives with the St. Kate's Biology Department and the Compost Initiative with Sodexo and the dining hall.

"We were able to do our work by working with student leaders who do internships with the food access hub," Tachney stated. In those internships, students can help with the operation of the food shelves and garden and engage in community organization around sustainability initiatives. "Students do a lot of public speaking, speak to GSJ courses, and present at national gatherings and conferences about our works. We have work positions posted; check us out!" Jennifer added. Examples of interns' work in the past include:

• A team of the CSJ interns collaborated with two faculty members from St. Kate's Public Health and Nutrition department and wrote an article for publication describing how the CSJ team's work to address food insecurity on campus models a One Health approach. The CSJ team grows food to distribute to the food shelf, cares about the land and pollinators impacted by the team's methods, and cares about food waste using the four-tier systems not to create more food waste for the planet. The "One Health" approach is that when addressing a human health issue, we need to think about human health, animal health, and planet health; this is a holistic approach.

• President Roloff appointed an intern to coordinate the food and waste committee to address food insecurity students on campus, sustain the food shelf resource, and minimize food waste on campus which raised awareness of the CSJ team's work to the administration.

• An intern created a community garden cookbook that featured recipes from Gardeners.

• Another intern created Accessible Garden Beds, which are raised garden beds that make gardening more accessible for people that might have a walker or wheelchair.

• Another intern created an orientation and history project so that when new students come to engage, there is a story and work to share with these new students.

A great way to contribute, help and engage is to come to the garden; everyone is welcome. The CSJ team starts gardening on the last Tuesday of May until October. The CSJ team gathers every Tuesday from 5 to 7 pm in the Food Shelf space in the Carondelet Center and community garden. If you are interested in the food shelf, community garden, and food insecurity, the CSJ team along with St. Kate's Empty Bowls Project encourages you to reach out and come to the garden and events held by the CSJ team. It will be a great learning opportunity to work and help the CSJ team build this resource. "We're always looking for students that have the energy and passion for helping us do this work," Tachney shared.