STORIES FROM STADIUM VILLAGE

Student Organic Farm helps undergrads grow through sustainable farming

The UMN program at the U of M Farmers Market stands out by offering certified organic food as the weekly open-air market returns from a three-year hiatus

__________________________
Story by Jessy Rehmann / The Hubbard School  /  SUMMER 2023

With the University of Minnesota Farmers Market back on the lawn outside McNamara Alumni Center after a three-year hiatus, one vendor is doing more than selling fruits and vegetables. It’s also teaching students about producing organic food from the ground up.

The University of Minnesota’s Student Organic Farm, also known as Cornercopia, is one of six vendors at the market, which runs 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Wednesday. The certified organic farm is a part of the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, which connects students with internships, jobs and volunteer work to gain hands-on experience cultivating crops. 

“I really like the idea that produce can get into the hands of students,” said Tyne Andrews, a third-year undergraduate student and part-time employee of the farm, which is housed on the UMN’s St. Paul campus. “That’s kind of the main reason why I want to do this, is to be able to get food to students and it’s fresh and it’s cheaper and it’s, you know, accessible.”

The farm offers online ordering and pick-up, provides produce for the University’s food bank – NutritiousU – in the fall and participates in two weekly markets, one in St. Paul and in Stadium Village. 

Standing in front of a colorful display in the Stadium Village market that included strawberries, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, broccoli, kale and other greens, part-time employee and second-year student Aria Sikel said working for the farm has taught her how much effort and care goes into producing fresh food.

“When I started there, I had no idea how hard it was to work on a farm until I did it,” Sikel said. “But you also realize how rewarding it is.”

The manager of Student Organic Farm, Tori Dahl, said the farm’s outreach through local farmers markets are ways students and others in the university communities can gain easy access to fresh food. 

“Especially the St. Paul campus, but both campuses are food deserts,” Dahl said. “So access reliably to produce at all, and specifically local produce, is just very, very hard to come by. The goal is to serve the university community, not just be a business, but to be something that the whole U of M community can be proud of.”

Mary Rogers, the director of Student Organic Farm, said the program also teaches students marketing skills by involving them in the process of fairly pricing products and deciding quantities to sell according to supply-and-demand. 

 A crop’s market price from the farm is usually determined by the time and labor it takes to grow. Carrots, for example, are quite labor-intensive, whereas herbs and greens are easy to produce in bulk and are sold at a lower price. 

The dream is for the program to make produce available through a “pay-what-you-can” model, so fresh food can be “accessible to the student population as much as it can be,” Rogers said.

For now, Andrews and Sikel agreed the quality of their organic produce makes it worth the price. Sikel highlighted the farm’s strawberries, noting a “huge difference” in flavor when compared to their grocery store counterparts.

“When I started working at the farm, I did not realize that I had not tasted a real strawberry because I always used to buy [them] from the store,” Sikel said. 

Student Organic Farm also supports students in other ways, Rogers said. Students can participate in faculty research projects as well as in community engaged learning opportunities organized through partnerships with the university. Students can also take free produce home when they volunteer for a couple of hours at the farm. 

Andrews, who is majoring in apparel design, said the program accepts volunteers from all majors and levels of experience with agriculture, which fosters interdisciplinary learning. 

“I’ve learned so much from my coworkers and so much from the farm,” Andrews said. 

Sikel added that working at the farm is a good way for students to understand the origin of food  in a culture where most people rely entirely on grocery stores. 

“It’s so easy to get disconnected from the ‘real-ground produce’ feel of that,” Sikel said. “So I think it’s just a good way to get connected and understand where your food comes from.”

Anselm House sets program for international students

A new program by the Christian organization plans to provide international students with an outlet for their faith, learning opportunities

________________________
Story by Caleb Hensin / The Hubbard School  /  SUMMER 2023

A nondenominational Christian organization near the University of Minnesota is planning a new program for international students.

The fellow program would offer learning opportunities to international students of the Christian faith, and make mentors available to them. It is also intended to provide guidance during their education and beyond.

The fellows program would provide access to mentors and seminars geared specifically towards the three primary values of the program, which are hospitality, critically thinking about faith and learning Christian history focused less on western traditions and more on the faith’s roots in places such as Alexandria.

Jeremiah Ogazi, Anselm House’s associate director of campus programs and outreach said  students do not need  to be take any faith-based courses at the University and are not required to prove their faith. 

“We of course recommend that people be Christian and engage with the church, but are mostly looking for people willing to explore their faith,” Ogazi said.

The Anselm House has existed in a few different forms since 1974, where it originally was  known as the Christian Student Fellowship. 

The organization is unaffiliated with the University, but is specifically geared towards providing Christian students with a place of community. 

In 2016 the organization was renamed the Anselm Houseafter Saint Anselm of Canterbury, an 11th century Catholic theologian.  

The Anselm House’s sole location was near the St. Paul campus since its inception, but in 2022 they opened Melrose Station next to the East Bank metro station. 

Melrose Station houses regular tenants as well as a basement study space available for all students to use and serve tea at 2 p.m.

Ogazi said the plan is to continue supporting international students after they have graduated and returned to their home countries, and send mentors for long-term support to places such as India and Africa. 

A snag in the programs’ plans however is the issue of providing monetary support to international students. 

The Anselm House can not employ international students due to federal law, which states that international students can not work off-campus during their first year. 

After that first year, international students can only work off-campus in very specific circumstances. 

As an organization primarily funded by donations and grants, it is difficult for the Anselm House to provide continuous monetary support in other ways.

Ogazi said the new fellows program is  described as an education track that provides Christian-focused learning experiences making  it different from a fellowship or full-ride scholarship.

“We want to begin to introduce our community, both the Christian and non-Christian community, to global issues,” Ogazi said. “(We also) want to make sure that the educational experience of Christian international students at Minnesota is not something that is stifling, that it still raises desires in your heart to do work at home.”

Ogazi said international students often come to the University with a “hustle mindset” focused on getting an education, getting a visa and making money that they can send home to families.

“We want you to also think about what it looks like to actually build things at home,” Ogazi said.

Ogazi used his own experiences in his home county of Nigeria as an example., where he witnessed corruption and leaders who wouldn’t do anything about it. 

Ogazi said many people in places like Nigeria simply do not have the “luxury” to spend time intellectually examining their faith because they are trying to survive day-to-day.

Elena Fultz, the associate director of hospitality and communications at Anselm House, said they had “lots of interest” in international students and their potential to take what they learned from the fellows program back home.

“We are an institution invested in what is happening in the U of M, and international students are part of that,” Fultz said.

Fultz and Ogazi both said they are planning to hold various events exclusively for international students to help raise interest in the upcoming fellows program, with one taking place Aug. 25 on the lawn of the McNamara Alumni Center called the “International Welcome Picnic.

There is currently no nailed down launch date for the new fellows program.

Jehovah’s Witnesses a fixture near Stadium Village light rail stations

Kingdom Hall has chosen metro light rail stations as the ideal sites for members to spread the Christian faith to locals around the Twin Cities.

____________________
Story by Liv Hines  / The Hubbard School  /  SUMMER 2023

Brendan Devine, the general manager for Caribou Coffee located on Washington Avenue, said he started noticing the presence of Jehovah’s Witnesses at the East Bank light rail stop around March. 

Devine said he sees them each day he comes into work.They start at different times between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. and are still outside after Devine leaves work at 3 p.m. 

“Whenever I come, I see them,” Devine said. 

Devine is not the only one. Ferris Ghannoum, a biomedical researcher at the Medical School, said he walks the strip multiple times a day and sees between three to six Jehovah’s Witnesses standing on the street corner. 

“They don’t push you to try and talk to them,” Ghannoum said. 

The Jehovah’s Witnesses who stand on the street corner of Washington Avenue and Harvard Street asked to remain unidentified because they are not official church spokespeople. But they agreed during an interview to discuss their personal experience as they stood on the street corner to “witness” – their practice of spreading the Christian faith. 

According to the organization’s website, there are about 1.2 million Jehovah’s Witnesses in the United States as of 2022. Around 16,000 people joined the church in 2022. 

A 2014 study by the Pew Research Center showed less than 1% of Minnesota residents were Jehovah’s Witnesses. Among the most famous was Prince. 

Stadium Village is a relatively recent destination for these Jehovah’s Witnesses, determined by nothing more complicated than its location close to a heavily trafficked light rail stop, they said. They come from congregations throughout Minnesota and volunteer their time at least once a week to witness at metro transit stations throughout Minneapolis. They schedule their volunteer time around their jobs and other responsibilities, standing outside every day, except when it is raining or snowing.

Although they are a constant presence, passersby, such as Chris Belica, a graduate student studying biochemistry, said he walks past the Jehovah’s Witnesses every day. He said they haven’t bothered him.

“I’ve seen them elsewhere in the city,” Belica said. “They do kind of blend into the background.”

Despite their reputation of being intrusive, the Jehovah’s Witnesses said they avoid confronting people on the street. Though they practice door-knocking in their local communities, they wait for pedestrians to take the initiative when witnessing in the Stadium Village area.  

Kenny Person, a Stadium Village resident and graduate student, said she started seeing the Jehovah’s Witnesses outside daily beginning in March. 

Person said it is nice the Jehovah’s Witnesses do not confront locals and instead give them the opportunity to talk to them. She said she’s felt pressured by other religious groups to stand and listen when she doesn’t want to.

Not everyone said they were totally passive in their persuasion techniques. Sabrina Xie, a fourth-year student who lives in Stadium Village, said once a Jehovah’s Witness came up to her and talked about God and the Bible unprovoked. 

“I felt uncomfortable and very strange,” Xie said. “I ignore them.” 

Devine said he doesn’t see the Jehovah’s Witnesses interacting heavily with the people who walk past Caribou Coffee.

“They’re not trying to draw everyone from my patio, cause I’ve definitely have had some groups from the past that will,” Devine said. 

In the year since he began working, he said they’ve become a reliable sign that his work day has begun.

“They are definitely pretty consistent,” Devine said.