2010 is an exciting year for us. We are expanding our work and starting new projects. We are looking for partners, friends, donors and volunteers. Please read more about our programs, and let us know if you’d like to get involved!

Fruits of the City – We will be expanding the program this year and harvesting more surplus fruit from fruit trees in the Twin Cities. We will continue to hold fruit tree education workshops and support efforts to implement community orchards.

Heartland Food Network – HFN is excited to announce a number of exciting new activities in 2010:

• After our successful first Chef-to-Chef event 3/22/10 at the Craftsman in Minneapolis, we will be hosting more workshops for chefs looking for local food this summer. These workshops will provide participants with information on finding and using local food, menu planning, and rules and regulations about local food. Speakers will be experienced chefs and other experts on using local food in food service. To see the full list of events and resources for finding local food this summer, see our For Chefs page.

• We will host trainings for college campus cafeterias to use more local foods: Trainings will cover information and best practices on bringing local food to college cafeterias.

• We will write and publish a Guide to Using Local Food in Food Service, which will be a written guide book for chefs and food service buyers on buying and using local food.

Urban Farm Incubator – We will break ground on a site in Northeast Minneapolis to begin a woman’s farm incubator program. This program will provide land, training, and connections to markets for small-scale urban woman farmers.

Community Food Project in St. Paul – We are working with four community organizations to assess the food situation in four neighborhoods in St. Paul, and with the results we will determine strategies to bring more healthy food to these neighborhoods.