Appetite for Change began as a program focused on bringing the community together around food with a goal to create access and bring awareness to food instability in North Minneapolis. Over the past thirteen years, we’ve grown in ways we could not have imagined meeting the ever-changing needs of our community. We expanded our services into social enterprises with our catering services, Breaking Bread restaurant, and Station 81 café, and created free food distribution programs.
As we look ahead, we see an opportunity to recenter our efforts on youth to provide higher-impact programming, streamline our operating model, increase the effectiveness of our team, and maintain our organizational and financial health. Our organization, like many other non-profits, is not unique in the challenges it has experienced due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social unrest following the murder of George Floyd, and intense economic fluctuations over the past few years.
With this change will come the closure of our AFC Catering, we also will end our collaboration with Station 81 and are working with Ramsey County to find a new vendor to manage the café beginning in early 2024. These changes will also affect how we staff Appetite for Change and require us to adjust our staffing model moving forward. We want to thank those staff members who helped us make AFC what it is today.
As we continue to live out AFC’s mission, vision, and values, we look forward to maintaining a supportive, safe, and educational environment where youth build skills, learn, and grow. Our staff will work together with youth participants to build a progressive framework and expand our offerings for participants in the Youth Training and Opportunities Program (YTOP). In addition to YTOP, we will continue our Urban Agriculture Program where we grow and harvest organic produce on our plots in North Minneapolis. Our Community Cooks Program, which brings people together to learn, cook together, and build community, will also continue.
Thank you for continuing to support Appetite for Change in our mission to make a difference by building health, wealth, and social change in North Minneapolis.
