NEWS
April 20, 2024
Urban Roots combines Earth Day celebrations with art
David Woods, the conservation program director, was invited to the CBS New Minnesota station to talk about Earth Day and art.
April 8, 2024
Passion for fishing leads St. Paul Hmong teen to conservation work
Just 18 years old, Moua Yang already has developed a fishing curriculum for city youth with limited exposure to outdoor activities. He wants to make conservation his life’s work.
March 15, 2024
Ear to the Ground 334: Youth Movement
In this episode of the Land Stewardship Projects’s podcast, Ear to the Ground, hear from Marcos Giossi. As a farm beginnings grad he started his food-raising career as a teenager tilling soil on an old soccer field. Now he’s helping young urban farmers utilize a values-based decision making strategy to kick-off better communities.
January 4, 2024
Art Hounds: Revisiting roots
January 2024 – Trailblazer Newsletter
Thia Xiong on txoj hmoov (mandate of life) to care for all, in her own words.
December 1, 2023
Your Weekend Guide: Afrocentric art, a musical screening, and Hmong photography
Urban Roots, in collaboration with Indigenous Roots Cultural Art Center, will host the “Rooted Legacy” photography exhibition, celebrating the Hmong New Year and highlighting the cultural heritage of Urban Roots’ Hmong youth interns.
October 10, 2023
Teenagers work at St. Paul farm to improve neighborhood access to fresh food
Students with Urban Roots planted garlic and harvested Broccolini last week on their small, 1-acre farm that just received a $100,000 USDA grant. Above the traffic humming along Interstate 35 and buttressing a rail line, a dozen students stuck garden forks into black soil, prepping the earth for the fall crop of garlic.
September 6, 2023
Episode 179 – Access Through Community – Urban Roots
David Woods, Conservation Program Director for Urban Roots, joins The Wandering Naturalist Podcast to discuss how Urban Roots in St. Paul works to increase diversity in the outdoor field by encouraging youth to enter outdoor careers.
July 29, 2023
St. Paul Urban Farm Celebrates New Federal Funding
Urban Roots hosted the Rivoli Bluff Bash on the east side of St. Paul, showing off their gardens and urban agriculture space that serves as an open-air classroom.
March 26, 2023
Urban Roots brings environmental education to St. Paul elementary school
“Whoa-hhhh,” came a murmur from a group of 64 Cornerstone Montessori Elementary School students when they learned that the humble oak tree can live for more than 200 years. As Urban Roots’ conservation program director, David Woods, read from “As an Oak Tree Grows,” the students, from first- to third-grade classes, only broke attention to ask why the landscape around the tree changed so much over time or boo when the tree died and had to be cut down
February 26, 2023
VocalPoint Chorus ends 19-year run with final fundraising concert
On Communities that KARE, it’s the last curtain call for a chorus that raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Minnesota nonprofits.
We had a wonderful first weekend of February with VocalPoint Chorus, MaMuse, and Shruthi Rajasekar. We were honored to be the beneficiary organization for the 2023 VocalPoint Chorus season, especially as it was their last.
Thank you so much to everyone involved and for the incredibly generous donations, our fundraising total is an amazing $34,466.06 – words can’t express our gratitude! KARE 11 aired a segment about VocalPoint and Artistic Director Jennifer Anderson, who is now stepping down from VocalPoint after 19 seasons. Thank you Jennifer for your amazing work.
February 7, 2023
Urban Roots Minnesota Promotes Urban Farming
Last fall, the USDA Risk Management Agency was with us for two days filming a video about our work. The final product was recently released, and we’re proud to share it with you – check it out!
July 22, 2022
Urban roots garden for children
One way to combat hunger is to grow your own food. In recent years, urban farms and community gardens have been making that possible for more people than ever.
July 16, 2022
Urban Roots brings fresh food to underserved areas
Urban Roots holds open garden event
Urban Roots founded their largest agriculture site on the east side of St. Paul in 2016, turning a former city snow plow dump into fertile farmland.
May 16, 2022
How the labor shortage is affecting seasonal work and teen summer jobs
MPR News host Angela Davis talks with a resort owner and director of a youth employment program about how the labor shortage is affecting seasonal employment and summer jobs, particularly for teens.
April 19, 2022
Nourish by MN350 – From Seed to Table
In urban and rural communities, a variety of local food initiatives emerged in response to the absence of a just, responsive, and sustainable food economy. In this episode, Nourish by MN350 introduces one of the gems in that collection. Urban Roots is a community-based youth leadership initiative located on St. Paul’s Eastside. In this conversation, Urban Roots’ staff members Saba Andualem and Skyler Hawkins join Marita Bujold, founder of Just Food and Water, to share memorable stories from the gardens, kitchens, and markets where Urban Roots creates a vital role for youth to play in their community.
April 4, 2022
April Weed of the Month: Urban Roots Youth Conservation Program is Restoring Degraded Habitat in St. Paul Parks
The Urban Roots Youth Crew said, “We can do it!” That’s after David Woods pronounced a buckthorn shrub too large to pull.
March 24, 2022
HU Center for Justice and Law
Hayley Ball and Saba Andualem joins Anthony Meng and Ellie Logelin for a conversation about Urban Roots and food justice.
Nov 11, 2021
Urban Roots Helps Saint Paul Students Grow
Perched on a hill overlooking downtown Saint Paul, a plot of vacant land in the historic Railroad Island neighborhood is being transformed into something beautiful.
July 11, 2021
Mobile farmers market brings fresh produce to Payne-Phalen neighborhood
Nonprofit Urban Roots celebrates the unveiling of its mobile farmers market at Rivoli Bluffs Farm and Restoration Site in St. Paul’s Payne/Phalen neighborhood.
Sept 6, 2021
Urban Roots Works To Have Students Pull Lifelong Lessons From City Gardens
With the skyline as her backdrop, another hot morning starts on Ravoli Bluff for Adora Thao, giving the St. Paul garden bed a close look.
Sept 2021
Episode 38: Seeds of Wisdom from the Prairie: how listening to stories from a diversity of cultures perfects our prairie understanding
MN Department of Natural Resources Prairie Pod podcast
July 20, 2021
Twin Cities suburbs make room for edible forests and market gardens
Suburbs are leading the backyard produce movement by encouraging gardens at homes and community plots.
June 24, 2021
Burnsville to pilot ‘food forest’ at Civic Center Park,
An old hockey rink in Burnsville will soon be transformed into an educational garden under a new citywide initiative to implement sustainable land practices and build long-term solutions to health inequities.
April 30, 2021
Food forest, gardens will launch soon
Teens work at a market garden on St. Paul’s East Side run by Urban Roots, a nonprofit that’s consulting with the city of Burnsville on its Grow Burnsville program.