A family receives donated food at Grace Evangelical Free Church. Feeding America estimates that 35.5 million Americans live in food insecure households, including over 12 million children. photo | Steve Floyd

In the largest and most efficient food producing country in the world, who would imagine that anyone would go without food? The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the United States produces about $100 billion worth in crops and another $100 billion in livestock every year. Knowing this, it may be surprising to learn that, this year, Feeding America will feed over 25 million people who would otherwise go hungry in the United States. Feeding America is a network of over 200 food banks across the county that collects and distributes donated food and grocery products to those with low food security: whose ability to acquire acceptable foods is limited or uncertain.

Feeding America utilizes a network of over 63,000 local charitable organizations to make donation of food possible for local businesses. Without these local organizations, transportation of donated goods would too expensive for most businesses and billions of pounds of food would just be thrown away. Also, local organizations help to make distribution into communities possible by setting up soup kitchens, pantries, and distribution sites. I recently attended a food distribution at Grace Evangelical Free Church in Fridley, Minnesota. Read the rest of this entry »

photo | Steve Floyd

Social Venture Partners Minnesota (SVP) recently hosted The Engaged Philanthropy Conference at the Graves 601 Hotel in Minneapolis. The Engaged Philanthropy Conference brought social entrepreneurs together with philanthropists, investors and business leaders. “The social problems that we face will require the collaboration of nonprofits, philanthropy and business to solve – no one of those sectors can do it by themselves,” states Brad Brown, Executive Director of SVP Minnesota. SVP was founded in 1997 by Paul Brainerd in Seattle, Washington in order to build a philanthropic network that invests money and expertise in social entrepreneurial ventures. The members of SVP do much more than write checks, they also offer their time and expertise to the ventures they support. Read the rest of this entry »

A new exhibit at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden showcases a myriad of products and practical designs for use in developing countries to address issues and symptoms of poverty. The exhibit is described as reflecting “a growing movement among designers, engineers, architects, and social entrepreneurs to create low-cost solutions for everyday problems faced by the world’s poor.” Read the rest of this entry »

This week I had the opportunity to attend an event presented by the Charities Review Council and Thrivent Financial entitled, “Delving into Public Perception: what Minnesotans think about the charitable sector (and what to do about it).” To a captive audience of non-profit professionals, presenters discussed findings from a survey conducted for the Charities Review Council that polled Minnesotans on their giving habits and attitudes towards charities. The survey questions touched on issues of trust, ethics, and the proper use of funds by charities. For the most part, the survey respondents believed that charities could be trusted, that they are ethical, and that they wisely spend the money they receive from donors. Although the survey findings concluded that, for the most part, the public’s perception of charities is quite favorable, the event’s presenters reminded the audience that many external and internal forces have the potential to hurt charitable organizations. Read the rest of this entry »

FilmAid International held their annual benefit April 9th in NYC and a couple employees from Worrell, Inc., a Minneapolis-based design firm, were very excited to attend.

Valentino Achak Deng was among those honored at the event. photo | Jacqui Belleau

Worrell designed the invitation suite and the awards for the gala and we were thrilled to be present while FilmAid’s honorees were recognized. Read the rest of this entry »

Desmond Tutu greets North High students. photos | courtesy of Steve FloydAs Archbishop Desmond Tutu walks into North High School in North Minneapolis, Minnesota, he passes by young men and women, giving high fives and fist pounds to the eager students. They have been preparing and planning for months to allow the archbishop to come and be a part of this Youthrive event that they hope will inspire thousands of teens to help make this world a more peaceful place. Youthrive is a northern affiliate of an organization called PeaceJam. PeaceJam teaches youth about the lives of Nobel Laureates and then provides for ways for those youth to meet these laureates at peace rallies intended to inspire youth to take an active roll in peacemaking in their communities. The Minneapolis Youthrive peace rally took place on the weekend of April 12th and 13th. Read the rest of this entry »

photos | courtesy of Steve Floyd
In a small room in Kwanzaa church, North Minneapolis high school and college students gather to plan one of the largest peace conferences ever held in Minnesota. These young men and women are participants in the PeaceJam program or its Upper Midwest affiliate, Youthrive. The PeaceJam and Youthrive programs teach youth about the lives of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates to inspire them to engage in peacemaking activities and teach others to make peaceful choices. Read the rest of this entry »

Lisa JacksonThe Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo was screened last week at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London as part of the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, and was greeted with sincere praises by a packed audience.

Emmy-Award winning filmmaker’s Lisa Jackson took questions at the end of the film, and explained how her own personal experience of being gang-raped in Washington, D.C., when she was 25 years old, helped her research and tell this terrible story.

The film was shot in the war-torn eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where tens of thousands of women and girls have been raped and tortured in the past decade. Used as a true weapon of war in this brutal resource conflict, systematic rape is perpetrated on a daily basis by soldiers from foreign militias, rebel groups, and the Congolese army. Read the rest of this entry »

Toni Pierce, Tammy Hauser Sarto and Marnita Schroedel at the March 8th event. photo | Sophia HantzesDIVA MN is a nonprofit organization using creative programs to combat HIV/AIDS in Minnesota. For nearly 20 years DIVA MN has searched for innovative solutions to HIV/AIDS, educated people about the epidemic, and given a voice and treatment to those affected by HIV/AIDS.

DIVA’s Executive Director, Tammy Hauser Sarto, came to DIVA because “I loved the creative energy and I was invested in the mission. I saw their great history and big potential for the future.” Tammy was excited to talk about DIVA’s 17th annual fundraising event, held on March 8th at the International Market Square. Every year the event has a different theme, and this year is was Club DIVA. Read the rest of this entry »

Jan Egeland Jan Egeland Speaks at Macalester College

Jan Egeland, former United Nations Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, spoke at a breakfast at Macalester College on March 13. He discussed his new book, successes and failures in humanitarian efforts, and the challenges ahead. After retiring from his positions at the UN, journalists asked him: “So are you now depressed or very depressed?” Egeland responded, “Neither. I’m an optimist.” It is his optimism that drove him to write A Billion Lives: An Eyewitness Report from the Frontlines of Humanity, released this month. Read the rest of this entry »