<\/div>\n
<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
Surrounded by thousands of surface miles of lakes, boreal forests and natural beauty, the community of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe (LLBO) also lies in the middle of a food desert, with few options for doorstep deliveries or quick trips to the grocery store.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the lay of the land up here, and no major metropolitan areas around, most folks have to drive upwards of 50 miles just to get the basics,\u201d said Mike Auger, LLBO\u2019s director of gaming operations. \u201cAs the COVID-19 pandemic started up, we decided we needed to tackle the problem of food insecurity in our community, because it was also one of the ways we thought we could keep our elders safe at home.\u201d<\/p>\n
In March, the Leech Lake Band Emergency Management Team launched the COVID-19 Food Initiative, distributing 700 boxes of pantry staples around the region. \u201cThe only qualification for getting the food box was needing it,\u201d said Auger, who oversaw the distribution operation. \u201cWe didn\u2019t care if you were a band member, or if you were white, or what your income was. We just got the food out where we thought people could use it.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the statewide shutdown continued, and organizers learned more about the community\u2019s needs, LLBO\u2019s COVID-19 Food Initiative grew more ambitious, activating nearly 100 volunteers and working with a nutritionist to ensure that every box contained a healthy range of shelf-stable foods and personal products to nourish families at home. Working with CARES Act funding from the state of Minnesota, supply chain support from Teal\u2019s Market, the local grocery store, and grant funding from the Initiative Foundation and other partners, LLBO has continued its commitment for a full year, delivering nearly 16,000 boxes of food around the region since the start of the pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goals at the start were just getting through the immediate future,\u201d said Auger. \u201cLike everyone last March, we never anticipated that we\u2019d still be doing this the following March.\u201d He credits collaborations with Second Harvest Heartland, the state of Minnesota and a host of other partners for helping the band \u201ccut through red tape and make a huge difference to people during a tough time. Food security was an issue before the pandemic, but now that the problem\u2019s been brought to the surface, I think we\u2019ve seen there are solutions that can help solve it. I hope that\u2019s the lesson we\u2019ll take from this after the pandemic ends.\u201d<\/p>\n
ESSENTIAL NEEDS<\/strong>
The Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe\u2019s COVID-19\u00a0 Food Initiative\u00a0is one of more than 1,400 nonprofits and businesses the Initiative\u00a0Foundation helped to fund in 2020, the biggest and the busiest year\u00a0in the organization\u2019s 35-year history. \u201cWe were founded in the wake of\u00a0the farm crisis, so we pride ourselves on being prepared for challenges,\u00a0but it would be an understatement to say this is not the year we had\u00a0planned,\u201d said Don Hickman, Initiative Foundation vice president\u00a0of community and workforce development. While the Foundation\u00a0stepped up its grantmaking, nearly quintupling the dollars it awards in\u00a0a typical year, the needs across the region were even greater.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a long history of funding capacity building and\u00a0strategic planning and things that will set communities up for longterm\u00a0success, but this year, for the first time, we decided we had to\u00a0directly fund the service of essential needs,\u201d said Hickman. \u201cWith\u00a0grant requests outstripping available resources by more than a 10:1\u00a0ratio, we had to make some tough choices and focus on the needs\u00a0that were most acute.\u201d<\/p>\n
For instance, as communities with meat processing plants\u00a0emerged as COVID-19 hot zones, the Initiative Foundation reached\u00a0out to underserved communities in Cold Spring, Long Prairie and\u00a0Melrose by hiring two bilingual disaster response specialists to\u00a0ensure that employees, often from Latino and Somali communities,\u00a0had the information they needed to stay safe in the workplace and\u00a0to access other essential services during the pandemic. The effort\u00a0resulted in the delivery of nearly $1.2 million in support to the\u00a0designated communities. (See the story Serving the Underserved<\/a>).<\/p>\n
With hundreds of small businesses forced to close during the\u00a0shutdown or to find new ways of meeting customers, the Foundation\u00a0also administered $7.66 million in small business relief grants in\u00a0partnership with the Minnesota Department of Employment and\u00a0Economic Development (DEED), which helped to provide $10,000\u00a0grants to 766 small businesses in the region. The effort, funded by federal\u00a0CARES Act dollars, also included a special allocation of $110,000 for a\u00a0St. Cloud cultural mall and its tenants.\u00a0(See the story\u00a0A Place for Community).<\/p>\n
With a serious child care shortage already in place, and essential\u00a0service workers pressed for solutions, the Initiative Foundation\u00a0also helped to fund a new accelerated early childhood certification\u00a0program at Pine Technical & Community College, one of several\u00a0\u201cone year to a new career\u201d programs that have surfaced to help\u00a0reactivate workers laid off during the shutdown. These programs\u00a0also solve labor shortages that were a problem before the pandemic.<\/p>\n
All totaled, the Initiative Foundation infused more than $14.2 million in relief efforts throughout Central Minnesota.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s remarkable that the economy is doing as well as it is in spite\u00a0of a global pandemic, and for that I think we can thank lots of diligent\u00a0entrepreneurs, and the fact that governments and the philanthropic\u00a0community are stepping up. It\u2019s taken everyone working together to take\u00a0on this challenge,\u201d said Initiative Foundation President Matt Varilek.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
FUTURE SOLUTIONS<\/strong>
The last year of shut-downs, school closures and supply chain\u00a0challenges have also revealed trouble spots in Central Minnesota\u2019s\u00a0economy. \u201cEven though the economy is strong in aggregate, it also\u00a0reflects some pretty vast disparities,\u201d Varilek said, noting that while\u00a0hospitality and personal service businesses have been devastated by\u00a0the pandemic, other sectors like construction, outdoor recreation\u00a0and some manufacturing have seen big gains. \u201cSome businesses in\u00a0the region have had their best year ever, while others are in danger\u00a0of going away for good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jeff Wig, the Initiative Foundation\u2019s vice president for\u00a0entrepreneurship, agrees. \u201cWhen the shutdown started there was a\u00a0shock and awe phase last spring and summer that has given way to\u00a0an adjustment phase as people found new ways of doing business.\u201d\u00a0For instance, favorite local restaurants revved up websites and\u00a0offered deliveries and curbside pick-ups, while other operations\u00a0 make quick pivots, like Brainerd\u2019s The Teehive, a custom T-shirt shop that quickly began producing face masks and other personal protective garments. While the Paycheck Protection Program and other small business loan programs have offered a lifeline to many small businesses in the region, \u201cgiving people additional loans for emergency use is not always what they want,\u201d Wig said. \u201cThere are many other businesses that have decided it\u2019s not worth it to stay open and lose money, but they\u2019re looking for a way to grow forward as we start to emerge from the COVID-19 tunnel.\u201d<\/p>\n
BACKING BUSINESS<\/strong>: From Gustaf\u2019s Up North Gallery in Lindstrom (upper left) to Jordie\u2019s Trailside Cafe in Bowlus (upper right) to Lupulin Brewery in Big Lake (lower left)\u00a0and GroShed located in Emily (lower right), grants distributed by the Initiative Foundation helped bring relief to regional small businesses.<\/p>\n
Child care surfaced as another major challenge,\u00a0as homes or centers closed or reduced class sizes and\u00a0parents took on teaching duties at home. \u201cProblems\u00a0with finding or hanging onto child care is the single\u00a0biggest factor affecting an employee\u2019s productivity\u00a0and the single biggest reason for absenteeism. The\u00a0pandemic made that painfully clear,\u201d said Marnie\u00a0Werner, vice president for research and operations at\u00a0the Center for Rural Policy and Development. \u201cIf you were having\u00a0problems with child care, particularly in rural communities, you\u00a0might be able to fall back on grandma or an aunt in a pinch, but\u00a0with COVID, you can\u2019t rely on your older relatives, which cut off\u00a0that avenue for patching the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a tight job market, employers could replace a child-care\u00a0challenged employee with a new hire. But there are more unfilled\u00a0jobs than skilled workers in the region, a trend that\u2019s continued\u00a0through the pandemic. \u201cBusinesses are starting to realize and\u00a0understand that they do have to get involved in solving this problem,\u201d\u00a0said Werner. \u201cAnd for policy makers and the public in general,\u00a0I think this year has really clarified how much child care is part of\u00a0the infrastructure that supports economic growth.\u201d<\/p>\n
With widespread vaccine distribution now within view, Varilek\u00a0says a strong recovery for the region will also depend on following\u00a0the public health lessons we\u2019ve learned over the last year. \u201cThe health\u00a0of Central Minnesota\u2019s economy and the coronavirus are closely\u00a0connected,\u201d he said. \u201cFortunately, this virus is beatable and we\u2019ve\u00a0learned how to operate our economy more openly than we did in the early days. But getting to the next stage of the new normal is going to depend on as many of us as possible getting vaccinated just as soon as we can.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe shouldn\u2019t get ahead of ourselves in terms of our\u00a0expectations about immediately getting together in large groups,\u00a0traveling for work and leisure and other things we\u2019ve missed during\u00a0the pandemic, but the fact we\u2019ve been able to maintain the economic\u00a0strength we\u2019ve seen during this year gives me great optimism,\u201d he\u00a0said. \u201cIf we\u2019re doing as well as we are with all of these pandemic\u00a0constraints in place, just imagine where we can be in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n