Some Awesomeness: June 2020 Thru Today

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THE BROOM IS A SYMBOL

Immediately following the looting and fires after the murder of George  Floyd, one of our teammates created an event for Facebook friends to  clean up the rubbish. 

By that Friday 5/27, 80,000 people were reached in a single day -- demonstrating the true spirit of the Minneapolis community:  love and kindness. For 5 days, 300-500 people showed up with brooms and  garbage bags in tow to take action.

"Grab the broom of anger and drive off the beast of fear."     - Zora Neale Hurston

Youth  planted and maintained flowers and baskets to be displayed at Minneapolis businesses  that were damaged during the fires and  looting. The flowers are meant to brighten up our city, and offer hope to our small business community. In addition, it is both intuitive and scientifically known that adding elements of nature, like flowers, promotes well-being.  "The Power of the Flower" as we like to say, can aid in healing our community by: 

• Generating Happiness
• Accelerating the Healing Process
• Benefiting the Environment
• Nourishing Concentration and Memory. 
• Promoting Health and Recreation

The  Real Minneapolis has teamed up with "Marty the Sign Guy". Our Youth Team will be visiting In•Signity and learning how to build creative signs and sculpture pieces for their youth garden! Young people are great entrepreneurs. Not to mention they are our future community  builders, business owners, public servants, and families. Young people can sometimes be hard to engage depending on  how you approach them. 

We have found that they need to be passionate and genuinely interested in a project and it helps when they can visualize the outcome. Marty to the rescue! 

Stay tuned for some really fun stuff...

FRESH PRODUCE FOR ALL

The  Real Minneapolis is working with local farmers and organizations to  provide a Farmer's Market outside of Phelps Community Center during  their existing food shelf times. Visitors can cruise through the market outside to select fresh farm-grown seasonal vegetables and fruit, and  non-perishables inside the building. We will follow all COVID-19 safety  protocols.

Before eating, always take time to thank the food. 

All plants are our brothers and sisters. They talk to us and if we listen, we can hear them. – Arapaho

As of September 2022, we've provided more than 25,000 freshly prepared meals out of our HOPEmobile, our one-stop shop motorhome! We've also distributed thousands of new gloves, hats, underwear, socks, hygiene products, harm reduction kits, blankets, jackets and more. 

In March 2022, we started an amazing  and pioneering collaboration with The Conflict Resolution Center: weekly Healing Circles. We ushering unsheltered neighbors indoors where they are supported, honored, and heard -- plus delicious Pizza Luce and snacks and a gift card! Since nearly all of our friends had not accessed services in months, years, or ever -- case management was quickly added by CRC.

In late August, in collaboration with GMCC (Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches), we began Friday ShowerPower after healing circles. (More details forthcoming. It's hot off the press!)