Route 1 Project Helps Brooklyn Center with Fresh Produce
The perfect recipe takes fresh ingredients — just ask Charlie Grey and Marcus Carpenter. On Thursday afternoon, they stood behind boxes and boxes of fresh produce. Fittingly, they talked soup.
“The potatoes are the perfect base,” Grey said.
“Yup — because you can put them in everything,” Carpenter agreed.
The pair isn’t just outside the Brooklyn Center Community Center for table talk. The boxes in front of them have a purpose.
Marcus Carpenter shows off a locally-grown roma tomato from the distribution box.
“In our state of Minnesota, one in 11 people are food insecure,” Carpenter said. “One in seven children are food insecure.”
That issue is close to his heart. Carpenter runs a project called Route 1. It’s designed to increase the number of BIPOC farmers in Minnesota.
By growing that number, Carpenter hopes to reduce food insecurity with culturally relevant foods. Earlier this month, CCX News toured a Route 1 farm just outside Plymouth and learned its mission.
Diversifying Farming
Thursday’s drop-off was one of Route 1’s food distribution events, which aim to decrease the level of food insecurity in Brooklyn Center. Organizers set out fresh produce in boxes. Anyone is welcome to drop by and take what they need.
“This is where the vision meets purpose, but also meets reality. So we’re really excited to be here,” Carpenter said.
Route 1 has partnered with a number of cities to distribute its food. Brooklyn Center is one of them. Grey, the city’s recreation coordinator, facilitated this summer’s distribution events.
Feeding a Community
Route 1 distribution events like this one serve hundreds.
“Trying to get it to a community that is documented that is underserved, that is below the poverty line in a lot of areas,” Grey said. “With vegetable prices rising in a lot of areas, it’s not easy to eat healthy all the time. It goes so much further than just what we can do on our end.”
Grey and Carpenter said this access to fresh, culturally relevant produce is made possible by a Hennepin County grant. Much of the time, the food comes from Route 1, alongside some other partnerships.
Carpenter and Grey speak with people picking up fresh produce.
Carpenter said that thanks to the grant, the BIPOC farmers on Route 1’s properties are compensated for their work. They’re also offering foods relevant to the communities they serve.
“Folks that live within these communities that receive the food they’re familiar with cooking, they’re familiar with preparing,” Carpenter said.
For Carpenter, distributing that food is the epitome of Route 1’s mission: closing gaps and improving access.
Thursday was the last community distribution event of the summer. Both Grey and Carpenter are on the lookout for funding to make distribution possible next year.
