6/01: Grand Opening of the IFL Market
In celebration of the grand opening of the IFL Market, NATIFS hosted a community open house June 1, 2023. This is the first Indigenous Food Lab Market; we envision opening other IFL Markets across the country, each servicing the local region, and improving both access to and markets for Indigenous food and other products.
Other community events over the summer included:
- NĀTIFS provided hunger relief for some of the Native communities’ most marginalized people at the Southside Harm Reduction Block Party. We provided nutritious meals to people experiencing homelessness and/or addiction in our community. In Minneapolis, this population is majority Indigenous.
- Our Indigenous Food Lab Market participated in Open Streets East Lake with Indigenous beverage samples and grain bowls for purchase, which took place all along historic East Lake Street, where the Indigenous Food Lab is located. It was a great way to meet neighbors and visitors to our neighborhood, which includes the Little Earth urban Indian community, with 38 different Tribal Affiliations.
Little Earth urban Indian community’s annual Father’s Day powwow.
We hosted Red Lake High School students for a tour of the Indigenous Food Lab and a discussion of different culinary career opportunities. - Social entrepreneurs Ashoka Fellows gathered in Minneapolis, and Sean (an Ashoka Fellow himself) hosted them for a tour of the Indigenous Food Lab, where our nixtamal team put on a nixtamalization and tortilla demo out of our new IFL studio kitchen space.
- We partnered with American Indian Community Housing Organization (AICHO) on a food demo on cooking bison and hominy at their weekly market, and provided a recipe book for attendees to take and try at home.