Wabasha Area Food Shelf has a “SuperShelf” transformation coming its way.

Wabasha Area Food Shelf will be transforming their store to encourage customers to choose healthier options, thanks to support from a SuperShelf grant from the University of Minnesota.

How does SuperShelf help food shelves?

Using a multi-step systems change process, SuperShelf works with food shelves to:

1. Create a food shelf environment that is client centered, promoting and respecting individual choice.

2. Increase access to a variety of healthy, culturally appropriate food.

3. Apply behavioral economic principles promote healthy food choices.

4. Create an appealing environment by transforming the physical space.

5. Meet specific SuperShelf standards, methods, and values.

6. Make the healthiest choice the easiest choice for all.

Learn more about Supershelf.

THANK YOU to Wabasha Area Food Shelf for partnering with Wabasha County SHIP to support this amazing project.

If you’d like to learn more about partnering with Wabasha County SHIP, email Tina Moen, SHIP Coordinator or call 651-565-5200.

Farmers Market season is well upon us. Get to know your farmers.

Wabasha Farmers Market

Location & hours: Main Street West & Alleghany Avenue in Wabasha. The market is open from mid-May through October on Wednesdays 3-6 p.m. and Saturdays 9 to noon.

Products available: a variety of fresh local fruits and vegetables, eggs, meats, baked goods, canned goods, flowers, locally produced craft items and more!

This market also offers Power of Produce (PoP) which is an incentive program where children ages 4 to 12 receive a $2 token each week to spend on fresh fruits, vegetables, and food plants at the farmers market. Learn more about PoP.

Wabasha Farmers Market accepts: EBT/SNAP/DEBIT and CREDIT cards and WIC Farmers Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) Vouchers. Stop by our information booth for more details! New vendors are always welcome. Learn more about the market.

“I am thankful for my partnership with my local SHIP Coordinator. The success of the programs at the Wabasha Farmers Market is a direct connection to the partnership we have created. SHIP and Farmers Markets working together is a win-win!”

- Sara George, Wabasha Farmers Market

Lake City Market by the Lake

Location & hours: On Thursdays through September 13, the market is located at Ohuta Beach Park in Lake City from 5-8pm.
On Saturdays, the market is open at the CenturyLink lot on the corner of Center and Washington Streets in Lake City.

Products available: local produce, home-baked goods, jams, food vendor snack and meals, crafts & much more. Enjoy convenient and ample street and marina lot parking. Thursday market offers PoP program for kids. Learn more about PoP.

Lake City Market by the Lake accepts: Thursday market accepts EBT. Learn more about the market.

Farmers Market Aggregation

Many farmers have the capacity to grow more fruits and vegetables than they can sell to individual customers at farmers markets, evident by the amount of produce farmers often have left over at the end of the market day.

Farmers Market Aggregation will help markets develop new income streams for their vendors by facilitating sales to a broader pool of buyers, including institutions and retailers in their community.

Both Wabasha Farmers Market and Lake City Market by the Lake have previously partnered with SHIP to add the service of aggregating and selling healthy foods to local businesses likes schools, hospitals, and restaurants. This process makes food more accessible by breaking barriers of transportation and time for their customers.

If you’d like to learn more about partnering with Wabasha County SHIP, email Tina Moen, SHIP Coordinator or call 651-565-5200.

Wabasha County SHIP increases food availability by supporting & promoting community gardens.

Join us as we kick-off the Wabasha Community Garden Friday May 24, 5 pm.

A potluck for plot-renting members and interested community members will be held at Wabasha’s Franklin Avenue Garden (Franklin & 10th St. E.) on Friday, May 24th at 5:00 PM. Bring your plate, utensils and something to share if you can. Lemonade provided.

Wabasha Community Gardens

Opened spring 2016. 10’ x 20’ plots are available for $10 for the season. Four raised-bed gardens are also available. Watering facilities are provided for tilled and fertilized plots. Free plots are available if you plant, maintain and give free produce to the public and/or food shelf, or if you become a garden mentor. Please email Kris Kruse or call her at 507-301-4465 to learn more. See flyer graphic.

Elgin Community Garden

Opened spring 2016. 15’ x 20’ plots are available for only $25 (scholarships are available). Tools and a cart are provided and plots are composted and tilled before planting season. Sign up by calling 507-876-2291 while plots are available. Learn more here.

Zumbro Falls Community Garden

Opened spring 2015. 16’ X 20’ plots are available for $15 for the season which covers tilling, water supply, and marked and assigned garden plots. Learn more here.

A special thank you to Lake City Community Garden

This garden was started without SHIP support and has served as a role model and advisor to other SHIP supported gardens throughout Wabasha County. Learn more about their superior program here.

If you would like information on what it means to partner with Wabasha County SHIP, please email Tina Moen or call her at 651-565-5200.

Wabasha community members gathered Friday, May 10 to envision the future for one of the Wabasha Community Gardens.

In recent years, Wabasha Park Board Commissioner, Mickey Nelson, has planted and harvested several plots in Wabasha’s Franklin Avenue Garden which brought much needed produce to the Wabasha Area Food Shelf. When food shelf volunteers heard Mickey would be “retiring” from the role, they reached out to the Statewide Health Improvement Partnerships (SHIP) and Wabasha County Food Access Network to ensure a continuously productive garden.

Mayor Emily Durand suggested trying a new leadership model that breaks up responsibilities and engages new groups and individuals. The Wabasha County Food Access Network offered suggestions based on what works in other communities, as all community gardens rely on volunteerism to thrive. “The idea of engaging students came up,” says Mayor Durand. “That seemed doable, though youth don’t always have the gardening expertise needed. We suggested a shared coordinator role between a student and an experienced gardener.” Mikey Nelson suggested Kris Kruse as coordinator since she has been active in keeping the Community Garden thriving for a long time. Durand met with Kris Kruse and Amy Sapola, a pharmacist with St. Elizabeth’s. Amy expressed an enthusiastic willingness to share knowledge of St. Elizabeth’s own successful food service garden which grows produce and herbs for patients and residents. She also offered labor. Sapola supervises pharmacy and medical students in a preceptor program at St. Elizabeth’s. She believes community service is an important part of their rural preceptor experience and suggested students could help with harvesting on breaks or after work.

A steering committee of sorts informally gelled and led to initial brainstorming on a kick-off event.

When Wabasha County SHIP coordinator, Tina Moen, was apprised of the group’s intent, she informed the group that a SHIP grant might help cover needed supplies and a one-time stipend to staff the garden. Tony Johnson, City of Wabasha Director of Public Works, had previously authored grants for the garden including a grant to build raised-beds which are now in place and improve access to those for whom kneeling isn’t an option.

“Tony was more than willing to work with me to get strategic about a new model,” says Durand. “We co-wrote the SHIP mini-grant application to cover half of the part-time wages for the youth and adult coordinators as well as a much needed shed at the Franklin Ave. location and some shared garden tools for those who might not have their own.” SHIP funded the grant, and Kris Kruse was hired as the coordinator. She’ll help get plots rented as well as lead Wabasha-Kellogg graduating senior, Maddie Meyer, to help with marketing and community engagement. Kruse would like to engage other community groups including summer programs with local elementary students and others who are interested.

Semcac Senior Nutrition partners with SHIP in Rice, Goodhue and Wabasha Counties.

Semcac (Southeast Minnesota Community Action Agency) Senior Nutrition has partnered with SHIP as a result of a Wabasha County SHIP Health Equity Data Analysis (HEDA). The purpose of the HEDA was to answer “why do low-income seniors report eating fewer fruits and vegetables than higher income seniors?”

Rice, Goodhue and Wabasha counties supported the purchase of food processing equipment to enhance nutritional content, serve more local foods, and improve taste in Senior Dining Centers.

“Senior diners agreed that the fresh cut, cooked carrots were so much more flavorful. One senior added, ‘I won’t eat the canned ones, but these were great!’ Our staff love the machines for cutting up fresh carrots for cooked carrots on the menu and for slicing fresh apples to make apple crisp!”
- Debbie Betthauser RD, Semcac Senior Services

If you would like information on what it means to partner with Wabasha County SHIP, please email Tina Moen or call her at 651-565-5200.