Helping the needy get nerdy

Students at Community School of Excellence recycle computers and donate them to families without one

by Tesha M. Christensen

Helping the needy get nerdy.

That’s the motto of the Asian Penguin club at the Community School of Excellence, a charter school at 170 Rose Ave. W. in St. Paul.

When school ended in June, the Asian Penguins had given away seven computers to families that didn’t have one.

About 30% of the families that send children to school at the Community School of Excellence don’t have a computer or internet access at home, noted Asian Penguin faculty adviser Stuart Keroff.

He overseas the program, along with fellow teacher Jeff Carter.

“The club was created to give kids the opportunity to do something fun and different with computers.,” stated Keroff “Right now, Linux is used on only 2% of desktop PCs, so none of the kids in the club had ever used it before.”

KIDS MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Students feel like they’re making a difference in their community. “It’s real nice that I’m helping the community and the world and changing it little by little,” one student told Carter. Another commented, “It is fun to help people.”

Another sees it as a larger mission: “We’re trying to change the world.”

“The kids use words like ‘fun’ and ‘awesome’ to describe what we do,” said Keroff.

The motto he shares with the students to describe their community service effort is a quote from Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple: “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”

The first family to receive a computer had only been out of the refugee camp in Thailand a couple of months.

Computers go to families with children at the School of Excellence who receive free or reduced lunch. The school’s Hmong and Karenni community liaisons help the Asian Penguins find eligible families.

STUDENTS RECYCLE COMPUTERS

The program began in the spring of 2012 with a small group of technology-oriented students that wanted to learn more about the desktop computers Keroff uses in his classroom. 

Keroff needed some desktop PCs for paperless quizzes for history, and was given some through a grant from Free Geek Twin Cities (www.freegeektwincities.org).  They recycle computers and use Ubuntu Linux as the operating system. 

“Once the machines were there, some of the students got very interested in something that was different from Microsoft Windows, so I started to teach them how to use and install the software,” said Keroff, who was already a Linux user.

When the 2012-2013 school year began, Keroff and students started a case study experiment to determine if Ubuntu Linux was a suitable replacement for Microsoft Windows on student laptop computers. 

“From there, we decided to go beyond just using Linux ourselves, but using Linux and open source software to help people in our community,” said Keroff. “We obtained computers to recycle, and then the students installed all of the software and got the computers ready to give away.”

He added, “We’ve been lucky in that the computers we’ve worked with so far have all had working components, just no software.”

When the school year ended, there were about 30 members in the Asian Penguins, spanning grades six to eight.

Teams of two to three students follow a multi-step checklist to get a computer ready.

“We start by checking for proper operation of all parts of the computer, we then do a thorough clean-up of the computer both inside and out.  We then install the Unbuntu operating system and selected applications  (Office Suite, Web Browser, Typing and Math tutor programs, Karenni and Hmong to English dictionaries), test all aspects of system for proper operation, assign a local serial number and finally set up user accounts on the computer,” said Carter.

The last touch is when the kids put the “Asian Penguins” sticker on the outside, certifying that the computer was prepared by the Penguins.  The whole process can 90 minutes or more and takes one to two days. Students work before, during and after school.

During Asian Club meetings, which are student-run, members discuss “upcoming ‘missions’ (what the kids call taking a computer to a family) and have a debriefing about past missions,” noted Carter. They also learn something new about the software, if time permits.

BIG PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

Next year, the Asian Penguins intend to donate at least 15 computers.

They plan to partner with the Linux Professional Institute to start offering students a Linux Essentials certification, an entry-level professional certification.

“As demand for Linux in industry grows, it feels good to know our students will leave 8th grade with a certificate that can open employment doors for them,” remarked Keroff.

They will also be starting tech support clinics for community members who are having computer problems.

 REWARDING WORK

“In all of my years of teaching, this is the most rewarding thing I have ever done,” stated Keroff.

Carter agreed. “This is one of the more satisfying things I have participated in as a teacher. The students are so engaged in helping their community and learning new things.”

[sidebar] Charter school under investigation

by Tesha M. Christensen

The Community School of Excellence (CSE) in St. Paul is being investigated by its authorizer Concordia University.

In mid-July, the Department of Education directed Concordia to investigate allegations that the school has misused federal funds, mishandled board elections, and improperly handled maltreatment complaints.

The complaint about how CSE uses free- and reduced-price lunch funds, including having students punch in for meals they do not consume, is not a new one. CSE was recently required to repay over $200,000 of misused food and nutrition (FNS) funds for similar issues.

Numerous complainants allege a persistent pattern of poor employment practices by the director of the school, wrote Lisa Needham of the Department of Education in a three-page letter to Concordia. Allegations include that the director threatens staff for disagreeing with her, reported a teacher to the Board of Teaching after the teacher resigned her position with CSE, and failed to provide teachers with paid time off and QComp funds that they had already earned.

The Department of Education is also concerned that school personnel are discouraged from reporting maltreatment and are that the investigations are being interfered with by the director.

Mo Chang, a longtime education who served as a charter school liaison for the St. Paul Public Schools, founded and directs the Community School of Excellence. The K-8 Hmong Language & Culture and IB World School is housed in the former home of St. Bernard’s Catholic school.

CSE opened in 2007 with 176 students, and since has seen its population grow to more than 830 students, according to its website.

These complaints raise a number of serious issues that CSE must address immediately, wrote Needham.

The Department of Education directed  Concordia to provide training on proper fiscal reporting as regards federal funds and investigate whether the school’s staff is continuing to require students to request reimbursement for meals they do not eat

Concordia must provide training on maltreatment reporting duties to staff, teachers, and the administration of the school.

Concordia must also provide training on how elections are to be conducted moving forward, as well as on the Open Meeting law.

Concordia was also directed to address the numerous employment-related concerns raised by staff, and to undertake a general investigation into the school’s finances to ensure that funds are not being mis-spent.

The university was given until Aug. 9 to address the issues.

This story was printed in the August edition of the St. Paul Monitor.
http://www.monitorsaintpaul.com/helping-the-needy-get-nerdy/

NEIGHBORHOOD NOTES | Storytime in the Southside Star Community Garden on Saturday

By Tesha Christensen, Neighborhood Notes

August 09, 2013

Attend story time in the Southside Star Community Garden on Saturday, Aug. 10, 2013 at 5 p.m.
It is part of several activities in honor of Community Garden Day. There will be tours, food and drink and activities for kids from 4 to 8 p.m. Master gardeners will be on hand to answer questions.

ACTIVITIES:
• 4:30 p.m. — Compost tea demonstration by Southside Star Gardener Bob Weber (a part of the Southside Hub Mini-tour)   
• 5 p.m. — STORYTIME IN THE GARDEN for all ages with Roosevelt Librarian Ginger Gomes   
• 6 p.m. — Fruit-tree guilds and other concepts of permaculture with Standish-Ericsson resident Heather Ilse
Southside Star Community Garden is located at the 4100 block of 32nd Ave.
The first crops were planted at Southside Star in 2010. Each gardener pays $50 a year, and performs 10 hour of community service such as mowing, weeding, moving mulch, digging weeds out of the sidewalk, working on the shelter and filling water barrels. Prior to work days, a scheduled walk-through is done to create a task list for the work-day leader. People also do community work on their own time and drop a note with their hours into the mailbox in the shed.
There is a waiting list for garden plots. Contact Laura Hansen at <bigelle71@yahoo.com> for more information or call 612-968-4777.
OTHER LOCAL GARDENS HOSTING EVENTS:
• Fresh Food On 4th 4000 4th Ave S.
Collard Green Cook-Off and tasting, a gardening skill share, and many more gardening activities for adults and youth. 12:00pm-2:00pm. More info: 612-280-7072
• Jardin Paraiso/Paradise Garden 3405 Chicago Ave.
Demos and recipes for purslane, or verdolagas, the edible plant considered a “weed” here.
10am-noon. More info: silvia@corcoranneighborhood.org
• Windom Community Garden 62nd St & Nicollet Ave
Potluck picnic, lemonade & cookies provided. Face painting, scavenger hunt, crafts, & musical jam—bring your instruments! 4:30-6:30pm. More info: 612-423-7554

See original post @
http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/news/2013/08/09/storytime-southside-star-community-garden-saturday

NEIGHBORHOOD NOTES | Talent show part of Lake Hiawatha festival Wednesday

By Tesha Christensen, Neighborhood Notes

August 05, 2013

See the talents of your neighbors during the Wednesday, Aug. 7 talent show at Lake Hiawatha Park.
The talent show will be held during the Lake Hiawatha Festival that runs from 5 to 8 p.m. at the park. The talent show will begin at 6:15 p.m.
There are cash prizes: 1st place $50, 2nd $30 and 3rd $20. Preregistration required. Email lhfest@yahoo.com and include your talent.

ACTIVITIES
• Minnesota Lynx - The Minnesota Lynx WNBA team will have a booth at the festival. They will be bringing their inflatable basketball pop-a-shot, have giveaways for kids, and entries to win free tickets, and other fun prizes.  
• Water Feature  — The wading pool will be open during the festival. There will be an inflatable water slide.
• Canoe Rides – enjoy a canoe ride on Lake Hiawatha from 5:00-8:00 p.m. FREE
• Miniature Golf – enjoy 9 holes of mini golf provided by Party Putt LLC from 5:00-8:00 p.m.
• Caricaturist - Get a humerous drawing of yourself from 6:00-8:00 p.m.
• Family Fitness Challenge - compete with other families. If you want to participate in the family fitness challenge, please preregister. Email  lhfest@yahoo.com and in the body of the email list what fitness challenge your family will be participating in. Trophies will be awarded to the top three winners in the challenge.
  
• Pony Rides - for children 10 years old and younger. The location of the pony rides will be in the playing area near 28th Avenue.
• Other fun includes kids games, face painting, hair painting, fitness expo and the sports 5-in-1 moonwalk. Tickets cost 25¢ each.
•  For every $5 of tickets purchased receive one entry into the raffle. Raffle drawing at 7 p.m.
This event is sponsored and supported by the Lake Hiawatha Recreation Council, Standish-Ericsson Neighborhood Association and the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board. The festival first started in August 1996.
DETOUR
28th Avenue is currently undergoing construction starting at 40th St. Due to the construction do not use 28th Ave. to get to the festival. Instead, take Nokomis Ave. south to 44nd St. Turn west and follow 44th St. to the park.
More at http://www.lhrc.freeservers.com/festival.htm

SEE ORIGINAL POST @
http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/news/2013/08/05/talent-show-part-festival-wednesday

Two Minneapolis women launch Tango Chimichurri

‘A sauce for everyone,’ it is sold at the Minneapolis Farmers Market

by Tesha M. Christensen

Every Friday night, you can find Standish-Ericsson residents Mariana Leimontas and Suzie Holzinger at the GIA Kitchen in St. Paul chopping, dicing and mixing.

They are making the Tango Chimichurri sauce they’ll be selling fresh for the next two days at the Minneapolis Farmers Market on E. Lyndale Ave.

“We’re just so excited to share Mariana’s authentic recipe with everyone here in the city,” said Holzinger.

During their first attempt, it took about six or seven hours to make 60 jars. After five weeks, and they had cut the time down to around four hours for 70 jars.

“Chimichurri is a sauce that Argentines have used for nearly 200 years on all of their grilled meats,” said Holzinger. “It is also their traditional table sauce.”

Chimichurri originated in Argentina, but has found its way north through South and Central America. “There are several varieties using different herbs, but Mariana’s recipe is the authentic recipe,” pointed out Holzinger. Liemontas brought it with her from Argentina 10 years ago, and still imports her spices direct from Argentina.

“Tango Chimichurri is the closest you will come to what the gauchos used nearly 200 years ago,” noted Holzinger. “It has an Italian flavor that is quite unexpected. This has made it a versatile sauce that works great for more than just BBQ. It is amazing in vegetable stir fry, as a sandwich spread, in bruschetta, dips and much more. The great thing about Tango Chimi, is that it is naturally vegan, gluten free and sugar free.

“It’s a sauce for everyone.”

THE BIRTH OF A BUSINESS

Tango Chimichurri was born overnight.

Leimontas has been making her family’s special recipe for years (with spices from Argentina) and her friends and family have loved it considering a special treat at parties.

“We started our business the day after going out for my birthday with friends this past March,” recalled Holzinger. We were chatting about summer plans when my good friend, Marnna, demanded that we sell Mariana’s famous chimichurri at the Minneapolis Farmers Market. We all looked at one another and said, ‘You know what? Why not???’”

Leimontas had the name picked out and a logo started before the sun came up.

“If we knew what we were getting ourselves into, we may have brushed it off as just another night joking about start ups with friends,” admitted Holzinger.

“It has been a whirlwind these last three months and it hasn’t quite slowed down,” she said.

They have learned the most from talking to other entrepreneurs and people at the farmers market.

“For those who are interested in starting a food business, my best advice would be to check with the permits department in the city you are planning to sell and also check with the Department of Agriculture for laws surrounding your product and the way it should be manufactured,” recommended Holzinger. “We would have saved a lot of time if we had checked there first.”

When starting a business, “You have to be flexible, keep your eye on your goal, and understand that it can be expensive and time consuming,” said Holzinger.

At first their business plan involved canning the chimichurri sauce. They consulted food experts, did a ton of research, and spent the majority of April experimenting with different processes to can it. “We ordered jars of processed chimichurri online from across the country to taste it, in the end we found that it was horrible and nothing like the traditional sauce,” said Holzinger. “We decided in a few short weeks that we were going to make our product fresh, weekly for the market using no preservatives in the traditional style so that everyone could enjoy Chimichurri the way it is meant to be enjoyed, just like they would have it in Argentina.”

AUTHENTIC TASTE

What is the secret to making a great, authentic sauce? According to Holzinger, the secret is keeping it simple and using fresh ingredients. They buy local when they can, and have just started using sunflower oil from a local producer. “We never compromise and always stay true to the product,” said Holzinger.

“We put a lot of love into each jar, as we make each jar one at a time,” she added. “We measure each ingredient and add them to each jar separately -- just as Argentines would make it for their family.”

Confirmation that they’re on the right track has come when “their most discerning customers”, those from Argentina as well as Brazil and Uruguay, try it. “They have all admitted that it is the real deal,” said Holzinger.

“Many people are surprised by its flavor,” observed Holzinger. “It has a boldness, a zesty, tangy bite as we use premium red wine vinegar, and a sweetness from our authentic spices.”

The two have included recipes for how to use Tango Chimichurri on their web site, http://www.tangochimi.com/.

Tango Chimichurri is currently available at the Minneapolis Farmers Market on E. Lyndale Ave N. Holzinger and Leimontas have received a permit from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture which allows them to sell retail, and they hope to introduce it at a few local co-ops soon. Each 9-ounce jar is $8 or purchase two for $15.

They are also working on a “spicy” version that will be for sale by the end of the summer.

“It has been a lot of fun to see people try it for the first time,” said Holzinger. “From really small children to their grandparents, we have gotten a great response.”

This story was published in the August edition of the Longfellow/Nokomis Messenger.

Page & Flowers leading urban garden movement in Twin Cities

Local couple named Ramsey County Farm Family of the Year

by Tesha M. Christensen

The 2013 Ramsey County Farm Family of the Year lives and farms in the Hamline-Midway neighborhood.

Cherry Flowers and Tim Page of Page & Flowers (formerly named Holistic Health Farms) are part of the growing movement of urban farmers. “We were the first people to put up a hoop house in St. Paul,” Flowers said. The 6.5-foot high hoop house sits alongside their home. It’s one of the many innovative methods the two have employed in their urban garden plots.

“We push the envelope,” Flowers said.

They believe that urban farms are important and that they empower the people who contribute. “In neighborhoods that have community gardens, the crime rates go down,” said Flowers. “Property values go up. Communities are connected.”

The hoop house enables the farmers to extend the Minnesota growing season significantly, which gives them an edge at farmer’s markets. In the winter, they use the hoop house for compost. The compost is used to enrich their soil, which in turn enables them intensively farm the small plots they have.

Page and Flowers are actively working with St. Paul and Minneapolis officials to standardize the requirements on hoop houses. In Minneapolis, they are considered a temporary structure, Flowers pointed out. Right now in St. Paul, they are considered a permanent structure, similar to other outbuildings. The size is limited, and footings are required. Page and Flowers are working with St. Paul right now regarding their own hoop house. They’ve had to make it smaller to comply with regulations, and are installing 12-foot-deep concrete footings. St. Paul’s regulations are limiting for the urban farmer, Flowers noted, many of who are using land that they don’t own.

TECHNIQUES TO MAXIMIZE LAND USE

“We try to use a lot of techniques to maximize the use of the land,” said Flowers. She added that if they owned 140 acres, they wouldn’t need to be as conscious of space as they are. But because they have small plots in the city, they try to cram as many plants together as they can.

With companion planting, Flowers and Page put plants together that benefit each other, such as mint and cabbage and asparagus and strawberries.

Within their rows, there is a mixture of vegetables. Between the tomatoes is basil and at the ends of the lettuce rows are onions.

They don’t walk on the rows where they plant to avoid compacting the soil.

They use SPIN techniques, planting a lot of items in two-foot-wide rows that are easier to weed. The staggered rows resemble the pattern of a dice. Instead of placing carrots three inches apart in rows that are 15 inches apart, their carrots are merely three inches apart.

Rows that are skinnier cuts down on labor costs because they are easier to weed. They also lay burlap coffee bags between plants to keep the weeds down, a product they’ve found works much better than other options.  “It allows us to focus more on growing and less on weeding,” said Flowers.

GARDENING THROUGH EXPERIENCE

Flowers learned about gardening at a boarding school in Iowa where she lived during her four high school years. The students did everything there, including butchering pigs and making yogurt. Her passion has most recently led her to attend the classes to be a Ramsey County Master Gardener; she has 50 volunteer hours left before earning her certification.

Page picked up his knowledge of gardening through the youth work he’s done.

The duo met working in an urban garden in North Minneapolis where teens from low-income families were learning about how to grow their own food.

In addition to the plot next to their house, Page and Flowers operate a one-acre market garden at Maryland and Arundel St. in St. Paul’s North End neighborhood. The land is owned by Sparks Development Corporation and was initially slated to be a housing development. When the market changed, Sparks decided to focus on market gardens. Page and Flowers only use about half the site there, and host a community garden on the other half.

The duo also farm on certified organic land in North Branch that is owned by the Women’s Environmental Institute. They are involved with gardens in North Minneapolis, and last year provided a site for a Picnic Operetta by Mixed Precipitation Theater. Over 150 attended the event in their garden, which included not just the musical performance but a 5-course sampling menu.

TRANSFORMING LIVES

Page and Flowers are known for their youth mentoring work through Boys Totem Town in St. Paul and Emerge Community Development in North Minneapolis. The look for opportunities to put youth and seniors together. Their work tends to involve gardening.  They believe it is important to teach young people about where their food comes from. “I can’t tell you how many kids have no idea that carrots come from the ground,” said Flowers. “It’s exciting to see the transformation.”

TOUGH TO MAKE A LIVING AS FARMERS

Despite all the effort they put into growing vegetables, the duo recognizes that they can’t make a living off of just farming. Even rural farmers often have second jobs, Flowers pointed out.

In addition to working elsewhere, Flowers and Page have begun focusing on “value-added products” that they sell while at farmer’s markets. These items include the burlap coffee bags that block weeds, and several food items: salsa verde, Page’s Cha Cha relish/chutney, zucchini bread and flavored vinegars. Flowers & Page can be found each Saturday at the Mill City Farmer’s Market and on Sundays at the Linden Hills Farmer’s Market.

Page teaches classes on how small entrepreneurs can survive in part by focusing on value-added products. He also manages Market on the Bluff at 798 E. 7th St., an event on Thursdays from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Why do farmers need an extra job to survive? Why is food in the United States so cheap? Why can’t a lot of people afford to buy food? Those questions point to problems with the United States food supply.

“We think that local, sustainable food is part of the solution,” said Flowers.

This story was published in the July 2013 edition of the St. Paul Monitor

Art in all directions

Utility boxes on East Lake St. feature 20 Longfellow artists

Longfellow is home to some amazing artists. And now more people know about them thanks to an art installation along East Lake Street that features 20 artists.

Earlier this year, 10 utility boxes along East Lake Street and five on the Midtown Greenway were covered with artwork. The 10 boxes on East Lake Street are under the "I'm A LoLa Artist" theme, which is a series of public art installations the Longfellow Community Council (LCC) and the League of Longfellow Artists (LoLa) have coordinated throughout the neighborhood.

In 2012, a series of 56 posters were placed in storefronts along East Lake Street that included an image of a LoLa artist, an image of their art, and a quote from them as to why they do what they do. This idea was replicated on the utility boxes.

"I believe there are double benefits to the art on utility boxes: it takes what can be an eyesore and makes it visually interesting," said Longfellow artist Bob Schmitt of Laughing Waters Studio. "But also it is featuring not just the work of artists, but the work of artists who live/work in this particular Minneapolis neighborhood."

"The primary goal of the project is to prevent and reduce graffiti," noted Spencer Agnew of the Longfellow Community Council (LCC). "Utility boxes in their natural state are a blank canvas for graffiti and are frequently tagged. Other neighborhoods, like Kingfield, have had success preventing graffiti by installing public art. LCC has taken a similar approach in the past through mural projects at neighborhood commercial buildings, but this is our first utility box art project."

Schmitt was responsible for selecting which artists were featured on the utility boxes. With an eye to whose work would look good enlarged to that scale, Schmitt also factored in compatibility with another work and coolness of their quotes.

His own work is featured at Lake and W. River Parkway. Schmitt is a landscape painter, art teacher, designer, gardener, with a passion for children and their families.

“I paint the landscapes I love (Lake Superior, Minnehaha Falls) but in the traditions of Chinese brush painting. I hope to convey hope and peace in my work,” said Schmitt.

Before pursuing art full-time by opening Laughing Waters Studio, he owned a graphic design business for 25 years. See more at http://www.laughingwatersstudio.com.

“The whole experience of LoLa has been this uncovering of an incredible group of artists residing in this little corner of the city,” observed Schmitt. “In the past, Lowertown, NE Minneapolis, Seward were known to be hotbeds of artistic talent and showcased in their art crawls. Who knew that this quiet little corner of Minneapolis contained so many and such a variety of art and artists.”

He added, “Another richness of LoLa, and by extension this great streets project, is that it represents people who are professional artists and making their living that way, to people who are just creating for the love of creating, to inexperienced or young artists who are just beginning to show their work.”

The utility box project was funded by a grant from the city of Minneapolis Solid Waste & Recycling Division through the "Innovative Graffiti Prevention" program.

ABOUT LOLA
The League of Longfellow Artists is dedicated to bringing to light the treasures of artistic expression created by artists living or working in the Greater Longfellow neighborhood of south Minneapolis (the geographic area defined as east of Cedar Avenue to the Mississippi River, and south of 28th Street to the Crosstown).

Having begun in the summer of 2009 as a small grassroots effort initiated by artists Anita White and Bob Schmitt (and creatively named by neighborhood activist Shirley Nielson), LoLa now flourishes as an annual art crawl that is managed as an artist-run community.

During its first year, 42 artists were featured at 20 different sites. Last year, it had grown to 69 sites and 115 artists. This year, expect 150 artists at 80 sites.

LoLa is committed to raising the visibility of local artists in the Longfellow neighborhood and to building a true sense of community for these artists.

Throughout the year a variety of informal gatherings are offered to support neighborhood artists around topics, types of work, use of electronic media and more. Learn more at lolaartcrawl.com.

Gandhi Mahal owner seeks self-sufficiency for his restaurant

This year he has invested in 12 garden plots scattered throughout the city, a tilapia tank in his basement, and rickshaws that avoid the use of fossil fuels

by Tesha M. Christensen

Be the change. Start small. Lead by example. Lake Street restaurant owner Ruhel Islam believes this is how you build community.

After a 2010 trip with HECUA (Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs) to his home country of Bangladesh, Islam, the owner of Gandhi Mahal restaurant, came back inspired. He was no longer content to just talk about the issues. He wanted to take action.

In 2011, they planted a garden in the backyard of employee Riz Prakasim, who resides in the Corcoran neighborhood. They planted late, but still managed to harvest 2,000 pounds of vegetables. This year, they have recruited 12 partners in Minneapolis and surrounding suburbs. Each landowner has provided a plot for a garden. Some are small, such as the single raised garden bed at Minnehaha Liquor and the containers outside Gandhi Mahal’s doors. Others are larger. There is a site manager for each location, and one coordinator to oversee them all. High school and college students are tending the gardens.

This year’s goal is to grow 10,000 pounds of vegetables. Some of the produce will be used fresh. Some will be frozen and canned for use over the winter in Gandhi Mahal’s kitchen.

Having homegrown vegetables is just one piece of Islam’s overall plan to be self-sufficient. He also intends to raise his own chickens, farm tilapia and possibly shrimp in his basement, and place bee hives on his roof (for honey in his signature mango lassi). Islam is not sure how long this overall effort will take and what pieces will come first, but he is confident his dream will be achieved.

And when it does, Islam hopes to offer a complete economic model for others.

Part of Islam’s drive to be self-sufficient is rooted in his own culture and home country of Bangladesh, where he grew up on a far that his family still runs.

“I want to know where the food is coming from that I cook here,” explained Islam.

Islam is also concerned about the food chain here in America. As a restaurant owner, Islam has faces food shortages this winter. He was unable to buy eggplant, corn oil or naturally raised chicken from wholesalers. Onions tripled in price, and ginger rose from $18 to $28 a case to $50.

The food industry is not secure, he pointed out. Most of the farmers in the U.S. are over 65, and young people are opting for careers in medicine or law instead of agriculture.

“Gardening is very important,” said Islam.

There is no long-term supply of food, and the problem of not enough food for people becomes apparent during disasters.

Islam pointed out that the American food system is based on fossil fuels. He encourages others to buy local and grow local.

 “We’re hoping to chain people’s mindsets about how we view and interact with our food chain,” said Prakasim. “A food chain based on fossil fuels is not sustainable.”

Islam noted, “Food is the true wealth.”

A PLAN TO BE SELF-SUFFICIENT

By late summer, Islam hopes to install a 500-gallon tank in his basement to house tilapia. The waste will be used to fertilize gardens and grow the cilantro, tomatoes, chilies and more they use in the restaurant. The tilapia themselves will be fed with chicken scraps.

“We are starting an aquaculture,” noted Islam.

He is also working with researchers at the University of Minnesota that are dedicated to making basement gardens a reality. New technology will port sunlight from the roof into the basement with zero loss. “We really want to work on the cutting edge of technology to propel indoor farming forward,” said Prakasim. He pointed out that Europe is 20 years ahead of the United States. “We’re playing catch-up,” Prakasim observed.

Another slice of Bangladesh will hit local streets later this summer when it is time to harvest vegetables from Gandhi Mahal’s 12 garden plots. Rickshaws are being specially built to transport vegetables from the garden to the restaurant and thereby avoid using any fossil fuel.  A Kickstart campaign will kick off on Thursday, July 11. Proceeds from dinner at Gandhi Mahal that day will go towards the campaign.

“I can’t wait to see those,” said Islam. “It’s very exciting.”

In the kitchen, all the used cooking oil is gathered and picked up by Cat Biodiesel for use as biodiesel.

“Teamwork makes this possible,” stressed Islam.

He operates on the principal that the more you give, the more comes back to you. Every Tuesday night, 10% of every meal goes to MN350, a group dedicated to building a climate movement in Minnesota. Proceeds from dinner every second Wednesday go to the Midtown Farmer’s Market.

Islam offers a community room for use free of charge to non-profits and community groups such as the Longfellow Restorative Justice Committee and the Longfellow Business Association, two groups he is active in. Other groups, such as the Permaculture Research Institute and HECUA, have held classes there.

A few months ago, the restaurant was designated a World Peace Site.

“We have to be the change we want to see in the world,” said Prakasim. It’s a lesson he’s learned from Islam, and one he’s passing along.

It’s been just five years since Islam opened up his Lake Street restaurant, but he has joined the ranks of those who have made a mark on the community and transformed East Lake Street into a place that can stand as its own destination location.