Women's Environmental Institute at Amador Hill

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Nothing is more essential than clean food, air, and water. Yet many low-income Minnesotans and communities of color struggle with food insecurity and disproportionate levels of toxic environmental exposures. 

The Women’s Environmental Institute exists to improve the lives of Minnesotans in both urban and rural communities through strategies that include hands-on education in organic farming; advocacy work for racial, gender, economic, and environmental justice; and community-based access to food production. 

Through our work, WEI helps empower those who lack equitable access to healthy food and environments. We serve as a greenhouse of ideas to "seed" environmentally sound practices, social and economic equity, and agricultural justice into the lives of us all. One community at a time, one farm at a time, one person at a time, and all of us together can grow healthier and more just ways of living—for ourselves, our communities, and our planet.

We invite you to plant a seed for a greener, more just world with your gift to WEI today. 

“I cannot say enough good things about WEI and the people who work & volunteer to make it such a magical place. It is run by people who are committed to the environment, food justice, and our local food system.” —WEI student

What Is WEI?

The Women's Environmental Institute is an environmental research, renewal, and retreat center designed to create and share knowledge about environmental issues and policies relevant to women, children, and communities affected by environmental injustice; to promote agricultural justice, organic and sustainable agriculture, and ecological awareness; and to support activism that influences public policy and promotes social change.

What We Do:

Education

WEI offers dozens of in-person and online classes to our rural and urban communities each year. Our workshops range from herbalism intensives to growing hemp, from soil health to foraging to growing mushrooms. We offer several certificate-level training courses, such as our 7-month beekeeper training and aquaponic farming series. We’re also honored to partner with renowned urban farmer and MacArthur Genius Will Allen for our annual farmer training weekend each fall at WEI. We do much of this work through scholarships provided to low-income participants from urban, rural, and tribal communities. Our goal is to help ensure all people have access to knowledge about sustainable, affordable, and culturally appropriate ways to grow healthy food and to organize for social and economic change. 

Farming & Food Security 

Under the direction of WEI co-founder Jacquelyn Zita, WEI manages an organically certified demonstration and education farm on the Amador Hill Farm Campus in North Branch, Minnesota, which supports a CSA program, active internships, community visitors, students, and volunteers. We also created and sponsor the North Circle Food Hub, which helps strengthen our regional food system through the North Circle Online Farmers Market, providing access to produce from small organic farmers to customers in Chisago and Isanti Counties. North Circle farmers also provide produce for our Veggie Rx Program, which delivers boxes of healthy farm-fresh food to four M Health Fairview clinics every other week for distribution to patients. 

Environmental Justice, Advocacy & Research
Led by WEI co-founder Karen Clark, who served in the state legislature for 38 years, WEI supports policy development based on sound environmental-justice research focused on low-income, indigenous, and other communities of color. Currently, WEI partners with and serves on the community-led board of the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute (EPNI), which is fighting for environmental justice at the site of the former Roof Depot building in the Southside Green Zone. EPNI is working to stop the city’s proposed project for the site, which would add more toxic air pollution to this already overburdened majority-BIPOC community. Instead, we're working to create a community-owned East Phillips Indoor Urban Farm, including affordable housing and living-wage jobs that will provide healthy vegetables and aquaponic-raised fish to local residents. WEI representatives also serve on boards and support Little Earth of United Tribes, the Indigenous Food Network, Southside Green Zone Council, and other community organizations.

You can learn more about our work, programs, and volunteer opportunities at w-e-i.org.  

Your gift in any amount helps cultivate a healthier, more just Minnesota. 

Thank you!