Give to the Max 2026

Minneapolis Edible Boulevards began in 2019 and was inspired by the movie "Paris to Pittsburgh", where an Orlando program called Fleet Farming was creating community gardens in a variety of unconventional spaces. Michelle Shaw had been attending Northside Green Zone Task Force meetings and learning about the lack of access to fresh produce, and she began interacting with members of the Southside Green Zone Council to learn if it was also a problem in their neighborhoods. This was our beginning! It wasn't clear that food could be grown on city boulevards, so the next 6 years were devoted to engaging with our neighbors and bringing their insight to Minneapolis City Council, Homegrown Minneapolis, and Public Works. In March of 2025, it was official. Food, including fruit shrubs, can officially be grown on our Minneapolis boulevards.

We teach participants how to grow food safely on their boulevards, offering resources like seedlings, seeds, trowels, gloves, and walking people through the process of doing a city garden who haven't done one before. We also offer free cooking classes during the growing season, with the addition of a foraging class this year so participants learn how to identify plants right outside our doors who are edible and medicinal. At the beginning of each year, we also publish a plant-based directory to uplift our small businesses. Our focus is on our Green Zone neighbors, which are our neighborhoods having the worst health disparities and environmental injustices.