Beer release strengthens neighborhood networks

Earlier this month, Broken Clock Brewing, 1712 Marshall St. NE, unveiled a new beer dubbed “My Name is Peaches” after a lyric from a Nina Simone song. Proceeds from the sale of this new beer will go toward supporting the Sheridan Neighborhood Organization (SNO), which works closely with the brewery to back projects that improve the neighborhood. 

In addition to helping fund SNO, “My Name is Peaches” also served as a PR move to raise awareness for the Partnership Engagement Fund, a pool of money the City of Minneapolis makes available to neighborhood organizations and community groups for community improvement projects. On Saturday, Feb. 24, Broken Clock hosted a release party for their new beer, which doubled as an open house showcasing partners of the Engagement Fund, offering community members a chance to learn about some of the organizations seeking to make Minneapolis a brighter place using this city resource. 

The way our neighborhoods get their funding from the City of Minneapolis has changed. The Neighborhoods 2020 plan, a piece of the much broader Minneapolis 2040 plan, restructured neighborhood funding to put a greater focus on equity in how it divided up money between the city’s communities. An analysis of the former system found that participation in neighborhood decision-making processes was largely by white, middle-income homeowners. Over time, this skewed where funding ended up, leading to some neighborhoods having excess funding and no currrent plans in place on how to use it. At the end of 2019, about $35 million in neighborhood funding was left unspent, according to an evaluation of neighborhood funding conducted by the City of Minneapolis. 

The new structure for neighborhood funding sought to redistribute resources by pooling them into four common funds neighborhoods could apply for: 

• The Neighborhood Network Fund (for supporting administrative costs)

• The Equitable Engagement Fund (for supporting neighborhoods in engaging with underrepresented community members in decision-making processes)

• The Collaboration and Shared Resources Fund (resources for collaboration between community groups)

• The Partnership Engagement Fund (funding for policies, programs, and projects led by neighborhoods or other community groups, with a focus on equity for underserved communities). 

Under the new funding structure, SNO gets quite a bit less in annual funding than they used to. According to SNO’s Office and Outreach Manager, Nicole Pappas Stanoch, they used to receive $80,000 in city funding, and they now average $25,000 annually from these new grant programs. However, she added that the new system has given them more opportunities for collaboration with other community leaders. In light of having fewer resources, they have resolved to work in a new way that allows them to support community groups that they believe in. 

“We can’t just write checks anymore, but it [the Partnership Engagement Fund] has given us more opportunities to say ‘I believe in your program,’” she said. Since the funding restructure, Pappas Stanoch said SNO has signed as a neighborhood partner on anywhere from six to nine grants a year, most of which have ended up getting approved. Organizations write the grants, and SNO signs on as a partner. So far this year, they have signed onto nine. 

With a higher emphasis on equity and collaboration in the city’s funding structure, people helping people is the name of the game now. All of the organizations present at the release party for “My Name is Peaches” were somehow related, whether they had worked together in the past, planned to work together in the future, or were invited to show what they were all about at the event by another organization. 

Namaste Brows and Boutique (namaste
browsandboutique.com) Jeena Gurung Vomhof, founder of Namaste Brows and Boutique, sells handmade Nepali shawls and jewelry out of her beauty boutique in Roseville. All of the proceeds are sent back to Nepal to support the artisans who make them. Broken Clock recently hosted a seminar where Gurung Vomhof spoke about her experience as an immigrant and a businesswoman, and the support she received from the community when she was first starting out. She was invited back to Broken Clock for the showcase on the 24th.  

Sustainable and Green Chemistry Committee (sites.google.com/umn.edu/sgcc) U of M graduate students demonstrated some of their work in sustainable technology with sodium alginate. They showed how the seaweed derivative could potentially be a replacement for plastic water bottles. Sodium alginate takes on a gummy-like consistency when hydrated. Mixing it with fruit juice and then dolloping spoonfuls of it into water can make what are essentially really big Gushers candies. Researchers hope the technology could be refined into a way to store water in something that’s edible and/or biodegradable. Instead of a bottle, you could have a bag of water-filled pods you can munch on, though in their current form, they come out very wet and gooey. 

L.L.C.O.O.L.J. and I Love Paperwork (ilovepaperwork.org) Let’s Learn Collectively On Our Life’s Journey (L.L.C.O.O.L.J.) is a Black women-led civic engagement cohort, dedicated to giving people a platform and the education to empower their neighbors and surrounding communities. I Love Paperwork is a literary firm dedicated to help people navigate the world of red tape and bureaucracy. Angela McDowell, the founder of both firms, also had a hand in the development of “My Name is Peaches,” and helped get some of the organizations present at Broken Clock on the 24th involved with the event. 

Loving Lotus CNA Training Academy (lovinglotuscna.com) Loving Lotus is a Northside-based firm that offers CPR training and education programs for people seeking employment as nursing assistants. They offer training programs through various neighborhood groups, including SNO, to bring education and connections to jobs closer to home for the communities they serve. 

Queen’s Talk TV (queenstalktv.com)Queen’s Talk TV is an emerging nonprofit network dedicated to amplifying the voices of a diverse group of content creators who are trying to get into the entertainment industry. Founder Yolanda McKenzie said one of their biggest projects right now is a docu-series on women sharing their stories of abuse and survival. 

Colectiva Bilingue (colectivabilingue.org)Colectiva de Educación Bilingüe Minneapolis/Minneapolis Bilingual Education Collective is a nonprofit that supports and represents the five dual-language schools in Minneapolis, ensuring resources are equitably distributed to each of them. They are always seeking volunteers from the community to help out at Las Estrellas, 1201 University Ave. NE, which became a dual-language school when it rebranded from Sheridan Elementary School in 2022. 

MCN6 TV (mcn6.org) MCN6 Minnesota Community Network is a nonprofit TV station set up in the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District on the corner of 2nd Street and 13th Avenue. They are dedicated to streaming arts, cultural, and political programs made by local content creators on multiple platforms. MCN6 has been broadcasting Minneapolis’s stories for 30-plus years.