Junior SLP Seeds intern Thor Anderson said SLP Seeds creates change in the St. Louis Park community by advocating for local food growth and events.

“SLP Seeds is an organization dedicated to promoting both urban agriculture and food equity within the city,” Anderson said. “We campaign for food action plans and for local and larger governments and individual people to help take steps to reduce the amount of food insecurity there is.”

Founder of SLP Seeds Julie Rappaport organized an event called “World Food Day Community Meal and Visioning” to help bring community members together Oct. 16. Rappaport said World Food Day’s campaign fits right with the values of SLP Seeds.

“World Food Day was started by the United Nations right after World War II. It was an immediate need to take care of the hungry people in the world after the war,” Rappaport said. “The campaign (for World Food Day) this year is #zerohunger for the United Nations and that has been (SLP) Seeds’ campaign since we began.”

According to Anderson, World Food Day spreads the word about important goals SLP Seeds has going forward to make St. Louis Park a better place.

“This event is to raise awareness about food inequality that exists in the world and spreading access to affordable and healthy food,” Anderson said. “The focus is part of the sustainable development goals set to try to make sure that everyone (has) access to that good food that will help them have a better life.”

Junior and Parktacular Ambassador Ella Miller said the event also educated St. Louis Park citizens for the upcoming elections Nov. 5.

“A lot of groups like SLP Seeds and STEP were (at the event). It was also an opportunity for the St. Louis Park City Council and mayoral (candidates) to talk,” Miller said.

Anderson said SLP Seeds does work all over St. Louis Park and other cities to create local food sources and give that food to people in need.

“We have seven gardens centered around the city which we grow food in with the help of interns and other volunteers,” Anderson said. “The food from those is then distributed to food shelves and other community events.”

Miller said she finds World Food Day a good event to teach community members what they can do to make St. Louis Park a better place.

“(World Food Day) is really important because it’s a big community involvement opportunity and it showed the effects of climate change a bit,” Miller said. “(It showed) how these (local) food sources are helping everyone get a healthy meal, but can also help with climate change.”

According to Rappaport, people should learn about and attend SLP Seeds meetings so they can join her and others in improving the community.

“For this event we want people to show up at our stakeholder meetings,” Rappaport said. “We want students, we want citizens (and) we want all backgrounds, whether you’re hungry or you’re not hungry. We want people who feel passionate about this to step up to the table.”

Rappaport said she encourages students to reach out to current SLP Seeds interns to learn more about the organization.

“Talk to Zoe Frank or Thor Anderson or Victoria Martinez if you’re interested in being an intern. You can hear about it straight from them,” Rappaport said. “We are going to be taking applications starting December for fall 2020.”