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About: The Urban Agriculture Program
The EPIC / MPNAI Urban Agriculture and gardening program seeks to enable more connected Phillips foodways through:
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Resource distribution
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Sharing of seeds: Purchasing, sharing, and connecting growers with seeds they need
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Seed start supplies: Pots, planter trays, grow lights, etc.
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Soil and compost deliveries
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Compost systems and related equipment: Backyard composter, composting supplies, etc.
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Farm Infrastructure: Fencing, irrigation, signage, garden shed work, and sanitation needs.
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Farming tools: Hand and power tools for farm maintenance or cultivation
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Urban Agriculture event costs and collaboration
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Supporting and leading food workshops and events with community partners
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Phillips Bike to Farm tour — September 2024, August 2025
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Watch the 2025 Bike to Farm tour here
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Dream of Wild Health/Four Sisters Seedling giveaway — May 2025
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Seed and planting supplies giveaways — Spring 2025
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Food safety workshop for Urban Growers — Spring of 2026
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Developing a public seed, tool, and food sovereignty resource library
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Learn more about this initiative here
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Partnerships and Connections
EPIC and MPNAI partner with community farming and gardening projects to strengthen connectedness and build a robust network of food sovereignty between urban farmers and plants.
The farms and gardens we work with include:
East Phillips Community Garden, Wicoie Nandagikendan, East Phillips Neighborhood Institute, Tamales y Bicicletas, NACDI/ Four Sisters, Banyan, Little Earth, Shalom Garden + San Pablo, Minneapolis Edible Boulevards, and communal garden plots
Want to connect with neighborhood resources?
If any other farms and gardens in East and Midtown Phillips are interested in collaborating, please reach out! We’d love to connect! We also help individual gardeners in Phillips who are in need of resources to get their gardens started. We can bring you soil / compost, pots, seeds, and get you connected with the tools you need. Contact us here.
Seed and Food Sovereignty Resource Library
About
A public and free Seed and Food Sovereignty resource library is underway, housed in the entrance to Pow Wow Grounds/NACDI Headquarters at 1414 E Franklin Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55404. This collaborative library space seeks to bring together Food Sovereignty-related texts and growing guides, while providing access to high-quality organic, heirloom, saved, and culturally specific seeds.
Seeds available consist of: common edible garden species, as well as medicinal herbs, perennial and annual wildflowers, shrubs, and trees. Some seeds are available now, so drop in anytime to take or donate your saved seed!
Events
NACDI and EPIC/MPNAI will host two public seed sorting workshops at the American Indian Center (11/1 & 12/6), and two zine and art-making workshops (11/6 & 12/13). Click here to RSVP for any of these events
Phillips Tool Library
About
The Tool Library is focused on delivering specific high need tools that are difficult to find, specified use, or are unaffordable. The library will be housed at the East Phillips Community Garden, at 2428 17th Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55404. Tools can be rented for two weeks, after which they must be returned to an EPIC staff members. Tools will be made reservable through an upcoming Google Form.
Tool Offerings
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Soil sampling probe – Kit with ziploc bags, QR code, how-to
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Orchard Ladder
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Broadfork
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Weed wrench (midsize)
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Large branch lopper’
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Tree saw (Pole saw)
Reserve Tools
An upcoming Google Form will be posted here for renting tools. Stay tuned for updates!
The East Phillips Community Garden
About
The East Phillips Community Garden has been around for over a decade, operated by community members and helped manage by the East Phillips Improvement Coalition, Wicoie Nandagikaden, and Garden members. The garden marks a space of reclaimed land in a neighborhood characterized by heavy metal contamination, wherein food can be grown safely in ground. Years of topsoil replacement, organic matter building, and composting has created layers of new, safe soil. The garden hosts a vibrant perennial wildflower bed, medicine garden, currant and raspberry bushes, and a small fruit tree orchard of pears, apples, and cherries.
The garden space is often used for community gatherings, and programs, including Wicoie Nandigakaden’s youth garden program, the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute (EPNI)'s many workshops, and the East Phillips Tool Library. These programs function alongside vibrant community gardener plots managed by various East Phillips residents. We welcome all gardeners - those who have never tended a plot and those who have stewarded land for generations. We hope this can be a space to share knowledge and learn from each other's plots. This community garden is organic meaning that we do not allow pesticide additives or chemicals. We will provide new gardeners with materials to help them get started.
Join
Anyone living in East Phillips can join the community garden, with applications made available here in the spring of 2026. If you live outside East Phillips, you can still submit an application, but prioity will be given to gardeners in the neighborhood. Stop by 2433 Bloomington Avenue to grab a paper copy of the garden application, or CLICK HERE to send in an initial application
