Today, Greater Twin Cities United Way announced the relaunch of our Full Lives initiative, focused on building and strengthening our regional food system.
Our relaunch of Full Lives may be new, but the work has deep roots. Since our founding more than a century ago, Greater Twin Cities United Way has supported organizations who are working to help individuals and families access the food they need. Through that long-standing work, as well as data we’ve gathered through our 211 resource helpline, we’ve developed a deep understanding of the food landscape here in the Twin Cities.
The first incarnation of Full Lives began in 2017, with a focus on food organizations working within North Minneapolis. Inspired by this model, our fellow United Ways in Buffalo and Toronto launched their own local Full Lives initiatives.
The lessons we learned through this work pointed us to an opportunity for deeper impact on the regional level. Our relaunched and expanded Full Lives now supports organizations across the Greater Twin Cities area – working to strengthen our regional food system so that all communities can thrive.
Learn more about the relaunch of Full Lives.
Most people recognize that the food on their plate has taken a journey – from the farmer who grew it, to the distributor who packaged it, to the grocery store that put it on their shelves, to the person who cooked it. And after the meal is done, the journey continues to a landfill or some other means of disposal.
Zooming out, we can think of this process as a regional food system – as individuals and organizations in the Twin Cities contributing to a broader flow of resources that ultimately nourishes families and creates wealth.
While many philanthropic funders in the Greater Twin Cities are engaging with one or more components of this system, Full Lives is unique in its focus on the system as a whole. Full Lives partners with organizations who are working across the regional food system, from organizations that support farmers and community agriculture, to those who are incubating new food businesses or teaching families new ways to cook fresh foods.
Critically, we’re investing our dollars into collaborative projects between these organizations – for the first time, giving partners dedicated funds to help them connect and coordinate their efforts. No other funder in the Twin Cities is providing this kind of support for collaboration among food organizations.
For just one example of what this looks like in practice, we can look to one of our funded collaborations between the Northside Economic Opportunity Network (NEON), 4 Access Partners and the Minnesota African Immigrant Farmers Association. Individually, each of these organizations offers unique resources and expertise in the food space. Full Lives funding will allow these organizations to pool those skills, giving more local farmers and food entrepreneurs the support they need to launch and grow their businesses.
In initial discussions with our partners, we’ve identified five key areas of impact which our collaborations will help drive:
This multifaceted impact is what’s so powerful about food – and why I’m so excited to see our partners’ collaborations begin coming to fruition.
We disbursed our first dollars to cohort members in July and will continue to fund their collaborations until December 2025. Between now and then, we’ll be connecting with partners through quarterly Communities of Practice – providing leaders at each organization with space to discuss what’s working and where more support is needed.
We’ve also engaged the organizations Propel Nonprofits and Terra Soma to provide expert one-on-one consulting to help partners implement and systematize their collaborative efforts. And we’ll be tracking our partners’ progress along the way, giving us data to inform future phases of Full Lives. We currently envision this phase of Full Lives lasting approximately five years.
As we’ve already seen with our Career Academies, 80x3 and Pathways Home initiatives, United Way’s approach to innovation works. When leaders in a sector are able to connect and collaborate in new ways, massive change is possible. I’m so excited for Full Lives to bring this same approach to bear on our regional food system. You can support Full Lives, and all of United Way’s efforts toward food security and food justice, with a gift to our Annual Fund.
