We need your help to stand up for our environmental rights! The City of Minneapolis took 7.6 acres of land and existing infrastructure from the East Phillips Neighborhood and Little Earth Native American community, despite the communities’ longstanding vision  for the East Phillips Indoor Urban Farm. Called the Hiawatha Expansion Project, the City of Minneapolis plans to expand its Public Works maintenance yard into our neighborhood, bringing more pollution to our already overburdened community. We already experience higher levels of pollution than the rest of Minneapolis (and most of the nation!). And, the majority of our residents are low-income Native American, Latinx, African American, East African and other historically marginalized residents. We are experiencing textbook environmental racism.

We have board members and community members who have lost loved ones to the types of cardiovascular disease caused by the ongoing and increasing levels of pollution that surround us. Respiratory diseases like asthma, heart disease, lead poisoning of our children...we live with these illnesses every day. We watch our children get sick while some of us can’t afford health care. We can’t take this anymore! This is ongoing genocide of the Little Earth community, and the City must be stopped. Not only is the City harming us with its plan, but it is abusing its power to complete the Hiawatha Campus Expansion Project by flouting state environmental review rules and ducking independent oversight.  None of us will be told the real consequences of the plan when the City is controlling the environmental review narrative-- but we know that science speaks for itself.

So what is the alternative? East Phillips Neighborhood Institute wants to transform the Roof Depot site into a space that houses an indoor urban farm, affordable low-income housing, local businesses, and opportunities for green jobs. This is what our neighborhood needs in order to address our systemic problems of being in a food desert. Please support our solution for OUR community!

What can you do?

Please sign our petition to tell Mayor Jacob Frey, Minneapolis City Council President Bender and Vice President Jenkins to immediately STOP demolition of the Roof Depot site and allow East Phillips Neighborhood Institute to acquire it for our indoor urban farm. Help us spread the word on your social media accounts, and if you want more regular updates, join us on Facebook and Instagram. Thank you for your support!