U.S. DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY

Minnesota conservation efforts interrupted by changes to AmeriCorps

Ingrid Harbo — Sat, 28 Jun 2025 11:00:00 GMT

MOORHEAD — The future of a statewide conservation organization’s work in Minnesota is uncertain due to changes to federal AmeriCorps programs.

Conservation Minnesota, a nonprofit organization that works to protect Minnesota from the effects of pollution and climate change, has been a host site for AmeriCorps Climate Impact Corps members since 2022. This year, it had 11 AmeriCorps members in cities across the state, including Moorhead, Duluth, Bemidji, St. Cloud, Rochester and Winona.

However, due to “changes in federal priorities,” Climate Impact Corps is ending by July, according to Conservation Minnesota. The 11 AmeriCorps members will be out of jobs.

The members living and working in communities organized community conservation efforts, allowing Conservation Minnesota to tailor efforts to each city’s needs and characteristics, according to BreAnna Bemboom, public engagement director for Conservation Minnesota. The organization is still determining how to reach greater Minnesota cities after the program ends.

“With these positions ending, we don’t really know what’s next and how we’re going to fill that need, but we’re still really committed on that local level of work, because that’s really what touches everyone’s day-to-day experience,” Bemboom said.

AmeriCorps is a federal agency that runs stipend and volunteer work programs that address issues like poverty, disaster relief, the environment and education. Climate Impact Corps focuses specifically on environmental efforts.

AmeriCorps has been one of the agencies targeted by cuts during the Trump administration and its Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. According to a lawsuit filed by attorneys general in dozens of states against the Trump administration in response to the cuts, around $400 million worth of grant funding was terminated and 85% of AmeriCorps staff were laid off.

In early June, states in the lawsuit, which included Minnesota, were granted a preliminary injunction that restored AmeriCorps programs terminated in those states, according to the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office.

Bemboom said the reasons for Climate Impact Corps ending are not clear. Ampact, the organization that manages AmeriCorps programs in Minnesota, told Conservation Minnesota that “federal priorities and the funding landscape” have led to the shutdown of Climate Impact Corps, she said.

“If you asked me, like, exactly what that means, I honestly don’t know,” Bemboom said.

Representatives from Ampact did not return calls or emails requesting comment.

In Moorhead, AmeriCorps members organized events to get community members interested in the outdoors and involved in improving natural areas. Events over the years included fishing and foraging tutorials for children, birdhouse and bird feeder building classes, trash clean-ups and invasive plant removal.

One member organized a glass recycling collection event at Harold’s on Main, a bar in Moorhead, to educate people about how to recycle glass in Moorhead since it cannot be included in mixed recycling.

AmeriCorps members in Moorhead also organized an outdoor recreation table for organizations in the Fargo-Moorhead area doing outdoor recreation work to connect with each other.

“They started a get-together to just be able to collaborate a little bit more, share things that are happening, you know, get help, which just increases access to the outdoors for everyone,” Bemboom said.

AmeriCorps members at Conservation Minnesota declined to comment for this story since they were still a part of the federal government program.

Crystal Rayamajhi, an outreach specialist for the University of Minnesota Extension Northwest Regional Sustainable Development Partnership, collaborated with Conservation Minnesota AmeriCorps members on events in Moorhead. She said the members in Moorhead added capacity for different initiatives — spreading the word about events, tabling and organizing volunteers for activities.

“Communities need folks that can do boots on the ground work, getting things done, and that’s a huge asset that AmeriCorps is able to provide,” Rayamajhi said.

Bemboom expects to see other organizations affected by the end of the Climate Impact Corps program.

“In general, the conservation movement across the state is hurting a little bit,” Bemboom said. “This is just some added pressure to those organizations that are still in the community and doing similar work — they’re already strapped a little thin, and this just kind of makes that worse.”

The city of Moorhead hosts one AmeriCorps member. A spokesperson for the city declined an interview request, instead sending a written statement.

“While the position is hired and funded through AmeriCorps, the City serves as the worksite and provides valuable on-the-job experience,” the statement read. “The role is expected to stay active through the 2024-2025 program year.”

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Future of EPA lab in Duluth remains unclear

Jimmy Lovrien — Fri, 30 May 2025 11:13:00 GMT

DULUTH — Approximately two dozen early-career researchers have been forced out of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s laboratory over the last month when the Trump administration cut a grant and didn't renew a contract to fund their programs.

Meanwhile, the lab’s federal employees — like other EPA employees throughout the agency — have been given the option to retire early, leave voluntarily or apply for a limited number of jobs at other divisions within the agency.

More than two months after the Trump administration’s plans to cut the EPA’s Office of Research and Development were first reported by the New York Times, uncertainty still swirls around the future of EPA’s Great Lakes Toxicology and Ecology Division Laboratory, 6201 Congdon Blvd., which is part of ORD.

A portion of the reduction plan, shared earlier this year with the News Tribune by Science Committee Democratic staff, said the EPA planned to “eliminate” the ORD and expected 50%-75% of its more than 1,540 positions "will not be retained."

Earlier this month, the Trump administration submitted its budget to Congress, which called for a $235 million, or 45%, cut in ORD’s budget.

According to multiple sources familiar with the matter, and a recording of a May 2 virtual meeting obtained by the News Tribune, EPA officials told ORD employees that they could apply to approximately 500 job openings at other offices within the EPA.

Job applications for the new positions and decisions on early retirement or the so-called deferred resignation program were all due a week later, on May 9.

Questions about relocation for the new jobs, however, linger. While one official said the 130 new jobs within the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention would not require relocation and gave Duluth as an example of a place the staffer could remain, a slide showing the organization the newly created Office of Applied Sciences and Environmental Solutions, which account for 300 of the new jobs, only listed locations in Oklahoma, Ohio, North Carolina and Washington, D.C.

Officials said another 30-50 positions would be available at the Office of Air and Radiation and told staff at ORD they could also apply for new positions in the Office of Water.

Questions on the future of ORD were often answered by officials who said the latest plans didn’t directly affect ORD and that more reorganization plans were coming.

Less than a week later, as the May 9 deadline loomed, ORD staff were told, “If you’re interested in remaining with the Agency, we encourage you to apply for any and all of the positions you may be qualified for,” according to an email reviewed by the News Tribune.

However, any mass layoffs appear to be on hold after a federal judge earlier this month blocked the Trump administration from large-scale reductions in force or agency reorganizations of federal agencies, including the EPA, “without partnering with Congress.”

Even so, the lab’s workforce has dropped by about 25 over the last month when a grant was cut and a contract left to expire, both of which allowed early-career researchers to work alongside EPA scientists at the lab. Prior to that, there were 176 employees at the lab, 68 of whom were federal scientists, and the remaining 108 were post-doctoral researchers, student contractors and facility staff, according to an EPA fact sheet updated in April.

It’s unclear how many employees took an early retirement or deferred resignation.

In response to the News Tribune’s request for an interview on what the agency’s reorganization effort and cancellation of the grant and contract meant for the future of the Duluth lab, an EPA spokesperson responded with a brief statement.

“At ORD (Office of Research and Development) and throughout the agency, EPA is continuing to invest in research and labs to advance the mission of protecting human health and the environment,” a spokesperson for the EPA said.

Contract not renewed

A five-year National Student Services Contract between the EPA and Oak Ridge Associated Universities that allowed earlier career researchers to work alongside EPA scientists at seven ORD labs and offices, including Duluth, expired May 14 and a new contract was not approved.

ORAU did not respond to the News Tribune’s request for comment. Multiple sources estimated that approximately 20 researchers, ranging from undergraduates to postdocs, at the Duluth Lab were let go when the contract expired. On its website, ORAU has removed employee spotlight pages that once highlighted the work of its researchers working with the EPA. It also replaced a page of contract information with a thank-you message.

“ORAU would like to thank EPA for 10 years of successful partnership managing the National Student Services Contract (NSSC),” the website said this week. “We would also like to thank all of our employees who worked side by side with the hardworking federal employees at EPA.“

DOGE, EPA cut UMD training grant

Last month, the EPA cut a $3.5 million grant that trained undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Minnesota Duluth in chemical risk management and water quality protection.

The grant began in November 2023 and was expected to last five years, but it ended abruptly April 30, with a notice from the EPA stating the grant was terminated immediately because the “objectives of the award are no longer consistent with EPA funding priorities,” a UMD spokesperson said.

More than $800,000 had been obligated when the grant was cut, with almost $300,000 already paid to the university, according to USASpending.gov.

The Department of Government Efficiency, President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk’s effort to slash federal spending and programming, now lists the cutting of the grant as a savings on its so-called “Wall of Receipts.”

In a statement, Donn Branstrator, professor of biology at UMD, said the school requested “an orderly closeout” so it can continue the contract until next spring.

“Water quality protection is of vital importance for Minnesotans and people across the country, and the EPA and UMD scientists have a long and productive track record of collaboration in research and student training,” Branstrator said. “Without this funding, the region and the nation will lose out on the training and career development of current and future scientists committed to protecting the environment.”

A UMD spokesperson said one postdoctoral investigator and four graduate students from UMD were in training when the grant was cut, and another two graduate students were expected to begin in the fall. The grant cut affects an additional 15 undergraduate students, seven graduate students and three postdoctoral investigators who would have been trained in aquatic toxicology and ecology.

Lawmakers seek answers

A letter sent in April by U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, both Democrats from Minnesota, to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin demanding answers about the future of the Duluth lab has not been answered by the agency, Smith’s office said. The two sent a follow-up letter to Zeldin urging him to respond to their earlier letter and confirm the EPA would not attempt to reduce staff at the Duluth lab while the court's injunction on large-scale reductions in force and reorganizations is in effect.

In a statement Thursday, Smith said the lab in Duluth and its work on clean and safe water were irreplaceable because of its access to Lake Superior.

“I’m extremely concerned that workers at the lab aren’t getting the clarity they deserve about what’s going on. They are being left in the dark, not knowing if their jobs are safe,” Smith said. “The Trump administration needs to listen to the federal court order temporarily halting any proposed cuts to the lab, but unfortunately this administration has shown a blatant disregard for rule of law and court orders. I’m disappointed the Trump EPA can’t answer a series of simple questions about the future of the lab and these workers, but I’m not giving up.”

In a separate statement Thursday, Klobuchar echoed the need to keep the Duluth lab open.

“The Duluth lab is critical for the Northland and the Great Lakes in a big way — ensuring safe drinking water and supporting our recreation and shipping economy — which is why I continue to press the administration to keep the lab open,” Klobuchar said.

“While the courts have stepped in to block these across-the-board changes, we must continue to protect our Northland and the Great Lakes," she said. "I support making the government more efficient, but it must be done in a way that is based on facts and science, without threatening our economy or putting public health on the line.”

State Sen. Grant Hauschild, DFL-Hermantown, also wrote a letter to Zeldin in April, but had not received a response as of Tuesday, a spokesperson for his office said.

U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber, R-Minn., said he recently met with EPA Region 5 Administrator Anne Vogel.

“Congressman Stauber did express his desire for the Duluth Research Lab to remain open due to the important research they perform around the Great Lakes," a spokesperson for the Hermantown lawmaker's office said Thursday. "There is no new update on the status of this lab, and Regional Administrator Vogel relayed to the congressman that this decision ultimately remains with EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin."

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As events mount in response to Trump’s cuts, attendees ask: Where’s Stauber?

Jimmy Lovrien — Tue, 01 Apr 2025 15:02:54 GMT

DULUTH — At rallies and meetings across the Northland held in protest of President Donald Trump’s cuts to the federal government, signs held by attendees and the speakers addressing them often return to a familiar theme: Where’s U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber?

The Republican from Hermantown has shrugged at calls to hold an in-person town hall, opting to continue his practice of telephone town halls instead, and when, or if, he does respond directly to the actions, he’s been supportive of Trump and billionaire Elon Musk’s efforts to reshape and shrink the federal government.

Approximately 900 people attended a town hall Saturday organized by Practicing Democracy — a new group led by Jen Schultz, who ran as a Democrat and lost to Stauber in the last two elections, and Adrienne Dinneen — to address concerns people in Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District have about Trump’s actions.

While Stauber was invited, he did not attend. An empty seat bearing Stauber’s name sat on stage at Duluth East High ��’s auditorium throughout the event.

“He doesn’t care about working people,” State Rep. Pete Johnson, DFL-Duluth, told the crowd gathered six days earlier at a rally in Duluth against U.S. Postal Service cuts. “Everything he has done has been in lockstep with the administration. He has not stood up for anybody. He should be here and be held accountable for the people being impacted, whether he likes what they have to say or not.”

Stauber’s office did not respond to the News Tribune’s request for comment but told Northern News Now last week that the congressman was attending another event in the district Saturday, the day of the town hall, and “he will also not appear at any event that is organized by left-wing extremists and primarily attended by paid agitators who are more interested in manufacturing outrage than having meaningful conversations about policy.”

There is no evidence that most — or even any — of the hundreds of event attendees were paid.

According to a Facebook post by Stauber’s campaign account, the Congressman was in Baxter on Saturday, speaking to Republicans.

Instead of in-person town halls, Stauber has relied on telephone town halls. He held his most recent on Monday, March 24. When a caller asked him when he would have an in-person town hall, Stauber said he’d continue to hold the telephone events. He defended the decision by saying that it is more accessible for people throughout the 8th Congressional District.

“We’ve been doing them — telephone town halls — for six and a half years, and they’re popular,” Stauber said. “It allows the people to stay in the comfort of their own home, and I’m going to continue to do telephone town halls.”

His office said the town hall attracted 17,000 listeners. During the call, Stauber answered a dozen or so questions.

For many, it’s not enough. They want to see him push back against the Trump administration and Musk’s DOGE, especially on cuts that would affect his district.

At a Sunday, March 23, rally in support of USPS employees and against proposed cuts and privatization of the mail service, Jim Barott, of Lakewood Township, stood in the crowd holding a sign that said “STAUBER is MIA.”

Barott said cuts to the USPS could threaten mail delivery to rural communities.

“That’s the rural areas (Stauber) represents, and he doesn’t care,” Barott said.

The next day, during his telephone town hall, Stauber fielded a question about the USPS but said, “Privatization is not going to happen with the Postal Service.”

However, the Associated Press reported that both Trump and Musk have entertained the idea of USPS privatization.

Stauber then sent a letter Thursday to House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Kentucky, urging the congressman to hold hearings on the USPS’ “inability to effectively serve rural America” and said the USPS was “facing severe staffing shortages, especially in rural areas.”

He made no mention of the Trump administration or of former U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s plan to reduce USPS’ headcount by 10,000 through an early retirement program or DeJoy signing an agreement with Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to “assist us in identifying and achieving further efficiencies.”

The Congressman has not addressed some potential cuts in his district at all.

Stauber, whose wife, Jodi, used to work at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Duluth lab, did not respond to the News Tribune’s request for comment in March on whether he supports the EPA reportedly planning to eliminate the Office of Research and Development, which includes the Great Lakes Toxicology and Ecology Division Laboratory in Duluth, or if he is concerned about the potential loss of EPA jobs in his district.

John Morrice, of Duluth, worked at the EPA lab in Duluth for 15 years as a research biologist studying Great Lakes ecosystems before he retired 12 years ago.

Morrice told the News Tribune that Stauber should place as much importance on the lab’s 136 federal employees as he does on mining jobs.

“Pete Stauber talks about mining jobs like they are these sacred things and that jobs are so important and really supersede any other concerns — it’s jobs and ‘our way of life,’ ” Morrice said, referencing a slogan Stauber often repeats.

He added later, “If our way of life doesn’t include protection of the Great Lakes, well then, who are we?”

In the first two months of Trump’s second term, regular protests — several per week — have been held throughout the Northland against Trump’s cuts. Some have been aimed directly at Stauber, with up to hundreds gathered outside his Hermantown office. Others have been aimed at specific cuts — USPS, EPA, funding for research, among others. They show no sign of slowing down.

Local chapters of Indivisible, a national group that said it aims to “resist the Trump agenda,” are planning protests for Saturday, April 5, in Duluth, Two Harbors and Cloquet. And Practicing Democracy, which said it is non-partisan, said in a news release Sunday, March 30, that it would continue to hold town hall events throughout the 8th Congressional District.

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Duluth EPA lab’s future uncertain under plan to cut research arm

Jimmy Lovrien — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 17:20:33 GMT

DULUTH — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed eliminating its scientific and research arm and up to 75% of its staff, leaving the future of the agency’s Duluth freshwater laboratory and its more than 100 employees uncertain.

The proposal for the EPA to eliminate its Office of Research and Development, first reported Monday by the New York Times, is part of the “reduction in force” plans required throughout the federal government by the Trump administration. The potential cuts were outlined in documents reviewed by Democrats on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

The ORD includes the Great Lakes Toxicology and Ecology Division laboratory, 6201 Congdon Boulevard in Duluth, which is world-renowned among aquatic scientists for developing scientific protocols used worldwide to measure how toxic chemicals affect the environment.

What these cuts would mean for the Duluth lab is unclear.

A portion of the reduction plan shared with the News Tribune by Science Committee Democratic staff said the EPA planned to “eliminate” the ORD and expected 50-75% of its more than 1,540 positions “will not be retained.”

As of 2021, the Duluth lab employed 136 people, according to the agency.

Reached by phone Wednesday, Dale Hoff, director of the Great Lakes Toxicology and Ecology Division in Duluth, said he couldn’t discuss the future of the Duluth lab.

“Anybody who’s read that article knows as much as I do,” Hoff said, referring to Monday’s New York Times article.

During a virtual town hall meeting Tuesday, ORD officials told the EPA’s science and research employees, including those at the Duluth lab, that dismantling the ORD would likely require an act of Congress, according to two people at the meeting.

Political appointees left career ORD officials out of the reduction-in-force discussions, the ORD officials told attendees.

At a separate town hall Tuesday for Center for Computational Toxicology and Exposure sites, which includes labs in Duluth and Durham, North Carolina, employees were told to download and save personnel files, writing samples and anything else they might want from their EPA computer, the two people said.

U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., the ranking member on the science committee, said in a statement that the Trump administration was trying to kill the EPA and the ORD, but that doing so would violate the law.

“EPA’s Office of Research and Development is in statute," Lofgren said. "Eliminating it is illegal. … EPA cannot meet its legal obligation to use the best available science without ORD, and that’s the point. Donald Trump and Elon Musk are putting their polluter buddies’ bottom lines over the health and safety of Americans.”

U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber, a Hermantown Republican whose district includes the Duluth lab, did not respond to the News Tribune’s request for comment on whether he supports the plan to eliminate ORD or if he is concerned about the potential loss of EPA jobs in his district.

Asked what the plan meant for the Duluth lab, EPA spokesperson Molly Vaseliou said the agency was “taking exciting steps as we enter the next phase of organizational improvements” and that it was “committed to enhancing our ability to deliver clean air, water, and land for all Americans.”

“While no decisions have been made yet, we are actively listening to employees at all levels to gather ideas on how to better fulfill agency statutory obligations, increase efficiency, and ensure the EPA is as up-to-date and effective as ever,” Vaseliou said.

Jack Kelly, who worked as chief of the ecology branch at the Duluth lab from 1998 to 2015, told the News Tribune that EPA’s reduction in force plan targeting the ORD was “really, really upsetting.”

“The country has invested in the training, schooling and development of these people to serve a purpose — protecting humans and the environment,” Kelly said. “There’s been a great amount of money invested in this … to throw that away is beyond ridiculous in my mind.

To him, the lab is a place where methods were developed to track the quality of the Great Lakes, standards were established on pollutants, and new chemicals that come along were evaluated, like PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), commonly known as "forever chemicals."

“On a personal level, just right away, I object to the not-very-subtle and, frankly, quite ignorant characterization that comes with this,” Kelly said. “My entire life’s pursuit in environmental research and protection is pretty useless and just wasteful spending?”

Kelly said the employees at the Duluth lab work there because they are committed to protecting the environment, even though they could probably make more money elsewhere.

“It’s hard to swallow the idea that you just toss this out with the garbage,” he said.

John Morrice, of Duluth, worked at the EPA lab in Duluth for 15 years as a research biologist studying Great Lakes ecosystems. He retired 12 years ago but worked under both Republican and Democratic administrations.

While Republicans often targeted EPA’s regulatory enforcement side, Morrice said the agency’s science and research arms were largely left alone.

“There is a need to have better science to underpin the establishment and enforcement of chemicals in our waters as part of the Clean Water Act … the (Duluth) lab has set up teams to try to address that need,” Morrice told the News Tribune. “These are ongoing projects that I don’t think universities and academia are really in a position to pick up the slack if the lab were to disappear.”

He cited evaluating and assessing St. Louis River Estuary restoration efforts, creating water criteria for Great Lakes coastal regions, and studying the responses of fish and other organisms to different chemicals among the lab’s “huge successes” over its nearly 60-year history.

Established in 1967, the lab predates the EPA by three years. Its roots go back a few more years.

In 1961, U.S. Rep. John Blatnik, D-Minn., sponsored an amendment to the new Federal Water Pollution Act to create federal water quality labs in key areas of the United States. Blatnik picked Duluth (in his home district) as the Great Lakes site.

Legend has it that a new congressional aide named Jim Oberstar helped pick the site. Oberstar worked for Blatnik and the powerful House Public Works Committee that Blatnik headed. Later, after he was elected to Congress and served on the same committee, Oberstar returned to visit the lab often, extolling its work.

Construction began in 1965 when the lab was under the Federal Public Health Service. By the time it was dedicated two years later, it was part of the Water Pollution Control Administration. It joined the EPA when President Richard Nixon established the agency in 1970.

Most recently, its work focused on developing baseline scientific data/protocol for testing chemical impacts on organisms.

Without the lab, Kelly said, “We’re talking about not just a loss to the scientific community. We’re talking a loss to the population of the United States … they (the Duluth lab) speak to all kinds of issues of how we need to live and protect the environment so that we protect ourselves.”

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Federal funding freeze pulls rug out from budding emerging farmer groups

Noah Fish — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 15:43:56 GMT

NEW HOPE, Minn. — After the U.S. Department of Agriculture silently reneged on a five-year American Rescue Plan contract with The Food Group, three participating emerging farmer groups saw their budgets decimated, including the Village Agricultural Cooperative in Rochester.

On the morning of Valentine's Day, Sophia Lenarz-Coy, executive director of The Food Group, dwelled with the group's farm director, KaZoua Berry, on what felt at the moment like a bad divorce.

From 2023-27, The Food Group Inc. is a contracted recipient of USDA's American Rescue Plan Act's Technical Assistance Investment Program, which ensures "equitable participation in the full range of USDA programs and services among underserved farmers. The funding is dispersed by Big River Farms, which operates under The Food Group, and shared with Village Agricultural Cooperative in Rochester, the Sudanese Farming Group LLC and Somali American Farm Institute.

The freeze

The Food Group scrambled to action after the federal funding freeze was announced in late January, and Lenarz-Coy said it completed its full billings and expenses for the month to ensure reimbursements. Then their account in the USDA portal was suspended.

Rather than focusing on the legality of the freeze, which legal experts say is unlawful, Lenarz-Coy said it's more important for the public to know that even a temporary freeze can be a major cash flow issue for nonprofits.

"The smaller organizations that we subcontract with, this is devastating," she said. "The Food Group, at least, has a diversified enough revenue source that we're able to kind of shuffle things around and keep a lot of the work going, but our subcontractor payments, especially in our USDA grant, has dramatic, negative ripple effects."

When The Food Group discovered it had been locked out of USDA's payment system, it informed the groups partnering on the ARPA program to stop their spending plan for the next growing season.

The Village

Amanda Nigon-Crowley, executive director of the Village Agricultural Cooperative, said the two federal funding streams that made up about half the small budget of the Village were frozen. She said the nonprofit can't risk going into debt while they wait to hear if contracts will be honored.

The nonprofit ceased all part-time farm and technical assistance work — laying off five employees who were all hired to lead the farming communities they belong to.

"We have become an office of two, down from seven, and lost much capacity to move our mission forward," Nigon-Crowley said in a statement on social media. "We hope that the USA is a country that can rise above corruption and pay invoices for work that was completed under contract, and honor contracts that are halfway to completion — to see them through until the end. If not, we surely cannot claim to be a 'developed' country any longer."

The farm managers who were vital to the growth of the cooperative will still participate in farming with their communities in the Village, which is why they were chosen for the paid roles.

"They're as diverse as we are. We need people who speak those languages. So we have a Cambodian person, a Latino person, Hmong person, a Cameroon person. I have all these people on my staff so that we can communicate and work within our community," she said. "These people are still going to show up. I have no doubt that our team is going to continue to volunteer their time as much as possible."

A step back

Outside of The Food Group warehouse is a plot farmed by the Sudanese Farming Group. Berry is particularly excited about the growth of the community of farmers in the time she's worked with Big River Farms. She said what started out as a community group wanting to learn how to farm is now a graduate of the Big River Farms training program, and its members are asking how they can train their youth to pass down wisdom and knowledge from the elders.

"They're building their own capacity with culturally connected food, which is really important," Berry said. "I think with the pause of funding so abruptly, it makes it hard for them to think about what they are gonna do this growing season."

Berry joined The Food Group at the beginning of the pandemic. Farming was always the way her family fed itself, from growing up in Milwaukee with seven siblings to now with her husband and four kids at a small-scale farm in Maplewood. It's personal to her.

"Being economically poor like I did growing up, I didn't know that because of the food that my mom and dad had always cultivated for us," she said.

Aside from her mother taking up the entire yard of an apartment complex where they lived, they also had a small plot of land 2 miles away where they would walk every day in the summer before sunrise to get the day's work done before it was too hot.

"It was enough to grow food for our family of eight kids," she said. "I truly believe that if people have the resources and they want to, it should be a right they're able to grow their own food, especially culturally connected to them."

Before entering a position with The Food Group, where she was managing the disbursement of federal funding, Berry said she'd been aware of the relationship between USDA and underserved producers, and the systemic discrimination in its history to the people it was supposed to be serving.

She felt that changed under the Biden administration.

"Where the last four years, I feel like (USDA) staff have been trying really hard to amend and reverse some of those, and bring about some kind of healing, relationship building," she said. "I think it's really interesting that we're at a time like this, where it's kind of reversing, or going back, or even probably creating deeper harm that is going to take more than four years to also repair."

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