- [Announcer] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

(cheerful music) - "R Town, the show about Rochester", learns about an upcoming event hosted by the Channel One Regional Food Bank, and we catch up with the local chapter of Dance USA offering weekly dance lessons.

We also get the latest from the RCTC campus.

All that and so much more coming up next on "R Town, the show about Rochester".

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - [Announcer 2] Coming to you from 125 Live in Rochester, Minnesota, "R Town".

(upbeat music) - We are joined today by Jessica Sund, Director of Development and Communications, here to tell us more about the upcoming epicure event hosted by the Channel One Regional Food Bank.

Welcome to "R Town", Jessica.

- Thank you for having me.

- So can you tell us what the Channel One Regional Food bank is?

- Absolutely.

We are actually the largest hunger relief organization in southeastern Minnesota, and we are one of six Feeding America food banks in Minnesota, so we actually cover 14 counties and one including in La Crosse, Wisconsin, so it's quite a large territory and, as a food bank, we support a lot of other food shelves in those regions.

- Excellent, so you have an upcoming event.

Can you tell us more about the Epicure One Bite at a Time?

It sounds very intriguing event, and how it supports the mission of Channel One.

- Absolutely.

This is actually quite a young event.

It's the third year that we are holding this event.

It started just two years ago, and we really came together as a community trying to decide how you know, what place Channel One has in the circuit in Rochester, and what people are looking for in fundraising event, and we really decided to shape the event to kind of take it out of that traditional gala format, so still kind of a high end event without that gala format.

So it's very social, it takes place in our warehouse, which is really exciting, and really brings you into the mission.

We invite local restaurants to participate, and they provide epicurean bites, so there's all sorts of fun stations throughout the warehouse that you can drop in, taste restaurant's bites, socialize with peers, and then we have a short program, of course with people with lived experience of food insecurity, and of course plenty of ways to support the mission during the event.

This really provides an opportunity to socialize and mingle, and we found that it just wasn't necessary to have the live music and the DJ was really fun.

- Can you outline some of the programs that Channel One operates?

I know there's a lot of them, and they're very mission-driven.

Can you share a little bit more?

- So a lot of people know us as a food shelf, and that is how Channel One began.

It was a senior commodities, a place for seniors to get food, grew into a food shelf, grew into a food bank, and we've always maintained that food shelf as one of our main programs, so there's that kind of difference.

Food banks act as like a sourcing hub.

They bring in food, they, you know, acquire food through purchasing, grant purchase, manufacture donations, and then we provide that food to food shelves, so it's kind of an easy way to think of as food banks help food shelves, and food shelves help people.

- It's part of a whole ecosystem.

- Exactly, exactly, but we are sort of unique as a food bank that we do have our own food shelf attached, and that is our largest program.

It serves Olmsted County, and sometimes other surrounding counties as well may travel to our food shelf, and we serve about 10,000 visits every month.

Besides that food shelf program, which again is our largest, we also have a really fun prepared meals program called Kitchen Coalition, and I love this one because again, it goes back to working with local restaurants.

So how the program works is we actually take donated or rescued food, and we get that to professional partners like restaurant partners, - What is rescued food?

- So like rescued food may be food that is slated for a landfill, and so we rescue it, whether we go pick it up, or someone brings it over to us, we're able to rescue that food from the landfill, still perfectly good food, and we give that to our restaurant partners who then turn it into wonderful, healthy meals with their expertise and some other items, and then we partner with other local nonprofits to give the meals to people who have barriers to making their own meals, whether they're facing homelessness or disabilities, or maybe they're living in a hotel.

They don't really have a means to cook, so these meals really help fill that gap, and I love this program.

And then we also have a CSFP program.

It's a senior program for seniors at a fixed income, gets them a box of commodities monthly, and then of course we do mobile pantries, so we take our actual food trucks, and go into areas in rural communities that are known as food deserts, or maybe don't have a lot of options for grocery stores, or maybe absolutely no food programming available to them in a close radius, and so we bring in there, actually do mobile distributions where people can do drive through and pick up foods as well.

- The organization recently issued a statement on new data on hunger in Minnesota.

Can you share just a little bit more about that data, what that looks like in our community?

- Yeah, so we work really closely with Second Harvest Heartland, which is the Twin Cities food bank, and they're actually the second largest in the country, so they're huge, and we are so grateful to have them in our neighborhood, and we work together quite a lot.

So they actually took the lead on this study for all of Minnesota, and it's really acquiring real time data to see what's happening, because sometimes we all know that data can be a little bit delayed in what we have to work with, so this really gives you a clear picture of people who are experiencing food insecurity right now, and the data shows that one in five Minnesotans are currently food insecure, and what's important about this data is that includes people who are already getting food from a food shelf, so they may say, "Oh I'm food secure, because I shop at the food shelf."

Well that's not quite accurate, you know what I mean?

So it really helps us to really understand the problem.

It really reflects the increase in need that not only we are seeing, but all of our food shelves across 14 counties are seeing, close to a 35% increase across the region in usage.

And also what this data is doing, which I'm not sure was in the release, but it's really interesting, we're creating hunger heat maps, which really isolates where the most food insecure areas are, and then of course overlaying maps over those, where are the programs?

Are there enough programs in the right places for these food insecure individuals?

Does this one just have way too many, and this one not enough?

It's really targeted efforts is what we're kind of looking to in the future, along with Second Harvest's huge initiative to make hunger history for all Minnesotans by 2030.

- When you sort of break it down, you talked about families, like what does that look like?

Are we seeing more families specifically experiencing food insecurity?

Are we seeing elderly or, you know, school aged children?

What does that look like?

- It's really affecting people of all ages, individuals, families, seniors, college students, everything.

At our particular food shelf here in Rochester, on average there's about 400 to 450 new registrations every month.

That's every month.

So every single month, about 400 households is how we classify them, not necessarily individuals, we classify as households, are coming in to register and shop at Channel One, so, you know, what we're hearing from people is inflation is greatly affecting them, and the cost of living not keeping up with wages.

It's as simple as that, and I think it's something we all kind of know, but it's hard for them to keep up with inflation and cost of living with the wages.

I mean a lot of them are absolutely working families working two to three jobs, both parents working.

It's just really a lot of people that you wouldn't even consider, and I think that food insecurity is such a hidden thing that I don't think people realize that they can work and live next to somebody every day and not realize that they may be food insecure.

We are providing experience that doesn't just work for one sort of person, it works for everyone.

I think another thing to consider, because we are in southeastern Minnesota, is a large part of our counties that we serve are rural, which also people who live in rural areas also face a much higher rate of food insecurity than people who are in an urban environment as well, so that's where the food deserts come in.

That's where our food shelf partners in these rural areas are so important.

We try to work really closely with them to make sure that they are having enough hours of open availability, a low restrictive model.

Free choice is so important to people with food insecurity.

Choosing your own food, and the dignity of that is very important, and studies show that it actually creates less food waste when you can choose your own food, because people aren't taking things they don't even need or want, and then it just gets thrown away.

- How can people learn more about, well not even, but if folks are interested, wanna register for the food bank, what does that process look like?

- Yeah, it's a very easy process.

I'm very proud of our website, helpingfeedpeople.org, and so really any question that you may have, whether you are looking to find food, looking to shop at Channel One's food shelf, or looking to find a food shelf closest to you, great information there.

If people are are not certain, I'll tell you, it's as easy as walking through the doors.

Registration takes less than 10 minutes, five minutes maybe.

They ask a few questions, general questions, which is all private.

None of that data is shared anywhere outside of, you know, our organization, and then they can shop that day.

We allow people to shop weekly if they need to, but I'd say only about 50% of people shop more than once a month, and then of course if you're looking to support Channel One, that's all right there on our website as well.

Monetary donations are the way to go.

We don't actually do food drives anymore.

We found that they're a little bit more inefficient, and we have such great buying power that we could stretch dollars so much further than people could, if they went and bought a jar of peanut butter.

We could have maybe bought a whole case for that same price for example, or put that money towards rescuing food again, which we do, and so monetary donations are great, and of course volunteers, which is also available on our website.

We have all sorts of shifts for individuals or groups.

- Are there any other upcoming opportunities to support Channel One, other events that you want us to know about?

- Yeah, so Minnesota FoodShare March is a very beloved campaign in Minnesota.

It's a grassroots campaign that essentially just really mobilizes the entirety of Minnesota to support local food shelves, so we do participate in that campaign, and what's great about it is the donations that we receive during the month of March are able to be used to release funds for us, so that's really, really helpful.

It's a great way to give back, and a great way to kind of spread the news.

- What advice would you have for community members just to kind of raise awareness around the food needs in our community, food support needs in our community, and how to be sort of part of kind of being change agents around addressing that?

- I think that so many people in the community have just beautiful hearts.

I've lived in Rochester my entire life.

I was born and raised here, and I've worked in nonprofits for 11 years, so I've seen firsthand how generous this community can be, and the one thing that I would say to anyone who wants to, you know, get something going is to truly reach out to the nonprofits and the cause that means something to you, because the Rochester nonprofits are doing so well.

They are really great organizations who know what they're doing, so I don't think, people don't need to reinvent the wheel, or like all of a sudden I'm going to, you know, so reach out to your local nonprofit, ask Channel One what our needs are.

We have a lot of answers for that question, so it's as simple as just reaching out whatever touches your heart or means something to you, reach out to that nonprofit, 'cause again, Rochester's doing a great job.

- Where is the Channel One Regional Food Bank so people know, can locate it?

- Yeah, so we are in southeastern Rochester.

It's on 35th Street Southeast, so if anyone wants a frame of reference, I love geographical things.

We are kind of near Whistle Binkies South.

Whistle Binkies on the Lake, we're down that corridor.

We are on a bus line, so it's very easy to access, and we're open five days a week.

Monday through Thursday, we're open from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM, and then on Fridays, eight to noon.

- You gave us some great information about what's available on the website.

The epicure event is on there.

How can folks get tickets for that?

- Yeah, so tickets will go on sale in late March, so they'll be available on our website.

We will, of course, be advertising on Facebook where we're really excited to kick this year off.

We have honorary co-chairs, Jim and Nora Rogers, who have been great supporters of our mission, so they're really excited to spread the word as well, and speak at the event, so yeah, it's just as easy as going online and buying a ticket.

Tickets are for sale right on our website.

There's no third party link to Eventbrite or anything.

It's very easy.

- Awesome.

Well thank you so much, Jessica, for joining us, and for all you do.

- You're welcome.

Thank you so much for having me.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - Be sure to stick around.

We have much more coming your way on "R Town".

We meet Eric Hoyer from the local chapter of Dance USA offering weekly free dance sessions, and we also catch up with what's new on the RCTC campus in this week's R Future segment.

(soft music) - So this project is Dancing Downtown.

Every Monday we get together, do a one hour community lesson.

It's free to the public, and that came to be through connections, just networking with Sylvia.

She's the Executive Director of 125 Live, connected us with the Executive Director of Rochester Downtown Alliance, and we met up, we discussed opportunities to collaborate on our missions, and we said, "Hey, let's do some dancing", and brought The Chateau into it, and now we have Dancing Downtown.

Quick, quick, slow, quick, quick, check, side, cross, side.

Quick, quick, good, reset.

Well, I don't think we really had high expectations, you know, we just wanted to get the Rochester community involved in dancing again.

Ever since COVID and the pandemic, it just really squashed social contact, especially with partnership dancing.

You know, you just couldn't be in close vicinity, so we just want to try to rebuild it back up to where it was pre-COVID.

Side, cross, side, quick, quick, nice, all right.

(claps) - So I often like to check the Downtown Alliance page, and that's where I'll find a lot of little different events, and I saw the advertisement for this, and since I have a background in ballroom dance, I was pretty excited, so I gave it a try.

- [Eric] So we've been doing this since about December for sure.

In the late summer, early fall we did Dancing in the Plaza outdoors and we had a good turnout, so we decided we'd try it indoors at The Chateau, and it's been really good.

(twangy music) (twangy music continues) (twangy music continues) (twangy music continues) (twangy music continues) - So ballroom dance consists of a lead and a follow, and so you can have like a really interesting relationship develop with your lead, or with your follow, because you're learning from each other constantly.

- Followers to your right, leaders to the left.

All right, so open hold followers, palm down.

Okay, all right, starting with the correct foot, five, six, here we go.

Slow, quick, quick, slow, quick, quick, slow, quick, quick, slow.

Nice.

Here we go.

We're dancing.

Let's go.

I mean, there are different ages, different backgrounds.

We're seeing high schoolers.

We're seeing moms come in with their children, their toddlers, dancing with their partners and their spouses.

We're seeing the older crowds.

We're seeing visitors and local community members.

It's just been a real wide variety of attendees.

- I have always made this joke that I love dancing with people like three times my age, because they oftentimes have so much experience, and they're able to teach me a lot of things that have either sort of faded out in the world of dance, or are just more complicated than I would normally be exposed to.

- There's always those nerves going into the gym for the first time, going to your dentist and meeting them for the first time.

The hardest step in dance is the one through the front door.

That's what I've always said.

The hardest step in dance is the one through the front door.

(tango music) (tango music continues) (crowd cheers) (crowd claps) (tango music continues) (tango music continues) (tango music continues) (crowd cheers) (crowd applauds) (tango music continues) (tango music continues) (tango music continues) (crowd cheers) (crowd applauds) (tango music continues) (tango music continues) (crowd cheers) (crowd applauds) (tango music fades) (crowd applauds) (crowd cheers) - [Announcer 2] For more information about this story and other "R Town" features, connect with us on Facebook, Twitter @KSMQ # Rtown, or ksmq.org/rtown.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - Hi, I'm Macy from R-Future.

The RCTC Physics Club recently held their annual physics show, a show which displays physics in a fun and practical way.

This family show not only helps fund an educational research club trip, it also turns kids on to science.

- Today we are hosting our annual demo show that we host every year.

Essentially what we end up doing is just showing up all these type of cool science stuffs in really fun ways so kids can enjoy them and have interest in them without it being too complicated.

- I think the first one might have been 2007.

It's been a while.

(air blows) One is science education for, especially the kids who come, and other people who are interested.

The other thing that I think is really good for the RCTC students who are helping put it on, they get some experience presenting and troubleshooting equipment, and working together on a project, and a lot of times many of our demos were built by former students in the club, sometimes with the retired engineers helping out, so we have a lot of student built demos.

(light zaps) (light zapping continues) - I really like the bowling ball one.

It's really simple, but it's really fun for people.

Like, it's a good demonstration of like conservation and energy.

It's really simple, but you just start and it's kind of like this really scary thing where people think that the bowling ball is gonna come back and it's gonna hit 'em, but as long as they don't push it, like you just let it go, it's just gonna come, and it's gonna get right up to your face, and it freaks everybody out, and I think it's really funny.

- For me, I think, well personally, I really like the Bed of Nails one, because there's much anticipation.

It's kind of like, "Oh, there's a bed of nails."

It's like, "Oh, but you can lay on it."

And then a guy gets on it, and then we put a concrete block on them, and we set it on fire, and then we smash it with a sledgehammer.

It's like the anticipation just keeps building and building up, and it's really enjoyable to just watch the audience go from like a little bit still from like, "Huh", then like raise up those voices.

I think it was really fun.

(audience applauds) I think that was my favorite.

- They get experience with public speaking and, you know, educating, and it's a good time.

- [Macy] The RCTC Women's Basketball Team hosted the NJCAA DIII Championship last weekend.

The first ranked Lady Yellowjackets defeated Joliet Community College in the quarter finals, fourth ranked Anoka-Ramsey in the semifinals, before taking down the Jefferson Community College in the championship showdown.

This was the third championship game appearance for the Yellowjackets in the past three years.

The Yellowjackets controlled the play in all three games, led by sophomore Kara Goetzinger in the paint, and by sophomore point guard, Macaya Copeland.

(crowd cheers) (crowd continues to cheer) Freshman guard, Nyomi Crushshon came off the bench and provided outside scoring by being deadly accurate from three point range.

The real story of the tournament though was the Yellowjacket's stifling defense led by sophomores, Jaide Pressley and Cassidy Shute.

The Yellowjackets won 73 to 37.

(crowd cheers) (crowd continues to cheer) (crowd continues to cheer) (crowd continues to cheer) Goetzinger was named Tournament MVP and head coach, Jason Bonde, was named Coach of the Tournament.

Macaya Copeland, Kara Goetzinger and Nyomi Crushshon were all named to the All Tournament Team.

(crowd claps) (cheers) The RCTC Men's Wrestling team also took home their second consecutive NJCAA DIII National Title at the Wrestling National Championship in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

This is the Yellowjacket's seventh national title in program history.

Congratulations to both teams on their national championships.

- Thank you for joining us today.

I hope you learned as much as I did about all that's going on in our city and the wonderful people making it happen.

For more content produced right here in Rochester, please be sure to check us out on Facebook and Twitter at #RTown.

I'm Nicole Nfonoyim-Hara, host of "R Town, the show about Rochester".

We'll see you next time.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (cheerful music) - [Announcer] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.