Roots for the Home Team™ and the Twins Community Fund Celebrate

Roots for the Home Team and the Minnesota Twins Community Fund today announced the results of a new partnership that brought fresh, locally-grown produce to Target Field throughout the 2012 season. Grown by youth from ethnically diverse areas of the Twin Cities, the produce was used to create delicious salads, which were sold to fans during Sunday afternoon games at the Roots for the Home Team Garden Goodies food cart.

“It was like a job, so it’s like working,” said DeShaun, age 16 of the Community Design Center of Minnesota’s Eastside Garden Corps. “You had to be focused and know what you were doing in order to have a successful business.”

Throughout the season, 22 youth leaders were selected from garden programs to sell the tasty salads at Target Field. In addition, 159 youth worked in the gardens that provided produce for the cart.

In addition to the Eastside Garden Corps, Roots for the Home Team worked with Emerge Homegrown Gardens and Youth Farm and Market Project to secure produce to sell at Target Field. The three garden programs have roots in more than ten different inner-city communities in the Twin Cities.

In total, the youth produced and sold more than 950 salads, helping raise $6,650 to help sustain the inner-city garden programs.

“I thought it was really inspiring because I didn’t think people would be so excited to eat salad at a baseball game,” said Yeng, age 15, also with the Eastside Garden Corps. “I kept thinking to myself, ‘wow – we’re really making a difference.’”

The Roots for the Home Team Garden Goodies food cart is expected to return to Target Field in 2013.

Roots for the Home Team is an innovative new program that brings a crisp, crunchy twist to ballpark food through its colorful fresh salads made with produce from youth gardens. Roots for the Home Team strives to strengthen kids’ health through a different approach to the “eat healthy food” conversation. It supports inner-city communities’ access to more fresh produce while building self-esteem, leadership skills and business knowledge for participating youth. The program was sponsored by Blue Cross, Blue Shield of MN, Just BARE Chicken, Land O’ Lakes and the Minnesota Twins Community Fund. For more information, visit www.rootsforthehometeam.org.

About the Twins Community Fund

Established as a nonprofit organization in 1991, the mission of the Twins Community Fund is to enrich local and regional communities by providing resources for the healthy development of children and families through and association with baseball, softball and the Minnesota Twins. The Twins Community Fund is governed by a board of directors representative of the Upper Midwest. Target, Treasure Island Resort & Casino, Best Buy, U.S. Bank and Delta Air Lines are Cornerstone Partners; contributing annually to the Twins Community Fund. For more information or to make a contribution, visit www.twinsbaseball.com/community.