Opportunities to Help the Community

Fresh Fruit Going to Waste?

Do you have an apple, plum or pear tree in your yard that produces more than your family can use? Volunteers from the Minnesota Project's Fruits of the City program may be able to help. This fall we'll be harvesting excess fruit from trees in Minneapolis and St. Paul and donating it to a local food shelf. Families that wouldn't otherwise be able to afford it will get fresh fruit, and you won't have to pick up spoiled fruit from your lawn.

We are also looking for volunteer gleaners to pick the fruit (and you can take home a few pounds yourself). To register a tree or to volunteer, call Ben at 651-789-3320 or e-mail fruits@mnproject.org. Harvest days will be held regularly from August through October. See www.mnproject.org/food-FruitsOfTheCity.html for more information.

Volunteers Needed to Start a Prairie HEALTH Companions Fund

The Universal Health Care Action Network of MN is seeking volunteers for an exciting project that we believe will be a first step toward solving the health care crisis. We are in the process of forming a cooperative-style health fund to help people pay for:

1. basic emergencies,
2. preventive health screenings, and
3. resource referral directory of free or low-cost primary care medical, dental, and mental health clinics, as well as prescription medications.

The fund, the Prairie HEALTH Companions Fund, will be particularly helpful for the uninsured or underinsured, co-operatives, artists (visual, theater, music, dance, literary), selfemployed (including alternative healers), farmers, small businesses, non-profits, and enrollees in high-deductible individual health insurance policies. An excellent model for this is the Ithaca Health Fund, which has several hundred members who pay a nominal fee and has operated for over ten years.

Minnesota lays claim to the largest number of co-ops in the U.S. If we can cooperate for groceries, food, housing, electricity, and bicycles, we can do it for health care. We welcome volunteers with a variety of skills in forming co-operatives and in health care, and affiliated organizations.

Please contact:
Joel Albers
612-384-0973
Universal Health Care Action Network-MN