FoodShare

theopendoorpantry.org previous years. Last fiscal year, the nonprofit distributed more than 774,000 pounds of food to 17,600 families. The organization’s goal during this campaign is to raise 350,000 pounds of food/money. Donations may be dropped off at the lower level of Neighbors Inc., from 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday through Friday, and financial donations can be mailed to Neighbors, Inc. or given online at neighborsmn.org.

The city of South St. Paul regularly helps Neighbors, especially during the FoodShare campaign. The theme of the city’s annual 55075 (its zip code) food drive this year is “Let’s make lemonade out of lemons.” Food collections barrels will be at City Hall, the South St. Paul

Trees

from page 1 from page 1 by replacing them with different species of trees,” said Lozano, who noted that infected ash trees can’t typically be treated by the time signs of EAB are visible. “We’re currently in the process of planning a tree planting event that will happen in May. We’ll be planting in a few different areas in the city, and we’re really excited to do that because it hasn’t been done in a while. We’re also thinking about having an Arbor Day celebration. Both [events] welcome anyone who wants to learn about planting trees and get their hands dirty.”

Lozano has been trekking through town to inspect each of the approximate 5,000 trees in the city’s rights-of-way, boulevards and parks. On these outings she makes sure that the trees identified as infected in the city’s 2017 tree inventory

Library, schools, and other places throughout the community. The City’s goal is to raise 55,075 pounds of nonperishable food items or dollars – $1 equals one pound.

Food distribution event at Kaposia

The Open Door Food Pantry will host a food distribution event 4-6 p.m., Monday, Mar. 20, at its mobile food pantry at Kaposia Education Center in South St. Paul. This event helps support students who will not receive school meals during spring break. The Dakota County-based nonprofit opened this mobile distribution site last fall. On average, it serves more than 475 people each month. For more information, visit have been taken down. She marks any newly infected trees and looks for suitable areas to plant replacement trees.

Last year the city cut down about 250 ash trees, bringing the total removed since 2017 to about 700. The city has worked with Davey Resource Group and S&S Tree to complete the removals, using funding from two grants secured in 2021. The grants have also funded the purchase and planting of one tree for each tree removed.

Lozano said the city doesn’t have a goal of how many trees to remove this summer but that Lorraine Park and the entrance to Kaposia Park are both top priority areas.

“I expect emerald ash borer to be a problem for quite a while,” Lozano said, “because even though the trees are dead and dying, it’s a lot of money to remove them, and people have trees on private property that they can’t always afford to remove.”

The cost for a homeowner to

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“It [Kaposia] has had a great impact on the South St. Paul community,” said Nicole Tyrrell, planning & partnerships manager. “The school, specifically Daisy Medina-Cuenca, cultural liaison, has been amazing at communicating with school families as well as the local community around the school. She has been the biggest asset in promoting and running this distribution. We know there are a lot of challenges seen in this urban community that aren’t always obvious. Essentially the location that surrounds Kaposia is an urban food desert and we want to do our part to help alleviate that by bringing food and resources to that community. In the future we hope to have a bigger presence year-round through our other programs in the South St. Paul area.” remove an infected tree ranges from $2,000 to $4,000.

Trees infected with EAB typically have fissures or splitting bark in S-shaped grooves made by ash borer beetle larvae, D-shaped exit holes left by the ash borer beetle, and dead or dying branches near the treetop. Falling branches are a health hazard and dead trees are also more prone to falling in windy conditions. Lozano said that most trees she’s been inspecting are about 12-28 inches in diameter, which indicates a relatively old age for an ash tree. She added that EAB is still spreading in Minnesota and that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has quarantined a significant portion of the state. About 40 other community forestry members have been placed in cities spanning from Grand Marias to Austin to either help them recover from EAB or prevent the beetle from entering the community. One of the main causes for the spread of EAB is transportation of infected firewood. According to the USDA, emerald ash borer beetles are dormant from October through May and this is when infected ash trees should be pruned or removed.

A Neighbors, Inc. volunteer helps sort food. The food shelf now offers four ways to access food: in-person shopping, curbside pick-up, food delivery and attending a distribution event.

“Trees improve air quality, stormwater flow reduction, energy savings for houses and have mental health benefits,” said Lozano. “When you remove them, you lose all those benefits…. I think it’s definitely a learning moment because back when cities were being planned people didn’t think about species diversity. Now we’re realizing that the more diversity you have the better and more resilient your urban forest can be, and that not only helps with future diseases that could come through but also with sequestering carbon dioxide and helping the environment overall.”

Ideally, no one tree species in a city should exceed 10%. According to the 2017 tree inventory, the city already has the maximum number of oak and maple trees, and therefore planting events this year will not include those species. Among those to be planted are American elm, hackberry, honey locust, river birch and Kentucky coffee tree. For more information on EAB, visit www.southstpaul.org/156/Trees.

In-home Foot Care

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& Curbside-to-go

Every Friday Feb. 24-April 7

Serving Time: 4:30-7:30 p.m.

Baked and/or fried fish, baked potato, vegetable, cole slaw, roll and brownie. Grilled cheese or spaghetti available as non-fish option.

Beer and wine available

Adult meal $15 fish / $13 non-fish. Cash or card.

Children’s meals at reduced price