Dear Seward Co-op Community,
It’s with much excitement that Seward Co-op is able to announce the sale of the “Creamery building” to North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NATIFS), the nonprofit founded by James Beard Award-winning chef Sean Sherman. The new facility, named NATIFS Wóyute Thipi (Wóyute Thipi meaning “food building” in Dakota), will serve as a central hub for the organization’s expanding work in Indigenous food systems and community development. The building will house a new counter-service restaurant, ŠHOTÁ Indigenous BBQ by Owamni; a large-scale commissary kitchen to produce Indigenous foods for public institutions; NATIFS’ operational headquarters; and a coworking space designed to support Indigenous and other BIPOC businesses.
NATIFS Founder and Executive Director Sean Sherman was the featured speaker at Seward Co-op’s 2018 Annual Owner Meeting. We have had the pleasure and honor of partnering over the years to uplift native cultural and culinary traditions in a number of ways—through collaborating on recipes on the hot bar, working as a community to round up for Native-led organizations, and most recently by participating with other local co-ops on a product promotion that raised over $139,000 for NATIFS. We know that the team over at NATIFS is deeply aligned with our values and Ends, and we look forward to seeing what they will accomplish in the next chapter of the building.
Prior to settler colonialism, the land on which Seward Co-op buildings, along with the Creamery building, is located on unceded lands of the Dakota, Lakoka, Ojibwe, and other local Tribal Nations. This sale is helping rebuild cultural connection in a corridor near other Native-led organizations and continues our years-long collaborations with Sherman.
We are grateful for our time in the historic building. When Seward Co-op acquired the Creamery in 2013, more than 90 years had passed since the building was established by the Franklin Cooperative Creamery Association (FCCA). Over its lifespan, the FCCA produced various products, from chocolate milk to sweet cream butter to cottage cheese and ice cream. At one point, 35,000 families were served daily by the delivery drivers, and, at its height, the cooperative was responsible for 80 percent of the milk supply in the Twin Cities.
We are confident that NATIFS Wóyute Thipi will enable NATIFS to expand their mission in the community and continue their work to decolonize cuisine and revitalize Native foodways in the Twin Cities and beyond.
Sherman said, “The location and building were exactly what we were looking for in the middle of the American Indian Cultural Corridor. We feel that it has everything we need to create more food, access to schools and hospitals, and more access to tribal healthcare. The building will be the heart of our operation and the home base for everything we do.”
Seward Co-op is grateful to have participated in the history of the building at 2601 East Franklin, but it is more than an honor to know that NATIFS will now occupy it. Their mission is aligned with Seward Co-op and will provide food access to those in the community and surrounding areas, and we are excited to see what they will do with the space!
In cooperation,
Ray Williams, Seward Co-op General Manager