Minneapolis, MN
Cannon Falls couple provides both entrees for Minneapolis School Districts' Minnesota Thursdays
MINNEAPOLIS — The lunch menu on March 7 at Minneapolis Public Schools included beef and cheddar sandwiches from BAMF Meats and plant-based sloppy joes from Deeply Rooted — both produced in Cannon Falls, Minnesota.
Bertrand Weber, director for Minneapolis Public School Culinary and Nutrition Services, said once a month for the last 10 years, the school district celebrates “Minnesota Thursdays” over the lunch hour. Everything from entrees to desserts are sourced from around a 200-mile radius outside of the Twin Cities, Weber said.
“It’s a celebration of local harvest, and we try to really showcase those items to our kids,” Weber said. “The acceptance is different based on the grade level, but they always look forward to it on a regular basis.”
On March 7, the menu consisted of a beef and cheddar sandwich from BAMF Meats in Cannon Falls with cheese from Bongards in Perham; a plant-based sloppy joe from Deeply Rooted in Cannon Falls; sweet potato JoJo from Fifth Season Cooperative in Viroqua, Wisconsin; cole slaw from Driftless Organics in Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin; and a freezer pop from JonnyPops in Elk River.
The two entrees came from Kayla and Wade Beyer, who were on hand March 7 to enjoy the school lunch inside of Franklin Middle School in north Minneapolis.
“Today was awesome,” Kayla Beyer said after the lunch. “It really was like the pinnacle of the story we’re trying to share. It’s not all about just eating meat or all about eating a plant-based diet fully — it’s about having better choices and making deliberate choices with every meal.”
Noah Fish / Agweek
Wade Beyer is the owner and operator of
BAMF Stock Farms
in Cannon Falls. The calf-to-cow finishing operation runs about 200 head while also raising hogs and crops. Aside from the eight steers worth of roasts he sold to the Minneapolis schools, the farm has sold hamburger to the Pine Island School District, which is about 20 miles outside of Rochester, for about a year.
“It was different, but they did a good job,” Beyer said of eating the food he raised at a cafeteria table inside of Franklin Middle School. “I thought it tasted great.”
He said it can be a challenge for farmers to make the leap to sell to school districts and to know where to start that process.
“If it weren’t for my wife, I probably wouldn’t have done it,” he said. “She’s already familiar with that network.”
Minnesota Grown, which the farm is a member of, is a place for schools to look if they are interested in connecting with local farms, Beyer said.
“Otherwise, just talking to your local schools, and go from there,” Beyer said.
Kayla Beyer is founder and CEO of
Deeply Rooted
, which began around four years ago and provides shelf-stable plant-based crumble in flavors like Italian, Mexican and Korean barbecue. Consumers simply add water to the product, and she said that 4 ounces becomes 1 pound.
“I’m a food industry veteran who was working for big corporate America — big CPG brands — and wanted to start a food company that makes a bigger impact,” said Beyer, a mom of five who grew up on a dairy farm. “I worked in mass manufacturing where I saw how processed food was, and so not only did I want to put a better product on the retail shelf, I wanted to put a better product on my kids’ trays at school.”
Beyer said the way she made the farm-to-school connection with Minneapolis Public Schools was by making a simple phone call to Weber, who told her exactly what the program needed for Deeply Rooted products to be served to students.
The crumble served at Minneapolis schools went through a sodium reduction process to meet USDA standards, which she said made the product taste better in her opinion.
“I tasted my original formula now and it’s salty to me, so it’s a very good change,” she said. “We just lowered the sodium, the salt, and increased the other spices. So it wasn’t a big deal for us to do that, and we did it willingly.”
Beyer said unlike the many plant-based companies that have popped up in the past few years, she said Deeply Rooted has nothing against meat that’s raised on a farm.
“I thought what a great opportunity to change that narrative and bring it from an agricultural perspective that I have had all these years,” she said.
Another reason Beyer was interested in selling Deeply Rooted products to the K-12 market is that it’s much larger than the retail space, she said. In retail, products like hers are targeted towards vegans and vegetarians, which she said the company’s mission doesn’t align with.
“There’s nothing wrong with being a meat company, and there’s nothing wrong with having a plant-based option,” Beyer said. “Let’s make it palatable, so it tastes good, and they actually come back for more.”
Minneapolis City Council members approved a five-month pause on new data center development Thursday.
The moratorium does not apply to smaller data centers located downtown that are less than 350,000 square feet.
The Minneapolis City Council voted to temporarily halt new data center projects while city staff study regulations and examine concerns about environmental impacts, energy use and public safety.
The vote comes as opposition to data center projects has surfaced in communities across Minnesota.
In Elk River, Minnesota, this week, the city’s planning commission recommended against a proposal that would pave the way for a data center, despite the fact advocates said the project could generate an estimated $800,000 in additional revenue.
In Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota, a packed city council meeting erupted in boos after officials delayed a final vote on a proposed data center. The vote is now scheduled for Friday.
The issue has drawn strong opinions in Minneapolis.
At a Minneapolis committee meeting last week, a vocal majority spoke out in favor of the pause. Labor groups highlighted the construction jobs data centers can provide, while residents raised concerns about neighborhood impacts and whether the facilities would benefit local communities.
Councilmember Soren Stevenson said residents throughout Minneapolis have been clear in their opposition to additional data center development.
“My constituents and people from across this city are so, so clear that they don’t want data centers at all,” Stevenson said.
Supporters of the moratorium said the temporary pause will give city officials time to study the industry and develop regulations before additional projects move forward.
Council Member Aurin Chowdhury argued that data centers have had disproportionate impacts.
“That industry has shown over and over again negative impacts, especially in communities of color and communities that have been impacted by environmental injustice,” Chowdhury said.
Opponents of the pause warned the move could discourage future investment in Minneapolis and send the wrong message to businesses considering projects in the city.
Councilmember Linea Palmisano said the moratorium could undermine efforts to attract economic development at a time when residents are facing higher property taxes.
“We send a message to the business community that they aren’t important or supported by this council,” Palmisano said. “We send the message that we don’t want their investment.”
The measure now heads to Mayor Jacob Frey, who plans to spend the next several days reviewing the ordinance before deciding whether to sign it, a spokesperson said.
Sunshine and comfortable temperatures return Thursday before a weekend warm-up sends highs into the 90s. Heat index values could reach the triple digits early next week. FOX 9 meteorologist Jared Piepenburg has the forecast.
Posted
A 28-year-old St. Paul woman who admitted in federal court to assaulting law enforcement officers during a protest last year in South Minneapolis has been ordered to pay a $25 fine.
Isabel Lopez was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge John Tunheim in Minneapolis after accepting a plea agreement to a lesser misdemeanor charge of assaulting, resisting and impeding a U.S. officer in connection with a protest that broke out while authorities were executing a search warrant that a crowd mistook for an immigration raid in June 2025.
Lopez was originally charged by indictment with three felony counts of assaulting, resisting and impeding officers and one felony count of obstruction of law enforcement.
Lopez faced up to one year in prison on the misdemeanor conviction, however, the defense and prosecution both asked Tunheim for no prison time. The prosecution requested one year of probation, which Tunheim turned down.
According to court documents, law enforcement officers from multiple federal agencies were executing eight search warrants in the Twin Cities on June 3, 2025, related to an investigation into narcotics trafficking, money laundering, human trafficking and related offenses.
The investigation began with the discovery of 900 pounds of methamphetamine in a Burnsville storage unit, with a street value of between $22 million and $25 million.
Shortly after a search warrant execution began at Cuatro Milpas restaurant on Lake Street, a crowd began to gather.
“The crowd appeared to be under the mistaken belief that law enforcement was present to arrest individuals illegally present in the country for immigration offenses,” the criminal complaint said. “This was incorrect.”
After recognizing the apparent misunderstanding, law enforcement explained the nature of the search warrant to the crowd, according to prosecutors.
As part of her plea agreement, Lopez admitted to hitting an FBI SWAT agent with her arms and closed fist, and kicking another agent. The officers were not injured. As law enforcement attempted to leave the scene, Lopez threw a softball at the back of a Hennepin County sheriff’s deputy.
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