Wilder Foundation’s Meals on Wheels program is looking for volunteers to deliver lunch -- and a smile, and kind words -- to homebound older adults and those with limited mobility in the following Saint Paul neighborhoods: Summit-University, Downtown St Paul, Hamline-Midway, Frogtown Thomas-Dale, Como, and North End.
 
Your gift of time not only brings a nutritious meal, it helps break the isolation and add quality to clients' lives.
 
The basics of being a Wilder Meals on Wheels volunteer:

• Drivers deliver from 10:30 a.m.-noon weekdays. Routes typically take an hour or less.
• Drivers can deliver daily, weekly, monthly, or somewhere in between.
• Volunteers must have a valid Minnesota driver's license and agree to a criminal background check (which the Wilder Foundation pays for).

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Become a Wilder Meals on Wheels volunteer by filling out this volunteer application. If you have any questions and/or concerns, call Grant at 651-280-2504 or send him an email.

So much of our work at the Summit-University Planning Council relies on communication tools that help us bring neighbors information about important events, issues, and opportunities. 

Our goal for Give to the Max Day 2018 is to raise $5000 to support our ongoing efforts to create more resources to connect this community. Some of our goals include:

• Publishing a printed newsletter that can be mailed to all residents in Summit-University
• Creating a neighborhood business directory to support local businesses
• Establishing a network of information kiosks to post flyers
• Publishing a community coloring book to celebrate our neighborhood pride!
  

The City of Saint Paul compiles all of the crime incident data for the city, and shares it with the community. View the data.
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Here at SUPC, we turn this data into an interactive map every month to help neighbors better understand crime trends on their blocks. Click or tap on a pin for more information about the incident, including date, time, case number, incident type, and call disposition.

Please keep in mind that locations are approximate to protect the privacy of victims.

Dorothea Burns was born on July 15, 1931 in St. Paul, Minnesota. She went to Central High School and the University of Minnesota. She spent her life in the Rondo neighborhood working tirelessly to uplift the community and create positive change. In addition to her many volunteer roles in Summit-University, she worked at the Hallie Q. Brown Community Center for much of her career, and was the Assistant Director until she retired in 2006. 

During her time at Hallie Q. she was a passionate advocate for Project Cheer, a Schubert Club program that offers free piano, rhythm, and guitar lessons to students who might not be able to access music lessons. They are fundraising in her honor this month, and invite you to consider supporting Project Cheer. You can donate to support Project Cheer here.

Dorothea is the grandmother of our Board Chair, Angela Burns Finney, who continues to carry her legacy and works to support the community.

Pictured above is Dorothea receiving the prestigious An Die Musik Award at the Schubert Club. From left to right: Granddaughter Angela Burns Finney, Sons Kevin and Cliffon Burns, Dorothea Burns, Daughter Laurie Burns, and Son Ralph Elliot.

Listen to Dorothea talk about her life: 

The City of St. Paul is committed to building an equitable and inclusive city that works for all of us. To realize this vision, Saint Paul needs to continue the vital work of shifting the culture of city processes and policies, eliminate structural inequities, and ensure timely and relevant access to services, resources, support, and opportunity to every person in our city. 
Join us in October and November across the city at the "Voices of Our Community" Input Sessions to help shape the future of Saint Paul by learning about the city's equity work, then provide feedback on how we can best move forward together. Each session will be focused on particular topics and will be facilitated by Saint Paul city departments. See below for dates, locations, and topics.
Contact Saint Paul's Chief Equity Officer Toni Newborn at [email protected] with questions. 

Visit: https://www.stpaul.gov/departments/mayors-office/voices-our-community
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Tuesday, November 6 is ELECTION DAY!

Most people in Summit-University will vote at either the Martin Luther King Rec Center or Jimmy Lee Rec Center. Visit this site to enter your address and find out where you should vote, it will also provide you a sample ballot so you can make sure you know who's running:
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https://pollfinder.sos.state.mn.us/

In 1845, Eliza Acton, an English food writer and poet, wrote what is considered the first cookbook for the home cook. Her book, “Modern Cookery for Private Families”, gave us the now common format of listing ingredients, yields and suggested cooking times for each recipe. It also gave us the first recipes in English for Brussels sprouts and spaghetti!

That means we have been creating dishes by following those line-by-line lists of measured ingredients and detailed directions since the Victorian era. However, In the past decade, there’s been a move toward quicker and easier ways to make meals. A move toward recipeless recipes. In 2007, Marc Matsumoto started his web site NoRecipes.com with the motto: “No recipes: Cooking is more fun without them.”

In that same vein, this month’s recipe, is recipeless. I guess you say that the recipe is in the title: “Green and Yellow Beans with Prosciutto and Pine Nuts.”

Let’s Have Some Fun
How do we keep the color in a vegetable and still cook it to be tender? Here’s a tried and true method – blanch the green and yellow beans in a large stock pot of well salted boiling water until bright in color and tender crisp, roughly 2 minutes. Then, plunge them into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process and set the color. Pull them out and set them aside. You could use them as they are in a mixed salad or as a cold bean salad, dressed with some lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper.

A Toast to Nuts
Toast some pine nuts in a dry pan over medium-heat for a few minutes. Keep shaking the pan or stirring the nuts until they are golden. Don’t let them sit still in the pan for too long or they’ll toast unevenly and can easily burn. Remove them from the pan as soon as they are golden so they don’t continue to cook. I like to toss them with a little fine salt at this point.

That’s the Way the Prosciutto Crumbles
Now let’s crisp up some thin sliced prosciutto. Add slices to the same pan you used to toast the pine nuts and cook the prosciutto until crisp. Watch it close as it cooks – it can burn quickly. You may need to do it in a few batches. Drain it on paper towels, then crumble the prosciutto and set it aside.

Pull It All Together
You now have the dish just about finished. You can set it all aside and pull it together just before sitting down to eat – that’s one of the things I love about this dish.

Ready to eat? Let’s go. Warm some olive oil, or butter, in a pan over medium-heat. Add the green and yellow beans and sauté them until they are warm or until they start to char a little. Just don’t cook them into that mushy zone. Plate them, top with the toasted pine nuts and crumbled prosciutto. Add a little coarse sea salt to taste. But remember, the prosciutto adds some saltiness.

Variations
Use this recipeless side dish as a starting point and make the dish your own. Here are some variations you can try.
• Use thin slices of pancetta or bacon instead of prosciutto
• Add lemon zest as a topping
• Substitute toasted almond slivers for the pine nuts
• Serve the dish chilled with a little oil drizzled over it