ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - In an Oct. 11 story about the end of a St. Paul project to promote the growing and cooking of local food, relying on information from the St. Paul Pioneer Press, The Associated Press reported erroneously that the nonprofit Urban Oasis won $1 million in a 2013 contest sponsored by the St. Paul Foundation for ideas on how to improve life in the city. An idea known as Urban Oasis won the contest, and $675,000 was distributed to the nonprofit Lower Phalen Creek Project to carry it out, with the remaining money going to another nonprofit. The Urban Oasis nonprofit did not exist until January 2016, when it formed to continue the work on the Urban Oasis project after the grant period for Lower Phalen expired.
A corrected version of the story is below:
St. Paul nonprofit to fold after winning $1M prize in 2013
A group that won $1 million to promote the growing and cooking of local food in St. Paul is disbanding after three years
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - A nonprofit that won $1 million to promote the growing and cooking of local food in St. Paul is disbanding after three years.
The Pioneer Press (https://bit.ly/2eodHIC ) reported that the St. Paul Foundation awarded the money to Urban Oasis in 2013 in a contest for ideas on how to improve life in the inner city.
St. Paul Foundation spokesman Andy Goldman-Gray said the foundation is sad to see the organization will no longer be running but that it’s glad some programs will still continue.
“We are disappointed that the organization will not be around,” said Goldman-Gray. “But we are happy to learn that the programs will be taking on new lives.”
Urban Oasis founder Tracy Sides said in a statement last week that the group will dissolve Dec. 31.
Her original idea was to transform an abandoned four-story building in the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary into a food workers’ cooperative, cafe, event center and commercial catering kitchen.
However estimated cost for her idea came in at $9 million. Later after realizing she could not use the land for her business, Sides decided to economize her idea.
Sides opened a street-corner kitchen in St. Paul with her winnings and launched programs that taught nutritious cooking and encouraged local food production.
Jon Pratt, director of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, thinks maybe due to the publicity Urban Oasis received, possible donors might have thought the business didn’t need any more help.
“Often, you have a great idea,” said Pratt. “So who else thinks you have a great idea? Who else could financially support this idea?”
Sides said the Urban Oasis business model was unsustainable and spent all of the contest money it received.
Goldman-Gray said the foundation does not expect a refund from any of the proposals even if they proved to be unworkable.
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