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🌱 Federal grant keeps college guidance available for Mankato students

Mankato, Minnesota Patch AM: a 4 min read

Good morning Mankato! We're back in your inbox this morning to keep you in the loop with what's happening in and around town. Grab a cup of coffee and read on. ☀️

In today's newsletter:

  • Federal grant keeps college guidance available for Mankato students
  • Behind Mankato’s food rescue efforts, donors help fill the gaps
  • Mankato breaks ground on a new kind of vegetable farm

Also on today's calendar: Homemade Pizza and 9 more events.

Today's riddle: What are the two sides of a circle? 🤔 (Answer below!)

Weather forecast:

  • Wednesday: Times of clouds and sun, with a high of 55 and low of 33 degrees.
  • Thursday: Cooler with sunny spells, temps: high: 42, low: 27.
  • Friday: Partly sunny, with a high of 40 and low of 23 degrees.

📰 News we're reading

1. Educational Talent Search at Minnesota State Mankato Receives $1.735 million, 5-year grant from U.S. Department of Education (radiomankato.com) — Students at Mankato East, Prairie Winds and other southern Minnesota schools will keep access to college and career guidance through a new $1.735 million federal grant. The five-year award supports Minnesota State Mankato’s Educational Talent Search program, which serves 694 students and is expanding to Waseca’s junior and senior high schools.
   

2. Mankato Area Foundation supports food rescue, holiday lights and local nonprofits (keyc.com) — Donations through the Mankato Area Foundation are helping ECHO Food Shelf keep food cold and regional food shelves recover surplus produce. The foundation helped pay for a refrigerator and freezer at ECHO and is working on more refrigerated storage, part of its broader support for local community projects.
   

3. Ground breaks on microgreen facility in Mankato (keyc.com) — A $13.6 million indoor microgreens farm is taking shape in Mankato, with Verdant Organics aiming to open within a year and employ 50 people. Ground broke Tuesday on the 63,000-square-foot facility, which will have 60 growing rooms for vegetables harvested just weeks after planting.
   

4. Mankato pumpkin farm hopes to find new life after sale to Living Earth Center (keyc.com) — Mankato’s former Pumpkin Barn property is set to remain growing space rather than become apartments. Katy and Dave Wortel agreed to sell the 11.5-acre Pohl Road site to Living Earth Center for half its appraised value, preserving land they hope will help families learn to grow and prepare food.
   

5. SCC students offer groundbreaking food at Verdánt Organics ceremony (mankatofreepress.com) — South Central College culinary students gave Mankato’s new Verdánt Organics indoor farm a flavorful introduction, creating dishes with the microgreens and oyster mushrooms it plans to grow starting late next year. At Tuesday’s groundbreaking, investor and celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern praised their work, including a student’s spring roll he tried twice.
   

📸 Around Mankato

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🗓 Upcoming Events in Mankato

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★ Featured events ★

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📣 Mankato Shout Outs!

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Have we missed something on our calendar? Add an event yourself! As always, before attending confirm event details to ensure accuracy.

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💬 Chatter

What your neighbors are talking about on social media

  • I have been cleaning since 2019.
    I do homes, move outs/ins, commercial as well as specialty cleaning. I have recently moved back to Mankato and am excited to reconnect with past… (Nextdoor Sibley Park)
  • Arby's posted a job opening for Team Member in Mankato. Apply here.
  • Rolls-Royce posted a job opening for Assembler 1/Assembler 1 Line 1 in Mankato. Apply here. You can search for other jobs near Mankato here.

Ok Mankato! So now you're in the loop about what's happening today. Thanks for reading, and see you in your inbox next time! Oh -- and if you like what you're reading, invite a friend to Patch AM!

-- The Patch AM Team

P.S. The answer to today's riddle: "What are the two sides of a circle?" — The inside and the outside ! (Thank you James M. for sending it in!)
Got a good riddle for PatchAM? Submit it here!

👉 Help make Patch AM better

We use a combination of real people and machines to tell you what’s happening around town. Learn more about Patch AM.

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Stay in the loop with what's happening in Mankato

Never miss out on local news and events that matter to you.

Stay in the loop with what's happening in Mankato

Never miss out on local news and events that matter to you.