Common Table Recap 2025

Wow. What a year! After an engaging workshop, a facelift to the exhibit, and a growing sense of ownership within the space, we can feel the momentum reverberating throughout our Network and beyond. This year, we continued to honor the originators of The Common Table by building onto the existing structure, with leaves in the trees, signage reflecting multi-cultural and multi-generational experiences, and more opportunities for people to connect, interact, and see themselves as owners of our food system. The loss of our kind and fearless leader, Melvin Giles, was deeply felt within our community, along with other tragic challenges faced by leaders in our Network. This space remains a place of connection, where those positive, educational interactions allow us to foster a hopeful outlook for the future, where differences across race, culture, age, gender, expertise, and geography are bridged through food and its many faces.

With the support of our volunteers, funds from the Minnesota State Fair ($42.5K), and an external fund from Urban Roots (9K), we were able to achieve these high-level outcomes:

• Hosted a collaborative workshop for members of the Network to contribute to the exhibit in ways that reflect their lived experiences. This included hands-on activities, guided prompts for photos and information, and a round-table panel of leaders across our six driving actions. Complete with food and music for over 50 attendees!
• Educated State Fair attendees about their role in the system and how they can affect change they want to see. New signage updates made it more accessible and interactive, like new ways to take action (time, money, skills, relationships), a “what type of farmer are you?” section, and an updated scavenger hunt to guide visitors through the exhibit.
•  Increased connection to the elements of the food system, food justice, and visibility about the work of the Network partners and Action Teams (including organizations, community groups, BIPOC growers, local farmers, indoor growing, etc).
• Hosted hands-on demonstrations such as:
  • 18 locally sourced herbs for building “nice smells” bags with Urban Farm & Garden Alliance – touch and create
  • Healing is in Your Hands: Nurture a medicine baby with Natural Me Apothecary Leaf activity – people contributing to leaves on the trees
  • Daily Scavenger Hunt to encourage engagement with new elements in the exhibit and the six actions associated with it
  • Three dirt stage demonstrations, including cottage food law, regenerative composting, and local insects!
• Hosted a volunteer and exhibitor appreciation party one week following the State Fair’s conclusion where food, activities, and music were provided, hosted by our neighbors at The Peg!
• Sent out a feedback survey to contractors, exhibitors, and volunteers and received a total of 16 responses, many sharing gratitude and excitement for their continued involvement.
• Supported our local economy by distributing financial resources locally for contractors and vendors to provide materials and labor for exhibit updates, landscape design experts to grow and place over 100 plants along with signage, photographers and videographers to catalogue progress and engagement real-time, musicians and artists to amplify the space with creativity, food makers to nourish our Network partners, and exhibitors to provide activities and giveaways and manage volunteers.

Below you will find some high level statistics we collected about who attended our exhibit and some highlights from 2025.

Exhibitors and volunteers

• 16 different organizations across the Network showed up to exhibit in the space throughout the twelve days at the fair, each providing their own unique activities and giveaways in alignment with their organizational goals
• Almost all the volunteer shifts were filled by the first day of the fair, with some volunteers showing up almost every single day (this was a first, according to Floyd!)
• 375 tickets were distributed and used by volunteers and exhibitors occupying the space and educating our visitors

Scavenger Hunt

• 509 scavenger hunts submitted for prize drawings
• 9 different prize drawings from local organizations and individuals were awarded as incentive for the scavenger hunt

Exhibit Traffic

• Based on 10 minute snapshot counts, an estimated average number of daily visitors ranged from 9,300 to over 21,000, with a total of over 187,700 visitors throughout the fair.
• Mornings (9-12) are the busiest and evenings (6-9) are the slowest

Some highlights from 2025

“First time volunteer and I was simply impressed with the exhibit, how interactive it was, and people’s response to it. Thrilled I could be a part of it.”

“A highlight was the youth engaging with the other volunteers and meeting someone who actually donated to AFC (Appetite for Change)”

“Going to the State Fair and seeing the planters as a fair-goer rather than the person who grew them all.”

“I got to see the upgrades to the exhibit and love them! So well done. Content is right on, and the details are engaging and informative! Well done!!!”

“Capturing pictures of the people having fun and learning”

“…watching kids guess what they were looking at under the microscope Spark-Y (we) brought! Asking them questions and helping them use what they already know to figure out they were seeing algae was so fun!”

“My team had a blast, letting people know what Appetite For Change is, inviting people to Community cooks, and getting a chance to try some of the foods at the state fair.”

“Having demonstrators there everyday.”

“Fun to be with colleagues in that lovely space”

“People asking detailed questions”

“We had 324 people enter our giveaway drawing, which was almost double the number of entries we had last year!”

“Watching the people ask questions and learning about the different soils.”

“Beyond the guests at the fair, all of us had a great time interacting with the common table volunteers.”

“Walking through the space before our media event and observing people from all walks of life moving through the space, noticing where they pause to read and the number of stops they make on their way through.”

As for 2026, we hope to continue the momentum around what we’ve already created and find more opportunities for collaboration in story telling and interactivity.

With gratitude,

All of us at The Common Table and Metro Food Justice Network