Essentia Health spotlights garden partnership to fight food insecurity

Essentia Health used Community Health Improvement Week to highlight a Twin Ports produce partnership that is feeding families facing food insecurity and poor nutrition in Superior. The effort centers on the Solid Rock Supplemental Food Shelf Garden, where the health system works with the Lake Superior Master Gardeners of Douglas County to grow vegetables that are donated, not sold, and routed through Northwest Community Action.

The project has become a steady source of fresh food for households that need it most. Volunteers grow more than 2,000 pounds of food each year, and roughly 500 families receive fresh produce every week. That makes the garden more than a symbol of community service. It functions as a practical nutrition pipeline in a region where access to healthy food can be uneven.

Essentia’s current community health planning for the Superior service area explicitly includes support for the Solid Rock Supplemental Food Shelf Garden. In its 2025 community health needs assessment, Essentia defined the assessment area as the Superior School District and said the work was shaped by 259 survey participants, 209 lived-experience stories and an eight-organization community health needs assessment committee. The assessment area covers a population of about 43,150 people in Douglas County.

Tara Nichols, a community health worker with Essentia, said access to fresh fruits and vegetables is invaluable because people who rely on food shelves should be able to count on healthy options. Millie Rounsville, chief executive of Northwest Wisconsin Community Services Agency, said partnerships like this matter because they provide practical nutrition support. Russell Habermann, Essentia’s community health program manager, said volunteers and community champions keep the effort going.

The garden fits into a broader strategy that Essentia says reaches well beyond hospital walls. The health system says it has more than 20 years of history investing in communities across Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin, and it ties that work to community health needs assessments. Its latest reported fiscal-year community contributions totaled more than $539 million for July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025.

Essentia’s 2025 Superior plan also calls for increasing access to local produce and supporting community gardening at the Solid Rock site and the Superior Douglas County Family YMCA. In Duluth, the system’s 2025 community health needs assessment also pointed to fresh-food initiatives, including a Produce Prescription Program. For Superior, the message is clear: fighting hunger and preventing diet-related health problems starts with reliable access to vegetables, not just medical care after the damage is done.