HAPPY CONSTITUTION DAY!

Constitution Day is an American federal observance that recognizes the adoption of the United States Constitution and those who have become U.S. citizens. It is celebrated on September 17, the day the U.S. Constitutional Convention signed the Constitution in 1787 in Philadelphia.

Make a plan to vote on November 7.

This year local elections will be held on November 7 and Augsburg has made election day a holiday during which classes are canceled so that all eligible voters have time to vote. The office of the Minnesota Secretary of State has sample ballots and information about voting. If you have questions feel free to reach out to the Sabo Center staff, we’d love to help.

Written by Imogen Page, MSW Intern with Campus Kitchen

On the ground floor of the Anderson residence hall, the Augsburg Campus Cupboard is buzzing with activity. A student worker reminds fellow Auggies to grab a box or a bag for their free groceries, and around 15 students are shopping in Augsburg’s free food cupboard.

Today, there is plenty of fresh produce – salad greens, apples and pears, onions and potatoes in addition to fresh herbs and berries. A refrigerator stands full of milk, yogurt, cheese, and dairy alternatives, and a freezer contains frozen chicken, ready-to-eat meals, and tortillas. The week before, the cupboard distributed a shipment of halal beef, goat meat, and salmon. Students browse canned goods, fresh bread, dried beans, pasta, and rice in addition to coconut milk, oil, vinegar, ketchup, fish sauce, Tabasco, and salad dressings. 

“These condiments literally kill, dude” one student says to his friend as they choose from the shelves.

This is all part of the daily routine at the Campus Kitchen, where a team of student workers, interns, and staff operate the Campus Cupboard six days a week. We’re always busy – whether unloading boxes of produce from our trusty old van, stocking shelves, distributing hot meals and groceries to our neighbors, or cooking together in the food lab. 

Abi Hilden at the Augsburg Echo recently covered Campus Kitchen’s work, interviewing student worker Heldon Centellas about the cooking workshops, grocery distribution, SNAP application help and other work we do in our community.

“During the summer and fall months on Saturdays, we glean leftover produce from local farmers at the Mill City Farmers Market and redistribute it to our neighbors at Riverside Plaza! On Fridays during the majority of the year, we help distribute free produce to our neighbors there!” shares Centellas. In addition to these seasonal efforts, Campus Kitchen “[has] a community garden for people to grow their own food behind the Hagfors building, meal deliveries to Ebenezer Towers and Bethany Church, serving warm food at the Brian Coyle Center, provide assistance in SNAP applications, host giveaways, have open Food Lab hours, offer Cupboard online orders, and more!”

Our work at Campus Kitchen is possible because of support from Augsburg’s community. With growing food insecurity in our communities and the rising price of basic essentials, we need your help to keep providing nutritious food in our community. Your donation today helps to keep our community well-fed, healthy, and thriving. You can give here, and designate your gift to “Campus Cupboard.”

What happens at Day at the Capitol?

Register here by Wed. Feb. 22 at 11:59 p.m. to learn first-hand how legislation is made and meet your legislators.

When signing up for the 2023 Day at the Capitol, you can also join Advocates for Minnesota Student Aid to receive occasional (a few times a year) legislative updates and action alerts on important issues facing Minnesota and federal financial aid.

The group from Augsburg will take the light rail to and from the Capitol together. There will also be an optional pizza night on Tuesday, February 28 to meet other advocates from Augsburg and get ready for your day of civic engagement.

The Sabo Center’s Campus Kitchen program invites you to support our 2022 Give to the Max fundraiser. This year, we are raising funds for two important initiatives: The Augsburg Campus Cupboard and food access programming in Cedar-Riverside.

First, the Campus Cupboard provides free groceries to Augsburg students. Campus Cupboard use has rapidly expanded in the last three years, in response to increased food insecurity among Augsburg’s diverse student population. In 2019, an average of 50 students visited the Campus Cupboard to pick up free groceries each week. By September 2022, that average increased to 220 students per week. We regularly receive feedback from our students that the groceries we provide make a huge difference in their ability to access high-quality, healthy foods. Many students and their families now see this service as a critical piece of meeting their basic food needs.

In order to expand this work, we are raising funds to purchase culturally appropriate food items for our diverse student population. With your support we will be able to offer a wider variety of foods, providing our students with the specific staple foods they request regularly.

Second, we are seeking support for our food access and education work in our surrounding community of Cedar-Riverside. The Campus Kitchen program provides free meals, fresh produce, and cooking programming for our neighbors in Cedar-Riverside. A $60 donation covers supplies needed for one cooking class for neighborhood youth. Your donation will make a significant difference in our ability to meet the growing and diverse food needs of Augsburg’s student body and our neighbors in Cedar-Riverside.

Please support this work with a donation here.

Thank you for your generosity.

Tuesday November 8, 2022 is election day and the Sabo Center is here to help you get registered and make a plan to vote. There are no classes at Augsburg on election day so you’ll have time to do your civic duty and have your voice heard.

Need help?

Need help getting registered or learning about what’s on your ballot, finding information about candidates, or making a plan to vote? Sabo staff and student election volunteers will be available in the lobby of Christensen Center during the following times.

• Tuesday, October 25, 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
• Wednesday, October 26, 10:30 – 11:30 a.m.
• Tuesday, November 1, 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 pm.
• Wednesday, November 2, 10:30 – 11:30 a.m.
• Monday, November 7, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Keith Ellison on Campus November 1

Want an opportunity to hear directly from Minnesota’s Attorney General? Keith Ellison will be visiting Augsburg on Tuesday, November 1 at 11:30 in the Christensen Center’s East Commons. Come hear from Keith, get your election questions answered, and grab a cookie.

Write a note to legislators to support education funding

The Minnesota State Grant program provides financial support to nearly half of all undergraduate
Minnesota residents attending college in our state — including Augsburg students. To make sure the State Grant program continues, your legislators need to hear from YOU!

Augsburg and the Minnesota Private College Council invite you to write a short note to
your legislator to help ensure you and future generations of students continue to receive this
crucial support. We’ll provide everything you need.

Christensen Center Lobby on November 1, 10:30 am. – 1:00 p.m.

Happy Constitution Day!

235 years ago the Constitution of the United States of America was signed on September 17, 1787, and nine months later it was ratified and became the official framework of the US government. When the Constitution was signed, the United States population was 4 million. It is now more than 332 million. The Constitution was signed in Philadelphia which was the nation’s largest city at the time, with 40,000 inhabitants.

The National Constitution Center is hosting a Constitution Day Celebration on September 16 and 17th. Some of the events include:

• A live-streamed reading of the Preamble
• A Congressional conversation on Common Ground and Compromise
• A virtual walking tour of historic Philadelphia
• and much more.

Make a plan to vote on November 8.

Midterm elections are coming up and Augsburg has made election day a holiday during which classes are canceled so that all eligible voters have time to vote. The office of the Minnesota Secretary of State has sample ballots and information about voting. If you have questions feel free to reach out to the Sabo Center staff, we’d love to help.

Happy Constitution Day!

Every September we celebrate Constitution Day to learn more about the Constitution of the United States of America and understand its importance in history and our lives today.

“The Constitution acted like a colossal merger, uniting a group of states with different interests, laws, and cultures. Under America’s first national government, the Articles of Confederation, the states acted together only for specific purposes. The Constitution united its citizens as members of a whole, vesting the power of the union in the people. Without it, the American Experiment might have ended as quickly as it had begun.”

Did you know that 2021 is the 50th anniversary of the ratification of the 26th Amendment, which lowered the national voting age to 18 and banned age discrimination in voting?

This is just one of many issues that are covered in this country’s founding document. Voter discrimination and voting rights are critically important issues in our democracy today, just as they were 50 years ago. To learn more about the 26th Amendment, join the Students Learn Students Vote coalition on Constitution Day — Friday, September 17 — with a virtual celebration of the 26th Amendment hosted by the Center for Youth Political Participation at the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University.

Constitution Day 2021: Fulfilling the Promise of the 26th Amendment

Friday, September 17, 2021    12:30 PM CT     Register here

Lastly, if you live in Minneapolis, make a plan to vote on November 2.

The League of Women Voters hosted a Mayor Candidate forum on September 13, you can watch a recording of it here. If you need help with registration or figuring out where to vote, contact us at the Sabo Center. You can find out more about what’s on the ballot here.

Many incredible student leaders have worked with Augsburg’s Campus Kitchen (CK) program over the years. Current CK student leaders Alana Goodson and Chouneng Khang interviewed several CK alumni to learn more about their experiences with the program. 

Yasmin ‘2015: Biology Major and Religion Minor

What sparked your interest in Campus Kitchen?

• I wanted to be a part of helping our neighbors in need. 
• I love what Campus Kitchen stands for! I admire its mission to serve the community that surrounds the campus by making healthy food accessible.

What was your role with CK?

• My role was to help build sustainability and capacity building. I recruited volunteers, organized events that educated others about food equity and provided ways people could access healthy foods.  
• I attended food deliveries at sites like Ebenezer Towers and Brian Coyle. 
• I hosted an event where I invited special speaker LaDonna Redmond, a food justice advocate to discuss issues surrounding food equity. 
• I helped with fundraising through Give to the Max for Campus Kitchen. 
• I explored different modalities for volunteers to participate in reflection so that volunteers get a chance to understand the impact of their volunteering. 
• I worked in the community garden. I coordinated with gardeners about their plots and addressed any issues that they had.  

 What were some of the highlights of your time with CK?

• I attended the Food Waste & Hunger Summit in Arkansas. I learned about different ways we can combat ending hunger and poverty. It was a fun road trip! At the end of my year of service, I also presented at the 2016 Nonprofit Leadership Conference about my experience with Campus Kitchen and Health Commons. The theme of the conference was courageous engagement across differences which fit perfectly with my experience!

• I learned leadership, communication, time management, planning & organizing, teamwork, conflict resolution, empathy, adaptability & flexibility, networking, and cultural awareness.

What are you up to now? How does it connect to CK?

• I’m attending the American University of Antigua School of Medicine. I’m currently in my 3rd year of clinical rotations in New York.  
• Working with Campus Kitchen solidified my pursuit in working in community health and focusing on serving underrepresented communities. 

Advice for current, future, past CK interns/volunteers?

• Get to know the community you’re serving by building relationships. Take time to listen to community members’ stories– their stories matter.
• Don’t be afraid to ask questions if you have any cultural or religious differences when making food and delivering food with the community members. They love having conversations with students. 

Yearlong student seminar exploring civic and public life.

The Sabo Scholar program provides a unique opportunity for students to engage in civic life, study the political process, work on public policy, and explore careers in public service. The cohort meets on Thursday nights for academic seminar and civic engagement project work with the cohort.

Current Augsburg students (any level) who plan to study on campus both fall and spring semester next year and who have an interest in politics, community, and civic life are encouraged to apply. To be enrolled in the Sabo Scholars course you must plan on studying on-campus for the entire school year (i.e. not going abroad or student teaching for part of the year) and be available for the class period on Thursday nights. Any eligible student is welcome to enroll in the course whether they receive the scholarship or not.

Benefits:

• Unique opportunities to explore civic engagement and politics as a cohort
• Earn upper-division credit (4 credits) in the Political Science Department
• Seminar setting that is small and supportive
• 2500 scholarship (this has been increased from the previous $2000 amount)
• Opportunities to formally develop civic leadership skills

Apply here to be a member of the 2022/2023 cohort.

Ask your recommenders to fill out this recommendation form.

The Sabo Scholars is one of three public leadership scholars programs at Augsburg. Email Professor Andy Aoki with questions about Sabo Scholars.

Also, please check out the Christensen Scholars and the Interfaith Scholars.

Augsburg’s commitment to community service and engagement is long-standing and deeply held. Since 1992, day undergraduate students have participated in service projects on City Engagement Day, even before they’ve had their first class. The COVID-19 pandemic requires us to press pause on City Engagement Day this year, but our commitment to community building is unwavering. Instead of sending hundreds of incoming students out to serve Minneapolis neighborhoods and organizations, we are encouraging students, faculty, and staff to engage with their local communities in ways that are meaningful to them personally. 

For those looking for local options for engagement, Sabo Center staff members have compiled this list of local opportunities for community service. We will update this document as we learn of new opportunities, and we have not vetted every one, so take care in considering COVID-19 safety practices, the organization’s capacity to host groups, and other key questions.

If you’d like to suggest an addition to this list, please email us at sabocenter@augsburg.edu.