Minneapolis Somali-language Food Safety Coalition wins Healthy10 Award

Feb. 23, 2017 (MINNEAPOLIS) A Minneapolis partnership around Somali food businesses has won a Healthy 10 award in the category of Healthy Environment from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. The foundation’s Health Means Business campaign honors American businesses and their partners for their strategic and sustained positive impact on the health and wellness of their employees, community, environment and society.

Somali restaurateurs are vital to Minneapolis’ business community and vibrant restaurant scene. However, many business owners struggled to meet the compliance standards critical to food safety because of language barriers.

Together, the City of Minneapolis Health Department, the local Somali community, GlobeGlow Consulting and Research, the Minnesota Somali Chamber of Commerce and food safety evaluators created the Minneapolis Somali-language Food Safety Coalition to help close service and equity gaps. By working together, policymakers gained a better sense of how to address cultural differences to communicate food safety issues with business owners and employees. They also gained insights into Somali business operations that helped the Health Department develop new best practices.

In Minneapolis, a city with a strong immigrant-owned business community, greater inclusion yields equal opportunities for health and economic success.

Healthy10

The Health Means Business Healthy10 Awards were created by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, as a way to honor 10 outstanding business-led initiatives or cross-sector collaborations between local businesses and traditional and non-traditional partners to improve community wellness and access to economic opportunity. Find out more about the program and the other winners here.