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In 2014, Rose McGee was feeling helpless. Michael Brown, a young Black man, had been shot by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo.

“So I was sitting there watching television and felt compelled to do something,” McGee said. “And that's when this voice came to me and said, make some pies.”

McGee baked 30 sweet potato pies, based on her grandma’s recipe. And she drove from her Minnesota home in Golden Valley to Ferguson.

One pie went to a family grieving not just Michael Brown’s death but also the family’s elderly father’s passing. McGee said the adult daughter and son unexpectedly started bickering over who got to keep the pie. But it was playful.

“They were squabbling over that pie like kids. But it was such a joyful thing, and it gave them pleasure to do that,” she said. “And I thought the pie brought them a moment of joy. Just, you know, out of nowhere.”

It made an impression on her and a pastor who was with her.

“He said, ‘I didn’t know what to think about you and these pies,’” she recalled. “‘But watching what just happened now helps me to understand what this is about. That was powerful.’”

The Police and Black Men Project

McGee took that insight back home and organized a meeting at her house. She shared her Ferguson experience to a group that included the mayor.

“We felt that, you know, if the pie had moved people that deeply, perhaps it could be a catalyst for making some changes in our own community,” she said. 

Sharing the pies could provide a context for discussing hard topics like race and policing. That led to the group to launch a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend celebration. It would become an annual event for McGee’s Sweet Potato Comfort Pie nonprofit.

At this year’s event in Golden Valley, a drum academy performed, and volunteers paraded through the event space carrying 96 pies, one to mark each year since Dr. King’s birth. 

McGee said every stage of the event has meaning. The day before involves prepping, baking and packaging the pies, which brings people together for a long day of work. It's an opportunity for deep conversations.

And then at the event, people connect in "story circles" around tables. 

The mother-daughter duo working to better Golden Valley and beyond

At one table, the mayor of St. Louis Park, Nadia Mohamed, shared a story about a time in 2017 when there was a bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia, where she’s from. She said she was distraught.

“That was a big time where I was hurting,” she said. “I felt like no one was checking in.”

Mohamed, McGee and the St. Louis Park police chief put together a community meeting — with sweet potato pies, of course — so people could talk about what Somali residents were going through. It made Mohamed feel much more connected to the local community.

Sweet Potato Comfort Pie’s other programming has included a speaker series and a mentorship program connecting Black youth and elders.

But its future is uncertain. McGee said the nonprofit’s finances have been shaky. It needs to raise more money. And it might have to hit the pause button on its operations.

“We can try our best, sometimes, to do our best, and yet we still can’t quite get it the way it should be, or we'd like for it to be,” said McGee. “But it doesn’t mean we give up. We have to keep going. There will be some burns along the way.”

She pointed to some burn scars on her arms from various baking mishaps.

“You will carry those marks with you forever, and those marks can help you remember. You can remember from whence you’ve come,” she said.

McGee said the pies have taught her those lessons, and she’s grateful for them.

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Rose McGee, the founder of the Twin Cities nonprofit Sweet Potato Comfort Pie, hopes her comfort food will help people connect and have meaningful conversations around hard topics like race.

Rattled by politics? Try some sweet potato pie

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