In July of 2018, I walked through downtown Juneau, Alaska, with Midgi Moore, who founded and runs Juneau Food Tours. She took me and a handful of other tourists to a smattering of small restaurants, trendy breweries and outdoor waterside vendors selling everything from freshly shucked oysters to provisions like locally pickled kelp. I bought a few items to bring home, which I stockpiled for gifts. All joyfully received in subsequent months, I’m happy to say, by giftees who reported a newfound interest in visiting the 49th state.
This past April, with the pandemic in its nascent stage and Americans blissfully unaware of the devastation ahead, I received an email from Midgi notifying me that she launched a new enterprise: Taste Alaska! The subscription box service operated on the philosophy, “If you can’t come to us, we’ll come to you.” The boxes, also available as one-offs, contain a changing inventory of Alaskan food items, like reindeer sausage and smoked salmon. In every mix are visitor guides from different parts of the state and a Native Alaskan Ulu knife.
Taste Alaska! is one of the newer examples of a growing number of companies that act simultaneously as curators, agents and advocates for small artisanal businesses, affording everyone the opportunity to shop like a local, even when they aren’t. The pandemic has wreaked havoc on small businesses. In New York, a report by the Partnership for New York City projected a third of the 230,000 small businesses could close. If ever there was a time to shop independent, this is it.
With all the Scandinavian stereotypes that dominate Minnesota’s public image, it can be easy to forget that Minnesota is home to the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, the only American Indian tribe in the United States that grows and harvests its own wild rice on its land, or that Minneapolis is known as “Mill City” because it was once a hub for the grain industry (see: Kellogg’s and Post’s origin story), or that Minnesota’s nickname is the Bread and Butter State because of its dairy farms (Land O’Lakes started there.) That’s what Katie Sterns aimed to showcase when she started You Betcha! Box in 2017. The packages are designed around specific themes — happy hour; movie-night snacks; items from makers and chefs who are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) — and each one includes information cards for each product, ensuring you get to know the actual makers.
“It’s about embracing what makes a place unique. Food is part of our culture — of every culture. It’s so tied to place,” Sterns said. “People are understanding the importance of supporting local supply chains.”
