Star Tribune
Microgrants help Somali sambusa maker Hoyo and other food startups scale up
“Hoyo” is the Somali word for mother.
When sisters Mariam, Halima and Asha Mohamed launched Hoyo in 2015, their goal was to employ Somali women making a much-loved Somali snack: the deep-fried, beef-filled pastries known as sambusas.
Since that time, Hoyo has grown into a local food success story, serving 200,000 sambusas a year at schools across Minnesota. Hoyo sambusas are also sold in co-ops and supermarkets.
The business is one of 12 local food producers that recently received microgrants from the Market Entry Fund (TMEF), a St. Paul nonprofit that works with food and beverage producers from underrepresented communities.
TMEF’s micro grants program provides $5,000 to $20,000 grants to food startups. The goal is to help small businesses overcome barriers in the packaged food industry.
This year’s recipients included a range of food producers, including Taiwanese sausage maker Linko Food and Junita’s Jar, which sells cookies at Target.
“The only reason that we are still here and survived is really the support of these people who are still with us, helping us as we speak,” Hoyo co-founder Mariam Mohamed said. “Any ethnic group or any person who’s starting a food [business] you have to have support, people who know the food, who are in the food industry, people who can guide you.”
Kayla Yang-Best, TMEF president, said the grant program started in 2019 and was born of necessity.
The University of Minnesota has installed temporary fencing on a bridge to reduce the risk of suicide attempts.
The installation comes about a year after Kayla Gaebel died by suicide on the the Washington Ave. Bridge. Gaebel’s mother, MJ Weiss, sparked efforts to install barriers on the structure, drawing in suicide prevention advocates.
The two-level bridge connects the East and West Banks of the University of Minnesota campus. Each day, approximately 20,000 pedestrians and 7,000 bicyclists cross the bridge’s upper level, where the fencing has been erected, according to a statement from University Vice President Alice Roberts-Davis.
The fencing blocks off one side of the bridge to prevent traffic. The other side remains accessible to bikes and scooters, with fencing extending the entire length of the bridge. An enclosed portion of the bridge remains open to pedestrians. The new fencing, which is estimated to cost $75,000 should not disrupt the flow of traffic, according to the statement.
The effort to make the bridge permanently safer continues, but the temporary fencing will save lives in the minds of suicide prevention advocates who had grown increasingly frustrated with the lack of action over the years.
Erich Mische, executive director of Suicide Awareness Voices of Education (SAVE), said he’s thankful that the university has addressed the issue.
A crisis line sign can be seen through a temporary fence on the Washington Avenue Bridge. (Ayrton Breckenridge/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
“This is an enormously powerful first step,” Mische said. “I give President (Rebecca) Cunningham a lot of credit for taking the leadership needed to make this happen.”
The bridge is owned by Hennepin County but generally overseen by the U — an arrangement that has complicated efforts to make structural changes to the bridge.
Weather may have contributed to a pair of wrecks that left four people dead Monday.
The first happened about 7:20 a.m. on Hwy. 210 at County Road 142 in Oak Lawn Township near east gate of the Brainerd Airport. The driver of a Dodge Ram pickup truck traveling west on Hwy. 210 slid across centerline and contacted a westbound Honda, the State Patrol said.
The vehicles collided head-on and came to rest in the south ditch, the patrol said.
A 47-year-old man from Deerwood in the Ram and a 67-year-old woman in the Honda died at the scene. Their names have not been released.
Two people died in a single-vehicle rollover crash about 8 a.m. in Bray Township in Pennington County. The driver, a 68-year-old woman from Grand Forks, N.D., and a passenger, a 62-year-old man also from Grand Forks, died in the crash on the 325000 block of Center Street, the State Patrol said.
Their names have not been released.
Snow- and ice-covered roads may have been a factor in both crashes, the patrol said.
In a one-day sale, tickets for the 2025 Minnesota State Fair will be available on Tuesday for $14.
“It’s the lowest price of the year,” an announcement on the fair’s website reads. “State Fair admission tickets make great gifts for all the fair fans on your list.”
Buyers should not forget about themselves, too, the fair said.
Tickets are available on the fair’s website, Customers are allowed to buy up to 12 tickets per order and are limited one order. Tickets will be delivered by email for printing at home or sent via text message for mobile download. The tickets can not be mailed.
For gift givers, the fair has included electronic holiday or general occasion cards on its website that can be printed out.
Sales are final and no refunds will be offered. The tickets will be good for entry on any day of the fair, which will run from Aug. 21 to Sept. 1.
Pre-sale for next year’s fair will start on Monday with tickets going for $15. Those tickets can be delivered by text or email at no additional cost. Pre-sale tickets can be mailed for an additional fee.
In 2024, tickets at the gate were $18 for adults and $16 for children 5 and older.
