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Minnesota impacted by E. coli outbreaks
The Minnesota Department of Health said five Minnesotans became ill in relation to an E. coli outbreak linked to organic carrots.
ST PAUL, Minnesota — The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) is warning people to get rid of any recalled organic carrots in their homes.
On Nov. 16, Grimmway Farms recalled multiple sizes and brands of bagged organic baby and whole carrots. While the products have likely been pulled from shelves, they could still be in people’s refrigerators and freezers. Specific information on brands and sizes affected can be found, here.
Nationwide, at least 39 people have been infected by the Shiga toxin-producing E. coli O121:H19 outbreak in 18 states.
Five Minnesotans, ages 15-44, became ill between Sept. 21 and Oct. 6. One person has been hospitalized. No deaths have been reported. MDH said the illnesses were linked to eating organic carrots purchased from Costco, Target and HyVee and brands included Good and Gather, Bunny Luv and Cal-Organic. Minnesota is one of the states with the highest number of cases.
The news comes just three days after MDH sent out information on E. coli infections linked to burgers at Twin Cities restaurants. MDH said it had identified 10 cases of E. coli 0157 infection in people who had eaten burgers at multiple locations of Red Cow and one case from Hen House Eatery. The ground beef was also distributed to other places so more cases could be identified. Those sickened by the burgers had their meals between Oct. 31 through Nov. 7.
Symptoms typically include stomach cramps and diarrhea, often with bloody stools, and a low-grade fever or no fever.
“That investigation is very much ongoing. We’re in the very, very early stages of the outbreak and it is, in a way, kind of unusual for us to go public so quickly because there are a lot of things that still haven’t been sorted out,” said Carlota Medus, MDH epidemiologist supervisor of the foodborne diseases unit.
Between these two cases and other recent news, it seems E. coli and other foodborne illness outbreaks keep popping up in the news. But Medus said, “It’s pretty average. A pretty typical year.”
According to MDH data, year to date in 2024 there have been 84 cases of E. coli 0157 (the strain linked to the ground beef illnesses). That’s compared to 86 year to date in 2023. However, it is higher than 2021’s 69 cases and the 62 in 2022.
MDH said they just happen to be dealing with two high-profile cases at the same time where there’s a call to action.
“We have a lot of outbreaks in Minnesota and all over the country. We investigate an awful lot of outbreaks and the majority of them, we can actually put interventions in place so quickly that we basically end the risk to the public. So when we go public, it’s because we want the public to do something,” Medus said.
When it comes to the E. coli infections linked to ground beef, Medus said, “We wanted to do public notification because if you are getting sick about now or very recently, you could still reach out to your health care provider and your health care provider can decide if you need additional care.”
She went on to say, “That investigation is still ongoing. So if you’re eating at a table service restaurant and you’re going to eat a hamburger, ask for it well done until we have more answers.”
Regarding the E. coli outbreak linked to organic carrots, Medus is urging people to check their refrigerators and freezers for any recalled carrots and throw them away.
Medus recommends avoiding any cross-contamination while cooking at home. MDH is also warning people as norovirus season begins to help prevent illness by washing hands and not preparing food for others while sick.
The popular restaurant organized a silent auction, raffle, and offered free bowling for the night.
ST. LOUIS PARK, Minn. — It’s been over two months since a drunk driver allegedly killed two people and injured several others at Park Tavern. Owner, Phil Weber and his staff organized a Celebration of Life on Monday for server Kristina Folkers who was killed in the crash.
“I wanted this to be more of a positive way to remember and honor her,” Weber said.
Weber said time has healed some wounds but they’re still feeling her loss and probably always will.
The event featured a silent auction with high-demand items like an autographed Justin Jefferson football, to a rare and expensive kind of whiskey. All of the proceeds will go directly to Kristina’s children.
Weber is grateful for the community that has continued to support them. The online fundraiser accounts pulled together over $300,000 between Kristina and Gabe Harvey who were killed, and three other Methodist Hospital nurses who were seriously injured.
“From all over the country, people just expressing the sympathy. People donated to the GoFundMe me doing this. It’s been unbelievable how much support we’ve gotten,” Weber said.
In October, a judge granted the driver who crashed into the patio conditional release before his trial. His next hearing is Dec. 10.
Jin, a member of K-Pop supergroup BTS, can be seen wearing a University of Minnesota sweatshirt in his newest music video. Demand for the style has already spiked.
MINNEAPOLIS — The University of Minnesota bookstore got a lesson in the global appeal of K-Pop in the past few days.
Fans of Jin, a South Korean pop star and member of the boy band BTS, spotted him wearing a maroon University of Minnesota ‘Block M’ sweatshirt for a few seconds of his latest music video and within hours, the requests started coming in.
“We’ve even had some customers coming in asking for the sweatshirt,” said bookstore director, Neil Olness, who was alerted to the sweatshirt shortly after the music video was released three days ago. “Some have been pretty persistent, checking with us every day. We were just really surprised that an international star would be wearing a vintage Minnesota sweatshirt.”
Though the design was instantly familiar to Minnesota fans of the K-Pop star, it didn’t take long for Olness and his team to realize that the specific sweatshirt Jin wore in the video isn’t readily available right now.
“I think it’s from the early 2000’s,” Olness said, “We haven’t been able to narrow it down but it’s 20-plus years old, is what we’re thinking.”
Because the University of Minnesota still owns the license to the style, he says it is now working with vendor, Champion, to recreate the viral look.
“Everybody wants to know when we’re getting it in stock and it is a little defeating knowing we don’t have it right now, but we’re working hard to get it in store,” Olness said. “And we should have it in a few weeks so that we can give fans what they want.”
It’s a similar story to what unfolded several years ago, when a vintage Minnesota Science Museum sweatshirt appeared on the hit Netflix series, Stranger Things, leading to viral demand that the museum was eventually able to capitalize on.
“With Stranger Things, we really saw what is possible,” he said. “Right now, we’re just getting the artwork and everything as close as possible and we hope to have a release date soon.”
In the meantime, you might want to check your closets.
“It’s just your classic Minnesota M,” said Jimmy Giese, store manager for Smile Back Vintage located in Stadium Village. “We’ve seen that (sweatshirt). We’ve had it in here several times.”
Unfortunately, Giese said he doesn’t have one of the sweatshirts in stock right now. He said prices for that specific design is likely to jump considerably. He said popular musicians can drive a lot of demand for vintage styles, something they’ve currently seen happen with another piece of familiar clothing.
“A lot of hip-hop artists have been seen wearing very specific Carhart Detroit jackets,” Giese said. “Over the course of probably the past 18 months, the value on those has doubled, just because it’s popular in pop culture.”
And since Jin’s video has already racked up nearly 7 million views in three days, who knows where the Minnesota ‘block M’ market is headed.
“Yeah, if you’ve got one of these, I’m sure they’ll have a link on this story to the music video, you can bring it down (here), we’d love to buy it from you,” he said.
If you’re looking for one of the sweatshirts for yourself or a K-Pop fan in your life, check the University of Minnesota bookstore website and social media accounts for the latest information.
Food shelves across the state are seeing an increase in demand for their services because of inflation and a rise in the cost of living.
Food Shelves across Minnesota are stocking up in anticipation of more shoppers.
The Food Group reports there were 7.5 million food shelf visits last year, and they expect that number to grow by one million by the end of this year. They say inflation and overall increase in living expenditures is the reason for the big increase.
“This is unprecedented. We saw a 35% increase in the number of households who are coming to access the food shelf, 60% of the visits are brand new families,” said Executive Director of Prism Food Shelf Marketplace Michelle Ness.
She said they have 300-400 visits a week.
“We’ve got people from over 120 cities in the state of Minnesota that will come here to PRISM,” she said. “This is the busy time leading up to Thanksgiving, leading up to the holidays. We always see more people coming through the door.”
Ness doesn’t expect the need to slow down, and neither does Stephanie Lehman at Anoka County Brotherhood Council (ACBC) Food Shelf.
“I’ve worked in this kind of industry for over 10 years, and I’ve never seen anything like it and it’s really, it’s really hard to watch our families going through it because, we have a lot of, most of our families are hard-working, trying to make it, and it’s just not enough,” Lehman said.
She said they serve around 2,000 families a month. She said they have doubled the number of people serving from two years ago.
“We see a lot of people who are just on the bubble, never have needed a food shelf before and now they need it, so we’ve really seen our numbers go up. We’ve served 30% more families than this time last year,” she said.
Lehman said they rely on the community to help keep their shelves stocked. She said donations are down, but she knows it’s a difficult time for many people.
“We are in this kind of weird thing where we are trying to manage less food from the grocery stores, manage the influx of people and then manage the donor retention,” Lehman said. “We get a lot of food from grocery stores each day and we’re really tried to grow that program because what’s happened is the grocery store giving has declined so we try to add stores to compensate.”
She said they have increased their monthly food budget, so they can continue to provide for the community.
“We have really increased our budgets and especially for culturally appropriate food as well as the demographics of our food shelf has shifted it’s been really important to us to try and manage that with our food purchasing,” Lehman said.
Ness said their budget has doubled over the past two years.
“We spend about $20,000 a month purchasing food. We also get donations from locally grocery stores, community members and congregations,” she said.
Ness said their ability to serve thousands of families a month is because of the support they receive from the community.
“We’re able to do this work because the community supports us, so we’re carrying out the will of the community by helping others,” Ness said. “I worry that folks think somebody else is making a donation or being engaged and the reality is we need so many more people to help.”
Both women said they don’t want to change the shopping experience for their families and encourage people to donate what they can no matter how little.
PRISM will be the New Hope Hy-Vee on Tuesday Nov. 19 to fill a truck of donated food. ACBC will be having their Thanksgiving food distribution on Friday to help around 500 families.
Both organizations said they are looking forward to Give to the Max Day this Thursday, Nov. 21 to help replenish their shelves.
“It’s so much more than a bag of a food, and we know that bag of food or cart helps to stretch budgets and that’s exactly what families need right now,” Ness said.
