(bright music) [Announcer] - On this episode of Postcards, - Faces are my specialty, or more so portraits.

I love capturing emotion and beauty.

I feel like every face is so unique.

- It's been extremely rewarding to be able to be a part of rebuilding my city, my community, the people that I love.

- They need a good solid bed and a nice mattress and a pillow.

They don't need junk.

They need something that they can have for many years.

(bright music) - [Announcer] Postcards is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

Additional support provided by: Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen on behalf of Shalom Hill Farms, a retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Windom, Minnesota, on the web at shalomhillfarm.org.

Alexandria, Minnesota, a year-round destination with hundreds of lakes, trails and attractions for memorable vacations and events.

More information at explorealex.com.

A better future starts now.

West Central Initiative empowers communities with resources, funding, and support for a thriving region.

More at wcif.org.

(gentle music) - Hello, my name is Catarina Orellana and I am a illustrator and digital artist.

(gentle music) I have been drawing since I was maybe three years old and I've always loved it.

That is who I am.

I love drawing.

(gentle music) This is the first book cover that I ever made someone.

It's for Nelsyn Carlson.

When I started posting on Instagram, I had a few posts go viral and she reached out to me with a commission request and I was a little nervous, but I took it and it just turned out so beautiful.

Social media, I feel like is just such a good place to find your start.

You can be anywhere in the world.

(gentle music) I mostly do commissions for books.

I have worked with Harper Collins, I have worked with Penguin Random House multiple times, a variety of independent authors.

I'm currently working with a Australian author on a couple of pieces for their upcoming novel.

I'm very excited about that.

I definitely prefer digital artwork.

There's just so many options.

You can do so much with it, which I think is just wonderful.

There's all sorts of software that you can use.

I have Mr.

Ollie, he's a good cat though.

(playful music) When I draw, I escape into it.

I'm just able to draw for hours without realizing, and I genuinely love the work that I do.

I don't see it as a nine to five at all.

(playful music) Faces are my specialty, or more so portraits.

I love capturing emotion and beauty and hair.

I feel like every face is so unique.

I'm able to do a lot with that.

And I love, like the old JC Leyendecker style.

That's one of my favorites, like with the body language and like the coloring and just how everything is set up, that is my favorite illustration style.

So when you're an artist, you're always growing, you're always learning new techniques and I really try to do that every day.

I'm always drawing every single day.

(bright music) I am half Guatemalan.

I know some of my heritage.

I did grow up in a bilingual household, so I do speak both English and Spanish.

Here in Willmar, Minnesota.

It's a lot of people say my name as Caterina or without the accent, but growing up my name was always Catarina and I resonate with that.

My amazing parents, they really supported me and all of the artwork that I did.

And then I have my amazing AP art teacher.

This was the first art class that I took when I was in high school.

Her name is Jessalyn Canavan, most amazing teacher that I've ever had.

And I got a award of excellence.

It was for tri-state art competition and I won first place.

(bright music) I feel like I just love these creative jobs.

I bake two mornings a week, usually, at my favorite place other than home here with my family, and that is Lulu Beans coffee house.

(bright music) I go in really, really early and I get to bake the rolls and the cookies and the muffins and I just love doing that.

I have a artwork display there.

We have a area, a special room for artists that also work there.

So a lot of my fellow baristas, they have some of their artwork pieces there.

I have mine there.

So this is the art piece that I created for Lulu Beans specifically.

Someone who actually works here posed for me and I really love it.

(bright music) I had a cousin reach out to me, I guess I had made a card when I was pretty young.

I was around maybe like three or four years old, but they sent a card.

"We always knew you were destined for great things.

We can't wait to see where your art takes you.

Keep following your passion.

Much love, Kari."

I had so much family love and support around my artwork.

I was always given the tools and the time and the resources to do so and this is proof of that.

I'm very happy to share this with you today.

There was a piece that I created, a portrait of a woman crying when I was really low after had my daughter.

I drew that to signify what I was going through as a postpartum mother and that helped me in some ways.

I feel like it's hard to do anything as mom.

(laughing) There are obstacles and battles that come with having a career and also raising a child.

But my daughter gives me so much inspiration and hope.

Being a mom and choosing to have a career and parenting, there's always going to be that struggle in balance.

But I always try to make my daughter a priority in my life.

This is my fiance, Colton, and we've been together for about eight years.

- Yeah.

- He's been a huge support of all of my creative endeavors.

He could be at work, but I'm happy that he stayed home.

So yeah.

- Yeah, not gonna miss this.

(soft music) - I had a great aunt who was an artist herself and she genuinely loved the craft and she loved that I loved to draw and create.

She unfortunately died due to cancer when I was pretty young and I still continue to draw because of her and I know that that is what she would want for me, so I'm doing what I can show her that I can do this.

(gentle music) (engine running) (bright music) - Am I not supposed to be here?

- [Worker] No.

- I didn't know what was happening.

- [Worker] You look awkward.

- I thought I was supposed to stand here.

I'm gonna use a cart, but I'm not ready yet.

- My favorite part about the co-op is the people that come in.

(gentle music) Hi Cindy, come on in.

- Hello.

- Good morning.

We're open.

Come on in.

- My grandma got this one.

- It's alright.

And here comes our big produce delivery.

Do you want me to pause?

My name is Jessica Rohloff.

I'm the manager of the New London Food Co-op.

The New London Food Co-op is a community owned grocery store.

We're owned by approximately 300 some member families.

In New London, we had a grocery store for over a hundred years, then we went 15 years without a grocery store.

So we knew as a community that if we were going to have a grocery store, we would have to build it, so that's what a lot of people did.

- When the co-op came to the community and opened, it was a a great asset to our community.

My name's Rachel Mitchell and I am a food co-op board member and I do the member communications.

The last week's newsletter was about dried beans.

The values that the co-op stands for are pretty in line with my personal values and so I was really happy to be asked to plug into the co-op and use my set of strengths to be able to make this a successful place for years and years to come.

This one has a child lock on it because we had a little tiny fan of these little marshmallows that found their way before anyone could catch them.

It was kind of funny timing.

It really coincided at a moment in which the larger grocery store that I had been shopping at got rid of their natural food section.

It just became really challenging losing that and then having to go back to hunting and pecking and looking at labels and trying to understand where things came from and what was in the food that I was eating.

- One of my favorite chocolates is this one.

- [Interviewer] Oh, you like the dark chocolate, huh?

- I like this one.

- I like this one and this one.

- [Interviewer] Is it pretty sour?

- Yep, they are.

- Some of 'em are.

- These ones are a little bit sour.

- [Interviewer] Sour.

- My mom was one of those people in the beginning that was sort of questioning like, how come we can always have a municipal liquor store, but it's so hard to have a grocery store in these little towns?

Opening this was part of her dream and desire and she passed away in the pandemic.

So it's sort of interesting because it did take those believers, those early adopters to make it happen.

- Mangos.

- So some people don't think that you can buy the majority of your groceries at our food co-op because of its size.

It's, (speaking Spanish) But actually, I buy almost all of my groceries at the co-op every single week.

- We have soap that's made in Minnesota.

We have chai that's made in Minnesota - Whole Grain Milling Co is a really cool brand.

They're out of Welcome, Minnesota, outta Southern Minnesota.

- [Jessica] We partner with the Red Lake Nation and feature some of their products in the store.

- In the past, I've used these for gifts where I've put some of the syrup, one of the jams, and then they also have fish batter and quick bread mix.

- We also partner with Colfax Farms.

I literally drive by their cows every day.

- This whipped honey is from B2B, they're outta Mankato.

But if you put this on a bagel, your dreams will come true.

- That's been one of the great joys of this work has been sort of discovering those Minnesota producers.

- There's certain things I just always get here.

- They ask me my favorite product.

I couldn't answer the question, Jessica.

- I know, I'm like, can I say everything because it's everything.

- I live in Montevideo and we lost our grocery store.

I can buy groceries at Walmart, but I'd rather support a local business.

- My jobs here, I do a lot of things around here.

Maybe half of the ordering.

I'm just gonna put both of them out.

- Yeah.

- And we'll see which one sell faster.

Anything on the computer, you know, cleaning, disinfecting.

I love this place.

I'm here probably more than anybody else and customer interactions probably one of my favorite things.

Rick, where'd you get these from?

Oh, the box?

You did, didn't you?

- Did you dig into a box that you shouldn't have?

- I did.

- Lots of good stuff here.

I love it.

I'm proud of what we've brought in and what we've like narrowed down that our market likes right now.

And then bringing in some fun items for people you know, that they may have never had.

Definitely.

Pickled garlic, I thought that would be a bigger hit.

- I would say the most challenging thing we face right now as trying to do a community grocery store is that the food market has consolidated to the point where most people walk in a grocery store and they don't realize that 95% of the products are made by like three companies.

So they think they're getting all this choice and they're not really getting a choice and they don't really have a voice because the company is so big that even if customers said, "I want you to make this salad dressing in a more responsible way where workers are treated with dignity, where, you know, you actually think about your environmental impact."

It doesn't matter.

The company's too big.

They could lose every single customer in our town and not care about us.

But with this store, if somebody says, "Hey, I think we should really prioritize this value."

Well, we have to listen to that.

Our pork, our beef, our chicken, most of our dairy, eggs, they all come within 50 miles of the co-op.

And I think that if you told random people in our community, they wouldn't think that that was something that is possible to do.

This food co-op is an outlet for so many local farmers to be able to continue to do what they love in the way that they love to do it and continue to farm in their integrity and with their values.

- It's important that people have access to healthy food.

We really do believe that.

And co-op is something different because it allows people a place to come together as community because everybody's responsible for it.

Like it's not my co-op, it's our co-op.

And that gives people a sense of belonging, which I think is something that people are really craving right now.

And our store is definitely a place where the entire community connects.

We're very intentional about the things we do here.

We have member meetings four times a year.

It's really about being able to nourish people, to create a sense of community, a place where they belong, a place they're always gonna be welcomed.

And so, I guess, it's been extremely rewarding to be able to be a part of rebuilding my city, my community, the people that I love, and that I think is the path back for rural America.

I'm very happy to be doing something about that.

- Thank you again.

- Yeah, bye.

- As I was leaving, there was a little boy there and I turned around and said, "Where do you sleep at normally?"

And he goes, "I sleep there behind the couch."

And I went over and looked and behind the couch and against the wall, he had a pillow and he had a blanket back there.

And I didn't realize it till after I left that it isn't so much that was his bed, but that's where he was safe to sleep at night.

Those kind of things hurt a little bit.

(bright music) Our program is called Help Tuck Them In, and what we do is we bring beds to kids is our main objective.

We've been doing this for two and a half years now, and we have built a pretty good program here.

- And there is a nationwide program out there that is called Sleep in Heavenly Peace.

I came back here and was talking to Joe about it and he goes, "God, that's really a neat program.

I think that's something we could do."

And then one thing led to another, and before you know it, here we were making beds.

(drill whirling) - All of our beds have to be vetted to see and make sure that this is a need for these children, which in most cases it is.

It's always the same line.

When and where do you need them and how many?

And what are the ages and the sex of the kids, so that we give them beds that are appropriate and we give them bedding.

They all get a nice quilt and a pillow and a stuffed animal.

(gentle music) - We also provide cribs.

We cannot build the cribs because there are so many specs that we cannot even get close to making the cribs.

So we buy all the cribs and the guys put 'em all together.

We have delivered as of today, 291 beds and 20 cribs.

(gentle music) - We also bring along gift cards to grocery stores because when we'll go into a place, we'll look at the counters, we'll look at the refrigerator and we'll go, "There's no food here."

We have a full set of pots and pans and dishes and glassware and silverware that we also carry with us.

And if we see that there's a need for that, we bring that in there.

(phone buzzing) - I do all the lining up with the social workers, all of that kind of stuff.

Greg does an amazing job at cutting out all the wood.

George, I don't know where I'd be without George.

I can call him in the morning and he has them assembled by the afternoon.

Joe is amazing at lining up whatever we need to line up.

He's kind of the in between.

(bright music) - At my shop, before it gets here, we do all the cutting, pre-drill all the holes, so it's easy for everybody to put together and deliver and then comes over here to George.

- And then we sand and stain everything here.

We've got a lot of volunteers, groups.

I think one day we had 40 people in there.

(bright music) - The generosity of the people, our local community, has been amazing for this project.

The majority of our money is coming from local people, local organizations, local businesses, and that is what is amazing, the people that'll show up.

And even well just put an ad up Anybody that wants to help, people will walk in.

I know that one day there was a couple that came in and we had no idea who they were.

They were from Walnut Grove and they just wanted, he did some woodworking over there and he goes, "We heard about this and we just want to help."

These kids have suffered enough.

They need a good solid bed and a nice mattress and a pillow.

They don't need junk.

They need something that they can have for many years.

And we're hoping that these beds that we've given out in the last two and a half years are still there.

- I pride us on having a 24 hour turnaround.

So if somebody needs to leave a spot immediately in the middle of the night or whatever, all I gotta do is call these guys.

We are loaded and we are on the road.

- Yeah, we're gonna deliver two beds here to Fulda today to a couple of little kids.

- The guys provide the trucks, they donate their own vehicles, their own gas because they feel that what we are doing is making a difference in children's lives.

- We are a family.

We have seen things and we have been involved in situations that I think a lot of us would like to forget.

We have delivered beds to mothers who had to leave in the middle of the night.

We just delivered some beds to a family that their house burnt down and the mother died in the fire and it was a father and three little kids.

And we got a call on that and we just said, “When and where?” (gentle music) It's very rewarding for us.

We'll talk about it and we'll go, "This isn't something you want to quit."

- And we go into places, eight, nine, 10-year-old kids never had a bed.

This is the first bed they've had, so a lot of excitement.

- One of my greatest memories of us delivering a bed, it was actually here in town.

It was a single mom who had two little kids and the little girl was sleeping on an air mattress and she waited by the window for us to arrive.

She saw us and she was super excited and the guys carried in the bed.

He got it all set up and Joe turned her and said, "Well, I gotta know now if I've built it right or not.

He goes, you have to jump on this bed so it doesn't fall apart while I'm right here so we can fix it."

And she just screamed with delight.

There is nothing better than that.

It just, it melts your heart.

It absolutely melts your heart.

(gentle music) When you go into a home or an apartment and they literally have the cheap outdoor furniture as their furniture, and they have no beds, they have no dressers, they have nothing.

I grew up, I always had a bed, my family always had food.

I grew up very, not well to do, but I grew up in a very safe, loving environment and these kids don't have that.

- It changes us and I'm amazed at how much it has.

It has made me kinder and more generous.

I know, in my life.

We've always said, if we can change the life of one child, we have succeeded in this program.

- When you can walk in and provide them with that kind of security and that kind of, yes, there is somebody that cares about me, yes, there is somebody that's gonna provide this bed.

That's the driving force right there.

(bright music) - [Announcer] Postcards is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

Additional support provided by: Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen on behalf of Shalom Hill Farms, a retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Windom, Minnesota.

On the web at shalomhillfarm.org.

Alexandria, Minnesota, a year-round destination with hundreds of lakes, trails, and attractions for memorable vacations and events.

More information at explorealex.com.

A better future starts now.

West Central Initiative empowers communities with resources, funding, and support for a thriving region.

More at wcif.org.

(bright music)