Helping Communities Heal: Jessica Manivasager

Responding to Civil Unrest

JESSICA MANIVASAGER

Fighting injustice takes many forms. Some people take action through the law; others by protesting for the rights of the disenfranchised. Some, like Rose McGee, provide comfort by baking sweet potato pies. Several years ago, after watching the unrest and riots in Ferguson, Missouri, Rose wondered what she could do to help. She decided to do what became a calling–bake sweet potato pies and drive them from Minneapolis to Ferguson to help feed people. That action not only helped feed the people there; it created a lasting opportunity for Rose to provide comfort to others.

In 2015, McGee organized Sweet Potato Comfort Pies as an event on the weekend of Martin Luther King Jr. Day in which volunteers gathered in a church kitchen to bake sweet potato pies. They made 86 pies, representing the age Dr. King would have been that year. The next day, community members gathered to share the pies and tell personal stories, an event meant to foster dialogue about race. They have repeated the event each year since 2015, building in small changes as they learned what worked well. Rose continues to bake her signature sweet potato pies and deliver them to those in need, including to those impacted by other shootings and acts of violence.

This past year, Jessica Manivasager assisted Rose in incorporating and obtaining 501(c)(3) nonprofit status for Sweet Potato Comfort Pie, which will allow Rose to expand her work and continue her mission of bringing comfort to others. Jessica also assisted Sweet Potato Comfort Pie in partnering with Rush City Bakery to make sweet potato pies available for purchase and to make the pies available to a wider audience. Jessica introduced Rose to an insurance broker who is helping Sweet Potato Comfort Pie identify and properly insure its activities and manage risk. Courtney Thompson and paralegal Annette Peterson-Igbinovia also assisted with trademark and corporate matters.

“We all have something that we can do, and we want to find what that is and tap into it in a positive way… Sweet Potato Comfort Pies are meant to be this catalyst for caring and building community.” – Rose McGee

Rose McGee, Sweet Potato Comfort Pie