Last week we ran an article by Julie Kendrick on the remarkable work of Eat for Equity, the national nonprofit that was born when Minnesotan Emily Torgrimson made a pot of jambalaya, invited friends for dinner, and then hit them up for contributions to Hurricane Katrina relief. The idea--a healthy, delicious, locally-sourced dinner accompanied by a presentation by a worthy, justice-oriented charity or other nonprofit, with the hat passed--has mushroomed into a multi-city network.

As for E4E's local activities, they just get more and more interesting. On January 26, for example, the fundraising feast will be hosted by Winona LaDuke, one of our region's, and the nation's, most dedicated activists. LaDuke, who has championed the rights of indigenous people for three decades, and was Ralph Nader's running mate on the Green ticket in 1996 and 2000, will discuss the work of the nonprofit she founded in 1989, the White Earth Land Recovery Project.

The WELRP buys back White Earth reservation land that was sold to outsiders--this whittling away at rez land has been a major source of economic woe in the native community--and works to strengthen the community in a whole galaxy of other ways too, many of them food-related. The group promotes energy independence for Native Americans, maintains a library of native seeds, promotes and sells traditional foods, runs a healthy-food café, and  operates the first Native American radio station in the country, Niijii Broadcasting.

Meet LaDuke and cohosts Jerry and Mary Jo Bailey at the Skyridge Business Center and Nature Preserve in Minnetonka, and feast on Native American-derived delicacies: bison meatloaf, wild rice salad, maple-glazed squash. The beer is from Driftless Brewing in Wisconsin. E4E asks for a $15-to-$20 contribution (and as much more as you wish, of course). The best place to get the details is E4E's Facebook page.