Hunger Has No Color

Mural history

Artists: John Acosta, Richard Schletty, Armando Gutiérrez G.
Year Completed: 1985
Dimensions: 60 ft. wide x 12 ft. high

Location: South wall of Captain Ken’s Foods building, at 107 East Colorado Street, at intersection of So. Robert Street, 4 blocks north of Cesar Chavez Street (old Concord Street), on Saint Paul’s “West Side”.

Medium/Materials: Acrylic-latex house paints — used only primer colors dark brown and white. Original intention was to do the underpainting in grayscale and lay transparent washes of color over that (Bistre method). The grayscale painting by itself ended up having a remarkable strength without the addition of color…so we left it that way. That is in contrast to other West Side murals which are typically brightly colored.

Funding: COMPAS, Northern States Power, First National Bank.

Commissioned by: Emergency Fund Services (aka St. Paul Food Bank)…now known as Second Harvest.

Grant written by Anne Maertz.

Purpose of mural: Promote food shelf at Neighborhood House. Raise people’s awareness of the issue of hunger. Pictured are people from different nationalities working to eliminate hunger.

Miscellaneous: Commercial offset lithographic prints were made of the mural.

Dedication in 1985. L to R: Armando Gutiérrez, John Acosta, Mayor George Latimer, Richard Schletty, Dick Goebel.

Schletty posing in front of his portrait at 1985 dedication

People viewing new Hunger mural, 1985

2024 restoration of Hunger Has No Color mural

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The historic “Hunger Has No Color” mural is on the south facing wall of Captain Ken’s Foods building at 107 East Colorado Street, at the intersection of So. Robert Street, on Saint Paul’s “West Side”. This latest restoration, 39 years after it was first painted, brought back to the wall the original three artists: Armando Gutiérrez G., John Acosta and Richard Schletty.

L to R: Armando Gutiérrez G, John Acosta and Richard Schletty at mural restoration site in August of 2024, with inset photo of 1985 mural dedication showing three artists with Mayor George Latimer and EFS/Second Harvest director Dick Goebel.

The total budget for the complete restoration of the Hunger Has No Color mural was $17,000. The Saint Paul City Council approved a $13,600 Neighborhood STAR Year-Round Grant to provide the bulk of the funding.

Captain Ken’s Foods contributed $3,400 toward materials, equipment rental fees and artist’s labor (representing 20% of the total mural restoration budget).

Wall repair and water damage mitigation were completed by building owner Captain Ken’s Foods. This includes the installation of a heavy duty gutter above the mural (for protection from roof run-off of rain and melting ice and snow) and sealing of the roof edge flashing. The gutter replacement and flashing repair costs are building maintenance costs and are not included in the $17,000 mural restoration budget.

Work commenced in June of 2024 with scraping of loose paint and filling of cracks in the mortar between cinder blocks. The restoration was completed in mid September, 2024.

The complete restoration of the Hunger Has No Color mural has been a project of collective passion. It has been a rare opportunity due to the involvement of the mural’s three original creating artists – John Acosta, Armando Gutiérrez G., and Richard Schletty. The mural was originally created in 1985 and has been maintained to the best of our abilities since then for the past 39 years.

Please contact John Traxler at jtraxler@captainkens.com and/or rschletty@schletty.com if you have comments about the restoration or simply wish to express your appreciation for this long-lived mural. And please send any past photos or news clippings you may have related to the Hunger Has No Color mural via our guest book at hungerhasnocolor.com/guest-book.

2022-2024: Inspection, repair of gutter and flashing

The photos below, taken in the fall of 2022 and in 2023, show the fading that had occurred due to sunlight and the damage due to water freeze-thaw cycles. The gutter problem, as described in this document, has been fixed. A new heavy duty gutter has been installed by Captain Ken’s Foods (as noted above). In addition, the flashing behind the gutter was sealed.

2024: Scraping and seal coating

The photos below, taken in June of 2024, show scraping of loose paint and repair of loose mortar between the cinder blocks.

2024: Painting and final varnish coats

The photos below, taken June through early September of 2024, show the three artists repainting lost and faded figures, objects and background areas. We sealed the mural with two coats of gloss acrylic-latex varnish, followwd by an application of matte varnish to just the indented mortar areas between the cinder blocks (in order to reduce light reflections).

2010 restoration of “Hunger Has No Color” mural

Restoration work began in mid-September 2010. John Acosta and Richard Schletty restored weather-damaged areas. We gave the entire mural a “fresh-up” to restore sun-faded areas.

Funding for the 2010 restoration of the “Hunger Has No Color” mural was provided by Captain Ken’s Foods, The City of St. Paul Cultural STAR program, and the Riverview Economic Development Association.