The College’s 2010 Montgomery County Local Food Guide is only the most recent example of the connections the Quality of Life in Indiana grant has built between Wabash and communities of the Hoosier State.
Laura Conners didn’t expect her talk to the first Wabash Women’s gathering of the fall to lead to anything, much less a defining achievement of the College’s recently concluded Quality of Life in Indiana grant.
“I was speaking to them as the facilitator of the grant, and also an artist and mother who has lived here a long time and is interested in living and eating in a healthy way,” Conners says. “The grant gave me the opportunity to be on the road more often, and I began to find some local gems. I wanted to tell these women about them.”
She opened with a Top 10 list of reasons to eat and buy locally, then finished with a handout of 10 “off the beaten path” food source recommendations.
“This handout is intended to get you started building a local food network of your own,” Conners told the group, listing “local gems” like Juniper Spoon local food catering in Darlington and the Tranquil Ridge Farm CSA (community-supported agriculture), which al-ready have many customers on the Wabash campus; and Moody Meats in Ladoga, where Bon Appetit, the College’s food service, buys much of its meat.
“At the end I said nonchalantly, ‘What we need is a local food guide.’”
Three women—local high-school teacher and Visiting Professor of Teacher Education Amy Gillan, new Crawfordsville resident Kathleen Novak, and Wendy Feller, recognized statewide for her expertise in wool and weaving—approached Conners.
“Each of them said, ‘The food guide is a great idea. I’d like to help.’ I said, ‘Absolutely.’”
The women asked local food entrepreneur Lali Hess, gardener and Associate Professor of Biology Amanda Ingram, Joy Dugan and Ed Sheldon from the Montgomery County Extension Office, local farmer Nate Parks, and Wabash Students for Sustainability President Will Logan ’10 to join them. They knew they were doing things right when Roy Ballard of the Hancock County Harvest Council spoke to the group’s second meeting.
“He shared how they had done a similar project, but he also said we’d already taken the most important first step—bringing together producers and consumers in the planning stage,” Conners says.
With Ballard’s guide from the Harvest Festival as a template and Conners’ son, Nolan, penning the illustration, the Montgomery County Local Food Guide was ready by March for distribution at the Montgomery County Lawn and Garden Show, where it was enthusiastically received, and at the annual extension meeting, where it found its way into the hands of almost 100 people. On campus, Public Affairs Marketing Specialist Kim Johnson wove the guide into her talk to the Mont-gomery County Association of Human Resources.
“It has taken off like gangbusters,” Conners says. “People are excited about it. One realtor even wants Nolan’s artwork painted on one of the downtown buildings!”
While the county’s farmers and consumers glean benefits from the guide, Conners notes that making the Wabash community aware of these resources is good for faculty recruitment and retention, too.
“Our incoming younger faculty expect this. This is the do-it-yourself group, this is their lifestyle, and they are raising their children this way. They need to know these resources are here.”
The local food guide was only the most recent of hundreds of connections the Quality of Life in Indiana grant has created during its four-year run, which included internships in local and regional businesses and nonprofits (see sidebar), presentations by Wabash students to schools and others about the state’s natural and cultural resources, and trips for faculty, staff, and students to cultural events in Indiana.
“The long-range goal of the grant was to raise awareness about cultural resources in Indiana, then offer incentives to faculty and students to learn more about them, with the idea that, as they became more knowledgeable about these resources, they would teach others,” Conners says.
The local food guide does exactly that in print.
“It’s a good feeling. The grant may be ending, but these internships, events, and the guide are resources and connections the grant has provided that will continue beyond its end this year. It’s our community, and there’s so much here that people don’t realize. People don’t know how to network, and these were places to start.”
