Each month we ask our Team to share a few highlights of their regional food system work from their perspective. It’s hard to capture all of the meetings, Connections, farm visits, and meaningful conversations into one blog post, but a few highlights from October are below!
Mural, Brookville
Pete Vissar, SE Indiana Value Chain Professional
October has been another month of building connections throughout southeastern Indiana. Through Connections Meetings, conversations with farmers and outreach to community foundations and local organizations, Pete continues to find ways FARMWISE can help connect local farmers with buyers and opportunities in their communities.
One highlight this month was the Food & Growers Association event at the Batesville Farmers Market. With support from Southeastern Indiana REMC, 110 children received $5 each to purchase fruits and vegetables directly from local farmers. That put $550 directly into the hands of local farmers while giving children an opportunity to meet farmers, learn where their food comes from and experience the value of buying locally. It was a great way to support local farmers while helping kids build a connection to the food grown in their communities.
Throughout October, Pete also continued reaching out to farmers and organizations looking for ways to bring more local food into their communities. From growers interested in expanding production to schools looking for local produce and meat, along with senior services and food pantries exploring local food opportunities, there are many ways to connect local needs with the farmers who can help meet them. These conversations are helping identify new opportunities while also highlighting some of the challenges that come with local food purchasing.
Indiana Food Day, Jasper
Robin Kitowski, SW Indiana Value Chain Professional
This month, Robin traveled to Dubois County for the Greater Jasper Consolidated Schools Indiana Food Day celebration at Jasper Middle School, joined by Rachel Brandenburg of ISDA. Students played a fast-paced word game with Rachel and Robin, then had a chance to interact with local food brands they’ve come to recognize. Tell City Pretzels and Fischer Farms- both Dubois County businesses- were overwhelming crowd favorites, especially with Dave Fischer himself flipping ground beef sliders. Special thanks to Tim Stoner, his culinary team, and Jasper Middle School for hosting!
Sometimes you’re in the right place at the right time. In early October, Robin stopped by the Bloomington Farm Stop Collective for lunch and caught the moment when the first shipment of apples changed hands- producer Chester Lehman of Olde Lane Orchard handing off to Debbie Turner, a volunteer at Lost River Co-op and Cafe. Robin had connected these two as part of her FARMWISE work, and weekly apple deliveries continued throughout the month. It’s one of the many ways this work comes to life as we connect Indiana sellers and buyers.
As part of the Indiana Farm Business Consultant group led by Rachel Brandenburg of ISDA, Robin has been working alongside Rachel and Mark Tirey, co-owner of Bethel Lane Farm Stop, to help develop a growth strategy for the business. Since June, the group has met to refine the Monroe County farm stop’s business model, address the demands of running a modern food business, and outline prioritized steps to enhance the visitor experience- all while keeping local agricultural and food products at its heart.
Hawkins Farm, Allen County
Becky Landes, NE Indiana Value Chain Professional
October has been full of beautiful fall days, and Becky has made the most of them- meeting with farmers on their farms, attending the Local Food Throwdown and a Farm to School Summit, visiting a food bank, hosting Connections meetings, and tackling the variety of tasks that make up a VCP workday.
On one of those beautiful days, Becky joined a team from ISDA for a visit to Northeast Indiana. The day included a stop at Hawkins Family Farm to tour their wash/pack house, funded by an RSFI grant; a walk past the hoop houses with fall and winter crops growing; and a conversation around the kitchen table with Jeff and Zach Hawkins. The group then headed to Electric Works - a renovated industrial space that houses businesses and retail- for lunch with the team from Community Harvest Food Bank of Fort Wayne, before wrapping up with a visit to the food bank itself, where staff work hard to meet the needs of the communities they serve.
Becky hosted Connections meetings in Henry County at the original Jack’s Donuts in New Castle and in Wayne County at Legato’s Coffee House in Cambridge City. These gatherings are a great way to meet, connect, and reconnect with stakeholders across local food systems.
October is Farm to School Month in Indiana. Becky spoke with schools about their visions and plans for serving local food in their cafeterias, attended a Farm to School Summit hosted by The Longer Table, and collaborated with Sophie Lindley (IDOE and Indiana Grown for Schools) on a presentation titled “Making Local Procurement Work,” to be delivered at the Indiana School Nutrition Conference in November. Schools actively participating in Farm to School in Northeast Indiana don’t just source local produce- some also purchase local beef and pork. Adding local proteins to school meals requires extra effort from nutrition teams, but they’ll tell you it’s worth it.
One of October’s highlights was attending and helping with the Northeast Indiana Local Food Throwdown fundraiser. This chef competition invites guests to sample each dish and vote for their favorites across appetizer, entrée, and dessert categories- with competing chefs purchasing local ingredients and the contributing farms and farmers recognized for their role in each creation. It’s a fun evening filled with good conversation, a silent auction, raffle baskets of local food and beverages, and great food that celebrates our local food systems.
MCSC Indiana Food Week
Jen Musall, NW Indiana Value Chain Professional
In October Jen visited farms across the Northwest region from St. Joseph to Putnam Counties. These farms are engaging with their buyers and the community in different ways. From taste tests with local schools to a farm to table dinner highlighting local regenerative farms for Indiana business people. These events showed how local foods can connect Hoosiers, all while supporting local farmers and providing healthy scratch cooked foods.
October was also Farm to School month. Mississinewa Community School Corporation integrated Indiana Food Day into National School Lunch Week where they served Tell City soft pretzels, apple slices from Peterson Farms and lunchbox peppers from Kurtz Farms. These local items come from distributors and straight from the farm. Director of Food Service, Greg Miller, has been building relationships for over a year with the distributors and farmers to be able to bring these foods to the tray along with assistance from Jen, fellow FARMWISE VCP Becky, and Indiana Grown for Schools’s Anna Holloway.
Apple Crunch is ongoing throughout the region and Jen is continuing to connect schools with orchards and food hubs. Slaughter Orchard & Cidery is working to extend the season with modular controlled-atmosphere storage bins so schools can purchase apples throughout the winter. Jen is working with their Hainlen Orchard site in Howard County to connect them to more schools in the area. One school district is ready for a November Apple Crunch, but maybe more are ready to join in?
Recently Jen was reminded by FARMWISE Indiana Director, Jodee Smith, that we plant seeds as we do food systems work. And this month Jen was able to see one of those seeds start to sprout when she found out that a local dairy is now being carried by a food hub as the result of conversations that started at the Logansport Regional Wholesale Connect event in August.
Lastly, Jen had an opportunity to apply experience from when she worked in manufacturing to her FARMWISE work. Learn more at Farm to Workplace: A Resource to Serve your Workplace Community and maybe we can all plant some more seeds.
