Nourishing Our Community

On October 29, the Northeast Indiana Local Food Network hosted the Nourishing our Community with our Local Food System conference to inform and inspire our community on ways we can work together to grow community health and wealth through food.

Keynote Speaker

Our Keynote Speaker was Alex Canepa, the Director of Policy at Fair Food Network, whose national leadership in nutrition incentives and food system impact investing has strengthened community food systems across the country.

Alex shared his valuable perspective on the past, present and future of the local food movement. He challenged the over 100 attendees to actively collaborate with one another to build strong regional partnerships that can seize the opportunities and address the challenges of creating a resilient community food system.

Keynote Speaker Alex Canepa from Fair Food Network.

Allen County Commissioner Richard Beck and City of Fort Wayne Senior Planner Sherese Fortriede shared their insights on the role and importance of community food systems as highlighted in the recent All In Allen Comprehensive Plan.

Panel Discussions on Key Impact Areas

The event featured Panel Discussions with Q&A on three key impact areas of our Community Food System:

Food Is Medicine

Local produce prescription programs are impacting community health with incentives to patients to increase their consumption of fresh locally grown fruits and vegetables.

Panel Host: Denise Hoff, Board Vice Chair, Northeast Indiana Local Food Network.

Panelists: Kathy Wehrle, Community Outreach Dietitian, Parkview Health; Dr. Matt Sprunger, Retired Physician, Board member at Neighborhood Health and Indiana Department of Health, and Amber Broxon & Justin Miller, Owners of BroxonBerry Farm.

Food Insecurity

Nutrition incentive programs such as Double Up Indiana impact community health by making it easy for families to use their SNAP/EBT card to double the value of fruits and vegetables they can buy at farmers markets and select grocery stores.

Panel Host: Jered Blanchard, Community Wellness Coordinator, Purdue Extension.

Panelists: Michelle Shippy - Food is Medicine Director, Indiana Department of Health; Logan Haffner - Impact Manager, Community Harvest Food Bank; Eric Manor - Assoc. Chief for Campus & Community Wellbeing at Purdue Fort Wayne; Yin Yin Moe - Burmese Workers Initiative, Worker's Project; and Mary Ann Mings - Inasmuch Ministry

Farm to School

Farm to School programs are growing across Northeast Indiana with nutrition & agriculture education, school gardens and local food procurement for nutritious school meals.

Panel Host: Kylee Bennett, Community Well-Being Manager, Parkview Health.

Panelists: Brianna Goode - Farm to School Coordinator, Indiana Department of Health; Felipe Guerra - Director Nutrition Services, Fort Wayne Community Schools; Matt Kurtz, Farmer with Kurtz Produce, and Becky Landes - Food Service Director, Manchester Community Schools.

Conference Impacts

Attendees at the Nourishing Our Community with our Local Food System conference shared with us how much they valued the opportunity to learn about the impactful work of the Fair Food Network and local food initiatives making an impact in Northeast Indiana.

Participants told us they were especially grateful to be able to connect with local leaders and community members from across Northeast Indiana, who shared their passion for growing the health and wealth of our region through food.

Conference participants shared that they were impressed by how many people were engaged in these topics and the extent to which people are committed to collaboration to strengthen our local food system.

Gratitude for Conference Organizers and Supporting Organizations

We are grateful to the Do it Best Foundation for the opportunity to host this conference in the wonderful Don Wolf Conference Center at Do it Best headquarters at Electric Works in Fort Wayne.

We thank Jain Young and David Greene of Plowshares at the Market for the delicious morning refreshments and amazing box lunches and soups featuring locally sourced ingredients.

We appreciate Riley Johnson and the team at Fort Wayne Community School's Amp Lab at Electric Works for offering a tour of their unique school that exists to create opportunities for students to explore their passions, apply their talents, and make our community a better place.

We thank the Indiana Department of Health for their generous support through a Regional Food System Partnerships grant from the USDA that made this event possible.

Finally the Northeast Indiana Local Food Network is grateful to the dedicated planning committee for the Nourishing our Community with our Local Food System conference. Working together, we organized an event that will catalyze the growth of our local food system to better serve our community.

Nourishing our Community with our Local Food System Planning Committee
Janet Katz, Founding Director, Northeast Indiana Local Food Network
Eric Beers, Senior Associate, Community Solutions
Jered Blanchard - Community Wellness Coordinator, Purdue Extension
Michelle Bojrab-Wray, Lead Community Outreach Dietician, Parkview Health
Cori Chatterton, Community Food Systems Manager, Indiana Dept of Health
Felipe Guerra, Director Nutrition Services, Fort Wayne Community Schools
Betsy Kachmar, Community Volunteer, Bread for the World
Eric Manor, Campus and Community Wellbeing, Purdue University Fort Wayne
Katie Savoie, Director of Development, Community Harvest Food Bank
Jain Young, Heartland Communities, Plowshares at the Market at Electric Works

Janet KatzNovember 21, 2024