Kenyon College food exhibit wins 2006 History Outreach Award

GAMBIER, Ohio (September 13, 2006)

An exhibit organized by students in Professor of Sociology Howard Sacks's "Fieldwork: Rural Life" seminar at Kenyon College last year has received the 2006 History Outreach Award from the Ohio Association of Historical Societies and Museums. Exploring all facets of food production, distribution, and marketing, "Where Does Our Food Come From?" debuted in May at Kenyon. Following a weeklong display at the Knox County Fair in July, the exhibit will travel to the Centerburg Oldtime Farming Festival on Saturday and Sunday, September 16-17, and then to the 4-H Family Fun Day sponsored by the Ohio State University Extension-Knox County at the Knox County fairgrounds on Sunday, September 24, from noon-4:00 p.m.

"It's looking at the whole food system, from farm to table," says Sacks. "Every time we exhibit it somewhere, we get three more requests to exhibit it." The display will also be featured at the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association conference in Granville on March 3-4, 2007.

"One of the goals of the project was to identify the ways in which where our food comes from has shifted," Sacks says. Made possible by a grant from the McGregor Fund of Detroit, Michigan, a year's worth of research went into the exhibit, which is part of the College's Food for Thought initiative. Sacks's students conducted more than 75 interviews with Knox County farmers, as well as with auctioneers, business leaders, beekeepers, orchard owners, truck drivers, and nutritionists.

Food for Thought is an ongoing initiative that encompasses numerous programs, all designed to build a sustainable local market for foods produced in and around Knox County. Directed by the Rural Life Center at Kenyon, the collaborative effort "provides farmers with dependable alternative markets for their food product," Sacks says. "For consumers, it provides fresh, healthy sources of food, and increases available variety and nutritional value." The farmers' market in Mount Vernon is a very visible aspect of the success of these efforts. And Kenyon is renovating its main foodservice area, Peirce Hall, to accommodate the processing of more fresh, local foods. "It's the first college dining facility to be built with a local-foods initiative in mind," Sacks says.

Food for Thought originated in 1994 as the Family Farm Project, spearheaded by Sacks, who had just received Kenyon's first National Endowment for the Humanities Distinguished Teaching Professorship. "Knox Countians spend over $100 million on food every year," Sacks observes. Keeping as much of that money as possible circulating within the county benefits everyone. Besides "Where Does Our Food Come From?", projects originated by the Rural Life Center include "Homegrown," a guide to local food products, which was originally produced in 2000; "Foodways," a 2001 publication that examines the many ways that food impacts the community and includes favorite recipes of local residents; and the farmers' market in Mount Vernon.

"I see a great deal of interest in efforts like this nationally," Sacks says. "This is part of a growing movement to support local-food initiatives. But Kenyon is unique in that we're trying to develop a county-wide system for local foods. It's complex and ambitious, but people are starting to see us as a model for the country."

For more information about "Where Does Our Food Come From?" and the Rural Life Center, vist the Rural Life Website.