News Center

Feb. 12, 2016 – Allegheny College will host a talk by Ben Hewitt, author of “The Town That Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food,” on Friday, Feb. 19 at 7 p.m. in the college’s Ford Chapel. The event will focus on how communities can work together to develop a strong food system that supports both people and natural resources. Free child care will be provided.

The following day, a panel discussion on regional food systems will be held from 10:30 a.m. to noon at the Lew Davies Community Center, 1034 Park Ave., in Meadville. Attendees will hear from leaders throughout the region who are working to make their own local food systems more sustainable, building their local economy through agricultural industry, and making local and healthy foods more accessible.

Joining Hewitt as panelists will be Emily Best, general manager at Tuscarora Organic Growers Cooperative, a farmer-owned co-op of more than 45 certified organic family farmers in central Pennsylvania; Sophia Buggs, farmer and owner of Lady Buggs Farm, an urban farm in Youngstown, Ohio; Molly McHolme, Allegheny College Class of 2011 and garden educator at Grow Pittsburgh, an urban agricultural education organization in Pittsburgh; and Gianna Cioffi, general manager at Lake to River Food Cooperative, a member-owned cooperative of farmers, producers, processors and buyers who grow, prepare and add value to healthy foods for families and institutional and commercial buyers in the Youngstown region.

The talk and the panel discussion, which are free and open to the public, are part of Allegheny College’s Year of Meadville programming, a partnership between the college and the community that is focused on building a sustainable and just future. For more information about the panelists, click here.