Local Matters is a nonprofit organization working to expand the availability of local food in the community of Central Ohio and making the harvest of this food supply system equally accessible to everyone.
Our belief is that everyone has a right to eat flavorful, fresh, locally grown food that is produced in a sustainable manner. Our definition of a sustainable food system is one that “meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
Ohio Farms are the backbone of a local, community food system and the survival of small to medium size family farms is critical to the expansion of a local, community food system. However, farming is more than animals and food crops. It is a complex web of products, producers, distributors and consumers, each depending on the other to move products from the “farm to the fork.”
Local Matters works with the farm community by encouraging them to grow more edible food crops and offers ways that this food can be more successfully sold in the marketplace. We also advocate and facilitate market opportunities for farmers with the local business community, focusing mainly on schools, restaurants and grocery stores, by educating the business community about the advantages of purchasing more locally grown foods.
These days, if you ask most school children where their food comes from, you’re either likely to get a blank stare or a quick answer of, “The grocery store”. If you ask parents what their most common complaint about the school their child attends, somewhere in the conversation you’re likely to hear about their perceived poor quality of school lunches.
Local Matters’ Local Food to School Program was created to address both of these issues by putting children more in touch with the source of their food and over the long term, influencing the quality of school lunches by encouraging a connection between the school and local farms.
The Local Food to School Program enlists the School faculty, parents and other interested members of the community to literally “dream” how the components of the program are to be constructed. Typically, an edible garden brings nature into the educational environment and enables a richer curriculum that integrates indoor and outdoor learning. The playground can be deconstructed to include features like dry creek beds with natural spring-like water features, low grass ’serpent’ mounds, a ‘council-ring’ sand pit, a spiral edible garden, meandering permeable gravel pathways, and lush native plant communities including woodland, meadow and prairie plants indigenous to the location of the OLE. With these additional features, children have a more natural environment to explore and gain an understanding of other plant species that are necessary for a successful garden to grow.
A nutrition, health and wellness curriculum supports the outdoor environment in the classroom and creates the framework for interdisciplinary, collaborative, student-centered, experiential, and engaged learning. Students who participate in school garden projects discover fresh food, make healthier food choices, and are more physically active.
Eventually connecting the school with the farm community (Farm to School) further enhances the quality of the food in the school while creating a stronger connection for the students with the source of their food. This relationship also benefits the farm community by growing the local economy and preserving farmland through the growth of edible food crops.
In the early 1900’s, most people got their food directly from the farm. Then, in 1916, Mr. Clarence Saunders opened the Piggly Wiggly in Memphis, Tennessee. This innovative grocery store not only provided the urban community with the convenience of purchasing farm raised food items right in the city, it also allowed shoppers to serve themselves rather than handing their shopping list to a clerk.
Today, unfortunately, the convenience of farm fresh foods is not available to many urban neighborhoods as many of the modern grocery store chains are not located conveniently to meet the basic food shopping needs of these communities. The citizens of these communities live in what’s called a “food desert”; an isolated area with no major grocery stores and a lot of fast food on practically every corner. Most have plenty of access to fried foods and very little access to fresh fruits and vegetables.
Local Matters works with underserved, urban communities in Columbus to grow their own food by planting large scale, edible food gardens and helps coordinate the efficient use of resources among these gardens. We also act as a resource for communities who want to plant, or have already planted edible food gardens by connecting them with other potential resource outlets, including the farm community and small business that can creatively fill the missing grocery niche.
We envision a network of shared resources among these large, edible food gardens and visualize them as a first step in the battle of obesity and diabetes that plagues many of these communities.
Local Matters advocates that the key to expanding a sustainable, local food system is “connecting the many dots” in the community that influence our local, community food system and makes the harvest from this local food system equally available to all central Ohioans. This holistic approach has led to our involvement in three primary program areas.
We have created a model for private and public schools that incorporates an on site, edible food garden and outdoor learning environment and also includes a health, wellness and nutrition curriculum. Students grow their own food, learn how it relates to the surrounding environment and then taste the difference between foods grown locally here in Ohio and food shipped in from hundreds of miles away.
Local Matters works with underserved, urban communities in Columbus to grow their own food by planting large scale, edible food gardens and helps coordinate the efficient use of resources among these gardens.
We also work with the farm community by encouraging them to grow more edible food crops and offer ways that this food can be sold in the market. At the same time, we advocate to create market opportunities for growers by encouraging the business community, especially restaurants and grocery stores, to buy more locally grown foods. In fact, in January 2008, Local Matters decided to create our own market for growers by opening a for-profit business in the Historic North Market called the Greener Grocer. The Greener Grocer is committed to buying directly from the farm community on a year round basis and to educating the public about the importance of buying locally grown food to support small to medium size family farms.
Expanding our locally grown, community food system is more than a commodity: it’s a comprehensive way to address many of the social, economic and environmental issues that affect each of us in Central Ohio and it’s also a flavorful way of creating community!
