Local Food Champion Nominees
Entrepreneurs for Sustainability
November 2005
- Maurice Small
- Maurice Small
- Harold Hartzler *winner*
- Albert & Medeana Hobar
Champion: Maurice Small – City Fresh and Cleveland Botanical Learning Garden
Nominated by: Stephen L. Tompkins, Co-founder, Buckeye Sustainability Institute
Maurice has continually been a bright light of sustainable ideas and enthusiasm. He's utterly selfless and tireless in his efforts to cultivate understanding of core sustainability concepts like organic agriculture at the grassroots, community level, especially with disadvantaged urban kids. This work is key to building the next generation of sustainability leaders.
Maurice walks the walk, day in and day out. I have no doubt that there are many others that have shared our experiences with Maurice and would echo these sentiments. Maurice is leading the charge!
Champion: Maurice Small – City Fresh and Cleveland Botanical Learning Garden
Nominate by: Hannah Baldwin
Maurice Small does more than just support sustainability, he lives it. NOt only is he a preacher, but also a practioner as well. Maurice should be respected most of all for praticing and acting on his beliefs in all aspects of his life. One can more fully believe in, trust in and follow a person who acts upon their beliefs as much as they talkk about them.
Maurice teaches the future geenerations about the importance of not only a healthy diet, but how to obtain a healthy diet from the ground up. Maurice's various projects include, but are not limited to, City Fresh, vermicomposting, Learning Center of the Botanical Gardens, and collaborations with Buckeye Sustainability Institute. City Fresh is a program that is trying to place city gardens every quarter mile or so in Cleveland. He has six started. He engages children to volunteer at the Learning Center as an after school project. Obtaining restaurants organic waste to use as food for his vermicomposting bins and selling the food grown from the compost back to the restaurants is a cycle Maurice is expanding. He also helps BSI take care of its worms used for vermicomposting. An organization which is engaging kids to learn about vermicomposting.
All of these projects help future generations understand where their food comes from, how they can be apart of the process and why the methods of obtaining the food are important.
I feel Maurice goes above and beyond what most people do for kids, especialy in the inner city neighborhoods.
*winner* Champion: Harold Hartzler, Hartzler Dairy
Nominated by: Amalie Lipstreu
Long before organic agriculture offered the high dividends it currently commands; in 1964 Harold Hartzler made the decision to stop using chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides on his farm. He saw the negative impacts the chemicals were having on the natural systems on his farm. A few years later he saw real improvements not the least of which was the return of worms and the many benefits they offer.
In 1990 the family came together and made the decision to market their product at the retail level. As a value added agricultural producer, Hartzler Dairy offers many milk products, rolled butter and egg nog (during the holidays). Now selling at over 75 local grocery outlets, these chemical free products not only nourish Northeast Ohio, but they also keep prime agricultural land in sustainable production. The Hartzler family has been a leader in connecting the general public with sustainable, local agriculture.
Champion: Albert & Medeana Hobar, Web of Life
Nominated by: Elaine Barnes, Cleveland Green Building Coalition
When I started grad school in 1993, I made a cardinal rule for myself, "No food enters my mouth unless it is delicious."
I am proud to nominate Albert and Medeana Hobar (Web of Life) as 2005 E4S Champions.
For at least the last three years, they have brought delicious, healthful, and creative vegan foods to our major events. They have been flexible, sensitive to our budgets, and delighted our guests with some of the heartiest most tasty vegetarian food around. Following catered events, they donate the left over food to local food pantries.
Web of Life catered my housewarming party in September. It was a terrific way to christen our home and treat our guests who arrived from all over the country. Albert made my life much easier that weekend so that I might enjoy our visitors for the short time they were there rather than worry about cooking.
The Hobars and the Web of Life store epitomize a sustainable business: a sound and needed enterprize; a business that improves the health of the community through education and demonstration; and a sincere passion for their work.
|
If we're successful, we'll spend the rest of our days harvesting yester year's carpets and other petrochemically derived products, and recycling them into new materials; and converting sunlight into energy; with zero scrap going to the landfill and zero emissions into the ecosytem. And we'll be doing well ... very well ... by doing good. That's the vision.
- Ray Anderson, Founder and Chairman of Interface
|
email this page to a friend
Reflection