Today we continue our series on Food and its impact on the environment, our health and our communities. We’ve had some great discussions with guests who promote local food, produce local food, and connect local food throughout the community. Food plays a significant role in most of our lives when you take into consideration the time we spend buying it, preparing it, and eating it. It provides all of us with the opportunity to make small changes with our daily habits that can have a positive effect on our health, the health of our communities, and the health of our planet.
We continue to highlight the benefits of buying locally and this morning we are focusing on an exciting new market in the metro where you can buy locally grown food and other products raised and made by local students. As mentioned in a Des Moines Register article, “It’s a classroom, it just looks different,” Kevin Anderson said of the market. “We do want this business to be sustainable. We want it to be profitable because we want to teach kids how to actually run a business.”
Today our guest is Kevin Anderson, Animal Science and Horticulture Instructor at Des Moines Public Schools’ Central Campus. Kevin was the visionary behind the new student run Central Market.
Tune in to the podcast to learn more about this student run market offering local food and products on Des Moines’ south side.
Key Takeaways from our discussion:
- Central Market has enabled an opportunity for students to integrate agriculture, business, and sustainability into real life experience
- Students are able to see the opportunity and advantage of the small side of agriculture
- By teaming up with DMARC’s Food Pantry, Central Market is a near zero waste entity
- Incorporating aquaponics into the growing system onsite, illustrates the ability to minimize water use
- Central Market works closely with other entrepreneurial business’ in the community, emphasizing the importance of local connections
- Central Market serves as ‘Agriculture with a Story!’
- The customers really enjoy knowing where their food comes from
- When you are buying your food, ask questions
“Family Farms and Small Businesses are the
Backbone of our communities.”
~Tom Allen
“When you buy something made by a person,
There is something special there,
And you do feel it.
The consciousness with which a thing is made
Is often more important than the thing itself.”
~ J. Donald Walters
“One person can make a difference and
Everyone should try.”
~John F. Kennedy
Thank you for listening to today’s discussion. Let’s continue the conversation and learn from each other.