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Schedule of Events
JOHNSON CITY – An East Tennessee Local Food Summit will be held on the campuses of Milligan College and East Tennessee State University on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 21-22.
This free public summit will bring together consumers, producers, students, educators, elected officials and “foodies” to discuss and promote local food in Northeast Tennessee.
Concurrent panel presentations kick off the event on Friday with panel discussions and speakers from 1:30-4:15 p.m. in Milligan’s Derthick and Hyder halls.
On Friday evening, the summit will move to ETSU for a 7 p.m. keynote address by Anthony Flaccavento in the Brown Hall auditorium. The Southwest Virginia organic farmer is the founder of SCALE Inc., a food systems consulting business. He will speak on “Farming, Food and Community Health: Cultivating Real Prosperity in Appalachia.”
On Saturday, panel presentations will take place on the Milligan campus in Derthick and Hyder halls from 9:30 a.m.-4:45 p.m. These will address a variety of issues, including growing and marketing local foods, local food and public health, spirituality and sustainability, and how to prepare a meal using local food for $5.
In addition to the main Food Summit events, Milligan also will host two sessions to prepare for the summit during its weekly convocation and chapel services on Tuesday, Oct. 18, and Thursday, Oct. 20, at 11 a.m. in the Mary B. Martin Auditorium of Seeger Memorial Chapel. Both of these events are free and open to the public.
The Oct. 18 convocation service is titled “Food and Faith,” and will feature a panel discussion. The Oct. 20 chapel service will include a screening of “The Farmers Film, followed by a discussion led by Cinnamon Kennedy.
On Oct. 23, Green Interfaith Network Inc. will host the first ever community discussion on “Emerging Green Colleges in the Southern Appalachians.” This will be a constructive and solution-oriented dialog to continue what will have been a full weekend of celebrating the region at the ETSU-Milligan Local Food Summit. The discussion will be led by a panel of representatives from four area colleges that together represent a cross cut of higher education in the region. Panelists will be staff, faculty and student leaders from Milligan, ETSU, Northeast State Technical Community College, and Emory & Henry College. The discussion will be from 4-6 p.m. at ETSU’s Presbyterian House, 1412 College Heights Rd (1/4 mile south of ETSU campus).
To learn more about the East Tennessee Local Food Summit, visit www.etsu.edu/food. For more information or special assistance for those with disabilities, call Dr. Tess Lloyd (423) 439-6677, or Dr. Kevin O’Donnell, 439-6679, at ETSU, or Rebecca Stephens, 461-8413, at Milligan College.