Sterling’s Anne Obelnicki, Director of Sustainable Food Systems, will speak at Hampshire College on October 24th. Here is more information about this day-long event.

How might food shape the college of the twenty-first century?

Anyone passionate about food (and, seriously, who isn’t?) or hungry for information is invited to participate in events and discussions being organized by Hampshire College around topics related to healthy food for a healthy campus and a healthy world.

A daylong program on October 24 will bring local and alumni farmers, food producers, and organizations committed to sustainability to the Hampshire campus. The day will also include a healthy food forum and an advance screening by Hampshire alumnus Ken Burns of excerpts from his forthcoming film, The Dust Bowl.

All who are part of Hampshire and its larger and local communities are invited to attend and participate in this special day, called “Sustainable Hampshire: Food and Farm for the Future.”

The October 24 program is part of a comprehensive Healthy Food Transition at the College. The Healthy Food Transition is supported by a $1 million gift from Hampshire alumnus Gary Hirshberg 72F, cofounder and chairman of Stonyfield Farm, the world’s leading organic yogurt producer.

Hirshberg announced the gift that he and wife Meg were making to Hampshire at the inauguration of President Jonathan Lash last April, giving it in support of President Lash’s vision for Hampshire College, which includes educating “tomorrow’s entrepreneurs of change”— leaders prepared to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing world. Among those challenges is the need for sustainable models for provision of healthy food, locally and globally.

The Healthy Food Transition will use food as a means to teach students, experiment with new models of food systems, serve the Hampshire community, and communicate values, Lash said. An inclusive process will be used to develop a sustainable model farm and food operation at the College.

The Healthy Food Transition aims to strengthen relationships between Hampshire and neighboring farmers as well as alumni farmers. Operations at the already thriving Hampshire College Farm Center will be central to the Healthy Food Transition process.

On October 24, “Sustainable Hampshire: Food and Farm for the Future” opens at 10 a.m. with a farmer’s market and food festival held in the Red Barn area of campus. Farmers and programs dedicated to healthy food and sustainability have been invited to set up booths to sell their products and showcase their operations from 10-2.

A 2 p.m. forum in the Main Lecture Hall (in Franklin Patterson Hall) will highlight the inclusive process the College is using to implement the Healthy Food Transition. Speakers will include President Lash, Hampshire’s Sustainability Initiative Director Beth Hooker, and Hampshire alumnus Howard Wein 93F, of Howard Wein Hospitality, who is working with the College on plans for the Healthy Food Transition. To educate and inspire the community about the transition process, we will have a panel of sustainability and food experts discuss the exciting possibilities
for Hampshire, including:

Andy Kendall - Executive Director, Henry P. Kendall Foundation
Phil Korman - Executive Director, Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA)
Michael Iceland - Communications and Brand Manager, The Food Project
Dave Jackson – Founding Farmer, Enterprise Farm
Anne Obelnicki - Director of Sustainable Food Systems, Sterling College
Oona Coy, Town Farm and Tuesday Market, Northampton, MA

At 4 p.m. in the Robert Crown Center, Hampshire alumnus Ken Burns 71F will screen excerpts from his forthcoming film, The Dust Bowl, which will premiere on PBS in November. The film takes a close look at how mistakes in farming, government and bad information led to a massive environmental and economic disaster. The film has significant parallels to today, with heat waves and drought across the country, during a time of economic crisis and in the middle of a U.S. presidential election campaign.

The screening will be followed by panel of climate change and history scholars including Professor Raymond S. Bradley, Director, UMass Climate System
Research Center and Hampshire College Professors Steve Roof and Amy Jordan.