Summit Food Coalition

It wouldn’t seem logical that studying Japanese in college would lead to a lifelong commitment to healthy food and healthier communities. But that’s how Beth Knorr, director of Summit Food Coalition, became acquainted with the idea of Community Supported Agriculture, which cropped up in Japan in the 1970s. Always interested in gardening and healthy food, Knorr spent time living in Japan after graduation, then worked as a vegetable farmer at Crown Point Ecology Center, a local CSA, from 1998 to 2007. A founding member of the coalition in 2008, the 45-year-old took on her current position in 2016, advocating for governmental policies that support sustainable farming practices and access to healthful food for everyone. To help make that access easier, the coalition creates a guide to all local farmers markets that is available on its website, summitfoodcoalition.org. Not only an advocate, Knorr is also a farmers market vendor, peddling all-natural ice-pops made from local fruit for Popsmith, the company she co-owns with her husband, Tim. The Cuyahoga Falls resident shares her thoughts on the connection between healthy eating and healthy communities.

I have felt for a long time that there is no disconnecting individual health from environmental health, and one of the best ways to cultivate both is through gardening and supporting our local farmers. Tending our gardens, we are often more cognizant of things that impact soil health, plant health, the environment we’re living in. There’ve been studies coming out now that getting your hands dirty — there are microbes in the soil that help combat depression and all of that, too. So it’s not just the nutritional health but also more holistic health that gardening is good for. 

Buying directly from growers not only means you’re purchasing straight from the source, but also that you’re purchasing whole food, and diets rich in whole foods are what is recommended for health. 

You’re also introduced through those avenues to other humans who are often lovely people. So you’re not only cultivating good health through what you’re eating, but through those social networks that are critical for a healthy life. All these things come together to create an avenue for cultivating individual health, environmental health and community health.— as told to Sharon Best

3 Ways to Eat Farm-Fresh:

SUMMIT LAKE FARMERS’ MARKET Buy local produce, Summit Lake Community Center, Tuesdays

GREENFIELD BERRY FARM Pick your own blueberries, Peninsula, summer

HIGHLAND SQUARE FARMERS’ MARKET Buy local produce and more, Will Christy Park, Akron, Thursdays