Last month, staff members from ACEnet and Rural Action facilitated a tour and discussion about Farm to School programming with representatives from Federal Hocking Local Schools, Fort Frye Local School District, and Washington County Healthy Communities Coalition.

Federal Hocking is already home to a robust Farm to School initiative, involving multiple school gardens and a large network of local farm suppliers. Fort Frye is in the early stages of developing a new farm to school program.

We toured the Nelsonville and Athens ACEnet kitchens, followed by a visit to a Federal Hocking cafeteria. We can’t wait to see how these farm to school programs will continue to develop!

ACEnet Multimedia Designer, Delia Palmisano, had a great visit a few weeks ago in Shawnee with John Carey from the Governor's Office of Appalachia and members of The Buckeye Hills Regional Council.

While they were visiting we toured Ohio's Winding Road Marketplace and the Tecumseh Theater and chatted with Scott Kreps, the Shawnee Trail Town Coordinator, Andrew Bashaw, the Executive Director of the Buckeye Trail Association, John Winnenberg from Ohio's Winding Road and Cheryl Blosser from The Little Cities of Black Diamonds.

We're excited to see all the development and community partnerships happening in Shawnee!

Mark, who grew up in Perry County, said after graduating college he didn’t see much opportunity in the region. “I’ve seen the ups and downs of extractive industries here, the heyday of coal and the hardships that come with layoffs. I wanted to see what was beyond this region and became a visual journalist. I bounced all around the country, traveling to all these different, interesting places and saw a little bit of Southeast Ohio in each one of them, and was always reminded of home. After a while I thought, ‘Wow– this area is actually really special. It would be nice to get back there,’” he said.

In 2013 he moved back to the area with his wife Emma, who is originally from Northern California. They both found employment at Ohio University, where they met people in the Outdoor Recreation program whose priorities for environmental sustainability and outdoor recreation aligned with theirs. In 2014 the Bruntons started Burr Oak Getaways as, “a kind of experiment to co-host local vacation rentals and offer marketing services to some of our neighbors,” Mark said.

Fast forward seven years and the business is now a full-time endeavor. The Bruntons have expanded their offerings to non-motorized boat rentals and Mark, a Coast Guard licensed captain, offers guided fishing and lake tours on his pontoon boat at Burr Oak Lake.

In 2021 they purchased a neglected piece of property down the road from their rentals at Dock 2 on Burr Oak. They spent the spring and summer cleaning it up and put a new structure on the property, calling it “The Float Shack,” they offer campers, boaters and hikers a place to find snacks, ice cream, fishing bait & tackle, and camping supplies; it also serves as the location to rent their boats.

The couple also offers internships to local high school students, which according to Emma is a really important part of their business model. “For many of these local kids, this is their first job. It’s really great work experience and we’re excited to be able to provide new opportunities in the area,” she said.

ACEne had a great weekend at the Ohio Ecological Food and Farming Association (OEFFA) Annual Conference last month! ACEnet collaborators, Rachel Tayse, Paul Dorrance and Angela Blatt, presented on our collaborative Local Food Promotion Project to address the meat processing bottleneck in Ohio and Central Appalachia. They shared lessons learned about creative solutions to meat processing from a needs assessment survey and site visits to mobile meat processing units in Washington and California. ACEnet staff member, Chris Quolke, helped design and implement their survey and mapped the data for future use.

ACEnet staff members Bailey Grenert and Rachel Brunot attended the in-person conference in Dayton and connected with Ohio’s vibrant food and farming community and our long-standing local partners, including our friends at Community Food Initiatives and Snowville Creamery.

This conference will prove to be an asset to any woman in any stage of business development, with sessions designed give new businesses a great start and mature businesses the tools they need to grow, and much more.

Join Carleen Dotson from OU SBDC to learn about building your business team, who you need in your corner & why and Donna Russell from OUCU to learn about preparing your business to be successful in securing a loan/financing.

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The Athens Farmers Market takes place year round on Saturday at the Market on State Shopping Mall, both inside and outside. For more information & information on becoming a vendor, see the Athens Farmers Market website.

UpBEAT programs continue to be virtual at this time. In March, the UpBEAT Exercise class will meet weekly on every Tuesday of the month at 10 a.m. Additionally, we will learn more about sleep hygiene and best practices for improving sleep, community resources available through Buckeye Hills Regional Council our local Area Agency on Aging and our local history found within the Hocking Hills. Also, If you are interested in learning more about social isolation in our current times, consider listening to this short podcast (about 14 minutes) with NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly and what we can do to support one another: https://www.aarp.org/podcasts/take-on-today/info-2020/scott-kelly-isolation.html

If you're 55+, connect with UpBEAT! https://www.ohiohealth.com/health-and-wellness/upbeat-program-athens You can also call Caitlin Bond, UpBEAT Program Coordinator, at (740) 566-4680 for more info or to receive the UpBEAT newsletter.