The Directory of Sustainable Agriculture and Food Initiatives in the Bluegrass Region is part of the effort to improve the UK College of Agriculture’s capacity to address issues on agricultural sustainability and localizing food economies.  The directory contains information about organizations and groups in Lexington and the Bluegrass Region who are working on issues surrounding sustainable agriculture and local food economies.  Please take a moment to fill out the contact form below.  The directory is published annually in January and distributed across Kentucky through diverse channels, particularly to organizations and individuals interested in connecting with those working in the areas of food and agriculture in the Bluegrass Region.  A pdf version of the directory can be downloaded and shared broadly.  Our hope is that this directory will become a tool for networking among many community organizations, including yours, who share concerns about our existing agriculture and food systems. You may use the Search Page option on the bottom of the menu panel to your left
                                            to find a particular organization.

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Bluegrass Directory of Community Organizations

Working on Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems

1)

Name: Lexington Farmers' Market Type of Organization: Business

Contact: Jeff Dabbelt, Market Manager  Phone: 859-608-2655

Email:jeff@lexingtonfarmersmarket.com           Website: www.lexingtonfarmersmarket.com    

Address: PO Box 553 Lexington, KY 40588-0553 County: Fayette 

Summary: To bring farmers and customers together in hopes of creating sustainable, direct-market relationships that meet the needs of both.  Beyond the normal market selling, we are always looking for ways for the farmers to donate to the area food banks.

2)

Name: UK Food Systems Initiative      Type of Organization: Education

Contact: Bob Perry, Coordinator  Phone: 859-257-1692

Email: bob.perry@uky.edu      Website: www.ca.uky.edu/fsi

Address: 102 Erikson Hall Lexington, KY 40546-0050 County: Fayette        

Summary: The Food systems Initiative promotes the development of new food enterprises, markets and products by connecting university expertise with Kentucky enterprenuers, farmers and chefs.

3)

Name: Community Action Council       Type of Organization: Non-Profit     

Contact: Charles Lanter, Manager Program Development        Phone:859-244-2211

Email: charles.lanter@commaction.org   Website: www.commaction.org

Address: PO Box 11610 Lexington, KY 40576 County: Fayette

Summary: The mission of Community Action Council (CAC) is to combat poverty in the four counties we serve: Fayette, Bourbon, Nicholas, and Harrison.  We listen and understand the needs of low-income persons so we may advocate for them and help them advocate for themselves.  We do this by providing community based services to individuals and families.  One of our 2007-2008 Strategic Plan Goals was to organize a community garden.  Our Winburn Community Center has our first operating community garden.  We are currently applying for grants to organize several other community gardens in our service area.

4)

Name: Communality and Martin Luther King Neighborhood Association         

Type of Organization: Non-Profit 

Contact: Sherry Maddock, community worker and MLKNA President  Phone: 859-559-3837         

Email: geoffandsherry@yahoo.com      Website: www.mlkna.org

Address: 262 E. 4th Street Lexington, KY 40508        County: Fayette          

Summary: I work with an inner-city community of faith.  As a church, we are associated with several social justice initiatives, including community gardening and the local food movement.  I live in the MLK/East End neighborhood, where we've started the London Ferrell Community garden.  We are also in the process of creating a multi-site urban orchard for the neighborhood.

5)

Name: Southern Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program

Type of Organization:  Non-Profit    

Contact: Gwen Roland            Phone: 770-412-4786

Email: groland@uga.edu          Website: www.southernsare.org

Address: 1109 Experiment Street, University of Georgia, Griffin, GA 30223 County: Spalding Summary: SARE funds research and education to support agriculture that brings profit to the farmer while protecting natural resources and benefitting rural communities.  Southern SARE funds projects through six different grant programs for professional researchers, graduate students, farmers, educators, and communities.  Current priority areas and initiatives are identified in each call for proposals, which are posted at the website.

6)

Name: Community Farm Alliance         Type of Organization: Non-Profit     

Contact: Donald Van Erden, Director Phone: 502-223-3655             

Email: donefa@bellsouth.net  Website:communityfarmalliance.org

Address: 614 Shelby St. Frankfort, KY 40601  County: Franklin                  

Summary: The mission of CFA is to promote the health and sustainability of Kentucky family farms as the most efficient and sustainable way to produce high quality food, while protecting the environment and strengthening community life.  Our members advocate for state and local legislation that promotes local foods and protects family farms.  We have developed a demonstration farm to school project in Bath County that our members plan to expand to additional counties in the Bluegrass, Louisville, and Eastern Kentucky.  We have joined two diverse audiences to the benefit of both in Jefferson County by bringing locally grown fresh fruit and vegetables to the low-income area of West-Louisville through establishing neighborhood farmers markets in an area where fresh produce is not readily available.  We are also beginning several initiatives in the Fayette County area to strengthen access to locally grown foods in that area.

7)

Name: Berea College of Agriculture and Natural Resources  Type of Organization: Education Contact: Sean Clark, Dept. Chair      Phone: 859-985-3402

Email: sean_clark@berea.edu Website: www.berea.edu

Address: CPO 1743, Berea College County: Madison                      

Summary: Berea College is one of a small number of liberal arts colleges in the United States offering an academic program in agriculture and natural resources (ANR).  The ANR Department's curriculum provides all students with a sound foundation in ANR, including soils, plants, animals, ecology, and economics, with flexible options to pursue training in particular areas of interest.  ANR majors can gain unique practical experience working on the College’s educational farm, which includes beef cattle, hogs, sheep, goats, field crops, and a horticultural operation that produces certified organic vegetables, fruits, herbs, as well as a variety of annual and perennial ornaments for retail sale.  The work experience gained from the College Farm complements classroom learning and provides a real advantage to students through skill development and management training. 

8)

Name: Good Foods Market & Café    Type of Organization: Business         

Contact: Danielle Dove, Marketing Manager     Phone:             859-278-1813

Email: goodfoods@goodfoods.coop   Website: www.goodfoods.coop         

Address:  mailing address: 455D Southland Drive Lexington, KY 40503 Physical Location: 455 Southland Drive Lexington, KY 40503 County:            Fayette

Summary:   Good Foods Co-op is a locally owned and operated cooperative business where everyone is welcome to shop at either of our locations - Good Foods Market & Café on Southland Drive or Good Foods Chapter 2 inside the downtown Lexington Public Library. Good Foods has served the Lexington community since 1972.

9)

Name: Good Foods Chapter 2  Type of Organization: Business

Contact: Crystal Stites, Marketing Manager     Phone: 859-422-6802

Email: goodfoods@goodfoods.coop   Website: www.goodfoods.coop         

Address: mailing address: 455D Southland Drive Lexington, KY 40503 Physical Location: 140 East Main Street, Lexington, KY 40507   County: Fayette          

Summary:

10)

Name: University of Kentucky Sustainable Agriculture Curriculum       

Type of Organization: Education       

Contact: Mark Keating, lecturer, UK Dept. of Horticulture Phone: 859-257-5130

Email: mkeat2@uky.edu Website:

Address: N-308 Ag Sciences North Lexington, KY 40546 County: Fayette

Summary: The UK Sustainable Ag Curriculum offers a major and minor undergraduate degree option within the College of Agriculture.  Students enjoy 2 broad interdisciplinary educational experiences that integrate economic, environmental, and social aspects of agriculture.  Students also serve an apprenticeship on an 85 member CSA operated on organically managed land on the UK Horticulture Department Research Farm in Lexington.

11)

Name: Bluegrass Greenworks, Inc.  Type of Organization: Non-Profit

Contact: Ben B. Perry  Phone: 859-523-4773

Email: benperry@a-spi.org  Website: www.bluegrassgreenworks.org

Address: (mailing) PO Box 22580 Lexington, KY 40522-2580

                (physical) 371 Garden Rd. Lexington, KY 40502

County: Fayette

Summary: Mission: Helping the Central Bluegrass become a world-class green community.  Purpose: To help build and empower an active community of businesses, educators, government agencies, non-profit/community groups and citizens working toward a more healthy, sustainable, and prosperous community.

12)

Name: Franklin County Farmers Market Type of Organization: Non-Profit

Contact: Lee Ann Jones  Phone: 502-320-1064

Email: jonens751@bellsouth.net Website:

Address: 101 Lakeview Park Frankfort, KY 40601 County: Franklin

Summary: The mission of our organization is to provide locally grown produce, meats, baked goods, honey, and eggs to Franklin County and surrounding counties.  The market is open from mid-April to mid-November, 3 days per week.

13)

Name: Sustainable Mountain Agriculture Center  Type of Organization:

Contact: Bill Best, Director  Phone: 859-986-3204

Email: bill.best@heirlooms.org Website: www.heirlooms.org

Address:  1033 Pilot Knob Cemetery Road Berea, KY 40403 County: Madison

Summary: Sustainable Mountain Agriculture Center works at collecting, saving, selling and swapping seeds of Appalachian heirloom fruits and vegetables, as well as participating in Berea and Lexington Farmers' Markets.  Please see the website for more information and details.

14)

Name: Seedleaf Type of Organization:

Contact: Ryan , Executive Director  Phone: 859-967-8865

Email: seedleafinfo@gmail.com  Website:  www.seadleaf.typepad.com

Address: 931 Idlewild Ct. Lexington, KY 40505 County: Fayette

Summary:  The mission of Seedleaf is to install and maintain community and private gardens throughout Fayette County.  Current initiatives include a charitable garden on Third St. called the London Ferrell Community Garden, and the Al’s Bar Garden on Sixth St.  We see gardening together as part of a larger solution to local food insecurity, an entry point for conservation efforts, as well as a means to help neighbors have human interactions over food.

15)

Name: Savoring Kentucky Type of Organization:

Contact: Rona Roberts, Founder Phone: 859.231.8308

Email: rona.roberts@gmail.com Website: www.savoringkentucky.com

Address: 250 Campsie Place, Lexington, KY 40508 County: Fayette

Summary: The mission of Savoring Kentucky is to shine a bright light on the pleasures of Kentucky food and food culture. In Kentucky, we have the weather, land, water, and people to grow nearly everything we eat. We can be healthier, we can have better food and drink for every Kentuckian, we can support small farms abundantly, we can rebuild our heritage of eating as an incomparable delight shared with friends and loved ones, and we can free ourselves from the need for unsustainable, unhealthy forms of energy. Lots of people work on this everyday. Savoring Kentucky celebrates them and aims to encourage and support them

16)

Name: Kitchen Gardeners Bluegrass Type of Organization:

Contact: John Walker Phone: 859-225-3866

Email: igrowfood@insightbb.com

Website: http://my.kitchengardeners.org/group/kitchengardenersbluegrass

Address: 154 Hamilton Park, Lexington KY 40504 County: Fayette

Summary: Kitchen Gardeners Bluegrass is a local group of Kitchen Gardeners International (KGI). KGI was started by Roger Doiron of Scarborough Maine with the aim of promoting the home growing of food. Members of Kitchen Gardeners Bluegrass support the programming of the Edible Gardening series at The Arboretum and volunteer in the new Children’s Garden. Kitchen Gardeners Bluegrass also offers programs at libraries, churches and other groups to promote the home growing of food. We also are involved in Cardinal Valley working with local groups and Cardinal Valley Elementary to promote community gardening.

17)

Name: The Arboretum Type of Organization:

Contact: Roberta Burnes, Education Coordinator

Phone: 859/257-9339

Email: rburnes@uky.edu Website: http://www.ca.uky.edu/Arboretum/

Address: 500 Alumni Drive, Lexington, KY 40503 County: Fayette

Summary: Our mission:  The Arboretum celebrates nature, fosters an understanding of relationships between humans and their natural world, provides cultural opportunities for the community, and serves as a community center for environmental education, horticulture, and urban forest renewal.  The Arboretum emphasizes research on the environment and attention to conservation issues.

Current offerings:   Throughout the year, The Arboretum presents an on-going series of educational programs -- called the Edible Garden Series -- for home vegetable gardeners.  Children’s programming also incorporates many lessons in the vegetable garden, allowing children of all ages a chance to help plant and harvest food from the garden.  In addition, we offer summer day camps specifically themed around growing, harvesting, and eating your own food.  These “Garden to Kitchen” day camps are held for two – three weeks each summer and offer children a chance to find out where their food comes from.  Another major event is the annual Tomato Festival, held each year in August, which celebrates the tomato with educational programming, workshops, demonstrations, and tomato tasting of dozens of varieties of hybrid and heirloom tomatoes.

The Arboretum’s Home Demonstration Vegetable Garden offers visitors, school groups, and classes the chance to see a variety of vegetable gardening techniques in action.  Included are several types of raised beds, a square-foot garden, and various kinds of mulching and pest control techniques are interpreted.  Everything in the Home Demonstration Vegetable Garden is done organically – without any pesticides or herbicides and using only organic rabbit manure and “home-grown compost “as fertilizer.  Produce grown in this garden  is donated to local food banks.

18)

Name: The Real Food Challenge Type of Organization: Non-Profit

Contact: Sarah Buzogany  Phone: (847) 975-1507

Email: sebuzo2@uky.edu Website: www.realfoodchallenge.org

Address: The University of Kentucky County: Fayette

Summary: The Real Food Challenge isn’t so much an organization as it is a movement. Essentially, "real food" is food that has been ethically produced and procured. That includes consideration for worker's rights, environmental practices, humane treatment of animals, emphasis on locality, etc. The Real Food Challenge is targeting colleges and universities across the country, and working to get real food onto campuses. "The RFC aims to expand and amplify existing efforts with a unifying national campaign. The target is to redirect 20% of all food purchased by colleges and universities (currently 4 billion dollars) towards real food by 2020." (realfoodchallenge.org)

Here at the University of Kentucky we’re aiming to highlight some of the accomplishments of the dining services, and push to procure more local food. Student organizations like Greenthumb have been informed of the movement and plan to incorporate events dealing with food such as potlucks with local foods, trips to the farmers market, and attending conferences dealing with these topics.

19)

Name: Kentucky State University Organic Agriculture Working Group

Type of Organization: Education

Contact: Michael Bomford, Research and Extension Specialist, Organic Agriculture

Phone: 502-597-5752

Email: michael.bomford@kysu.edu Website: http://organic.kysu.edu

Address: 125 Atwood Research Facility, Kentucky State University, 400 East Main Street, Frankfort, KY 40601.

County: Franklin        

Summary: The KSU Organic Working Group seeks to develop, evaluate, and demonstrate socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable agricultural systems compatible with National Organic Program standards and suitable for adoption by Kentucky’s small farmers and gardeners. Our current projects include the development and testing of organic management practices for soil-borne diseases, demonstration of year-round vegetable production in solar-heated high tunnels, testing of lures for beneficial insects, and tests of organic weed management tactics for fruit trees and field crops, Check the website for details on these and many other projects.

20)

Name: Slow Food Bluegrass Type of Organization: Non-Profit

Contact: Mark Williams, Chapter Leader Phone: 502-303-3760

Email: slowfoodbluegrass@msn.com Website: slowfoodbluegrass.org

Address: P.O. Box 976 Pewee Valley, KY 40056 County: Oldham

Summary: We are a 501c(3) non-profit food education group.  We are part of Slow Food International, an organization founded in Italy 22 years ago, based on the principle of protecting the biodiversity of food, plants, and animals, against the homogenization of taste created by industrial food producers and processes.

21)

Name: Al’s Bar  and Al’s Sidecar Type of Organization: Business

Contact: Josh Miller 859.608.9595 or Lester Miller 859.333.2072

Email: alsbarlexington@gmail.com Website: www.myspace.com/alsbarlexington

Address: Al’s Bar – 601 N Limestone, Lexington 40508

Al’s Sidecar – 607 N Limestone, Lex 40508 FayetteCounty:

Summary:

Al’s bar is dedicated to local food and to local food economies, to local beers, bourbons, and other local beverages, to bluegrass and local music and to the musicians who create it.  Al’s bar is dedicated to the celebration of Kentucky and all that makes life here special.  We offer gourmet burgers featuring grass-finished beef, bison, lamb, and pork, all raised within 50 miles of our location.  In addition to sourcing all of the other menu items as locally as possible, we have established our own restaurant garden in a space behind the bar where we raise our own tomatoes, greens, and herbs, among other flowers and things.

Al’s Sidecar shares the dedication of Al’s Bar to local food and to local food economies, but features these premium local foodstuffs in the context of a New Orleans-themed gumbo shop.  Located immediately adjacent to Al’s Bar, Al’s Sidecar offers a changing variety of Cajun cuisine featuring local meat, poultry, and vegetables.

22)

Name: Stella’s Kentucky Deli Type of Organization: Business

Contact: Lester Miller – Manager Phone: 859.255.3354

Email: stellaskentuckydeli@gmail.com Website: www.stellaskentuckydeli.com

Address: 143 Jefferson St. Lexington KY 40508 County: Fayette

Summary: Stella’s Kentucky Deli Is dedicated to local farmers and to supporting local food economies.  Our mission is to produce simple, high quality foods that emphasize the superior flavors and textures of fresh, local ingredients.  To achieve this, we make all of our sandwiches, salads, soups, and desserts by hand, in house, using whatever ingredients are seasonally available.

You can enjoy a home-cooked meal at our historic downtown location or call us with catering requests. 

23)

Name: Woodford County Farmers’ Type of Organization: Non-Profit

Contact: Mike Wright Phone: 859-753-8276

Email: mike.wright@windstream.net

Website: http://ces.ca.uky.edu/woodford//horticulture/farmmkt/farmmkt.htm

Address: 116 Laurel Way, Versailles, KY County: Woodford

Summary: The goals of the Woodford County Farmers’ Market include:

To improve marketing opportunities for local farmers, producers of agriculturally derived items and crafts.

To maintain and sustain local agriculture in service to the community.

To provide consumers with a source of high-quality, locally-produced goods (fresh vegetables and fruit, processed foods, and other agriculturally based products and crafts).

 To encourage a more direct connection between consumers and farmers/artisans so each has a  better understanding of the other.

To develop and maintain a partnership with Woodford County and downtown Versailles merchants to the mutual benefit of merchants and WCFM members.

To enrich the social environment of Woodford County by providing activities that foster community interaction.

24)

Name: Eastern Kentucky University, Department of Agriculture

Type of Orgnaization: Education

Contact: Dr. Bruce R. Pratt, Professor Phone: 859-622 -2228

Email: Bruce.Pratt@eku.edu Website: www.agriculture.eku.edu

Address: Dept. of Agriculture, 521 Lancaster Ave., Richmond, KY 40475 County: Madison

Summary: Eastern Kentucky University, is a comprehensive regional educational institution that is dedicated to teaching, service and research.  The Department of Agriculture provides students with excellent opportunities were students get hands on experiences in many different aspects in agriculture and horticulture

25)

Name: God's Pantry

Type of Organization: Non-Profit

Contact: Danielle Tussey, Programs Director Phone: 859-255-6592

Email: danielle@godspantry.org Website: www.godspantry.org

Address: 1685 Jaggie Fox Way Lexington, KY 40511

County: Fayette

Summary: Founded in 1955, God's Pantry Food Bank's mission is to reduce hunger in Kentucky through community cooperation, making the best possible use of all available resources.  God's Pantry serves 50 counties in Central and Easter Kentucky.