A Clinton School student worked with Little Rock Urban Farming (LRUF) to research community perceptions of local food and ways to support the local food economy.
Clinton School student Dylan Perry of Memphis, Tenn., found that more than 80 percent of the Central Arkansas community thinks that developing a strong local food system is important. Perry found that the community wants healthy, local, accessible and affordable food, and is concerned for local growers and those who buy from them.
LRUF is a small farm in midtown Little Rock that provides fresh organic produce to markets and restaurants in the city. The organization specializes in using sustainable urban agriculture as a mechanism to grow healthy communities. As part of his course work, Perry spent the fall semester of 2012 engaging members of the Central Arkansas community to lay the groundwork for a new LRUF initiative to do more education and outreach to support community-led growth of local food.
Perry’s work provides the initial understanding of community needs and interest as well as resident impressions of the local food system and how it could be improved.
“We are ready to branch out and actively engage the community,” said Chris Hiryak, founder and creative director of LRUF. “Everyone in our community has a part to play in this food movement.”
LRUF’s new initiative will work with a wide array of stakeholders to strengthen the Little Rock food economy, including educating communities and farmers to encourage production and consumption of locally grown food. The initiative will build the community environmentally, economically and socially to serve as a foundation for future generations.
Perry engaged a diverse group of stakeholders ranging from civic leaders, institutional leaders, politicians, business leaders, food producers and consumers. Perry collected ideas from the community about developing a strong, vibrant, sustainable community based food system in Central Arkansas through a participatory process including interviews, community conversations and surveys.
Perry completed the project as part of the Clinton School Capstone program, the last of three public service projects in the Master of Public Service degree program.
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