Portland community leader shares placemaking with Akron

GAINS hosts meeting on ways and places to bring people together in the community

By Lyndsey Schley

Mark Lakeman, founder of Portland City Repair, saw a lack of communal meeting places in his community. Now his city has made changes in their infrastructure to bring community members together.

Lakeman brought his knowledge of placemaking to the March 9 meeting of The Great Akron Innovation Network for Sustainability, or GAINS, hosted in the Summit Artspace in collaboration with Big Love Fest.

GAINS is a volunteer organization that promotes sustainability in the Greater Akron area, while Big Love Fest is an event that celebrates culture, art and music in the Akron community.

Gray Fox Farm strikes savvy balance between urban, rural agriculture

Story by Chris Miller courtesy of the Akronist

Meredith Poczontek, who owns the Gray Fox Farm 
in Hudson with her husband, uses social media to 
stay in touch with customers. (Photo: Shane Wynn)

Hudson couple practices suburban
farming with digital media footprint

Meredith Poczontek does not fit the traditional stereotype of a farmer. She’s young, upbeat, funny and, during a recent tour of the 14-acre Gray Fox Farm in Hudson — which she owns with her husband, John — she jokingly shares this piece of chicken sociology: “It’s like a junior high lunchroom every day in the chicken coop. The bottom of the pecking order is not a nice place to be.”

Preserving Farmland in Ohio: Building a Sustainable, Local Food Economy Part Two

By Katie Sobiech

So, what do you think a park is for?

American’s in general don’t often think about parks as having any relation to food, or as places where agriculture happens.

“You go there for a picnic, a walk, to play ball, look at the scenery… You go there and come home. People don’t live there, work there and they sure don’t farm there,” Kelsey said of what parks have become.

Hale Farm and Village came about in hopes to change this by trying to re-invent the older type of farm/park. Along the way it turned into more of a display than an actual farm that produces things.

Countryside Conservancy Connects Local Farmers and Consumers Year-Round – 2013-06-07

By: Katie Sobiech

Eat local. Shop local. Think local.

This new “craze” has been building across our nation, and area, for good reasons; the obvious being it helping build up local economies, supporting local businesses, and providing healthier, fresher food options.

The Countryside Conservancy (CC), a non-profit organization, came together to provide an outlet for local farmers and entrepreneurs to sell their goods – connecting farmers to the community.