How Neighbors Feed Neighbors in Athens

Athens, Ohio, is home to one of the oldest farmers markets in the country, which has helped spark several bakeries and grocers to focus on locally sourced ingredients. Today, Athens also is home to an innovative project known as Neighbor Loaves (& Meals).

This program simultaneously supports local grain, bean and nut farmers and local businesses while turning food shoppers into small donors who help feed neighbors in need. The donors purchase meals and whole-grain bread made with at least 50% Ohio-grown crops, and those are gifted to food pantries and other food-access sites around Athens County.

This neighbors-helping-neighbors project was launched in June 2020 by the Appalachian Staple Foods Collaborative, which is part of Rural Action, a membership-based nonprofit organization based in Appalachian Ohio. The loaves for Neighbor Loaves (& Meals) come from the Village Bakery, which offers a sliced spelt sandwich bread; the Athens Bread Company, offering a sourdough red fife bread; and Shagbark Seed & Mill, offering corn tortillas. The meals include vegetarian chili from Casa Nueva and black bean burgers from Kindred Market.

To see this entire food chain at work, let’s start at Schmitmeyer Farms, a family farm in Darke County. Paul Schmitmeyer grows organic black beans and sells them to Shagbark Seed & Mill of Athens, an organic mill that sells dry beans from the most recent harvest and mills flour every week to offer the freshest staples possible.

The beans are sent to the Shagbark mill, where production manager Joe Beres oversees the cleaning and packaging. Beres said it’s important to Shagbark to purchase from Ohio farmers because their business model is all about supporting the local community.

The packaged black beans are distributed to local businesses such Casa Nueva, which is a hip, worker-owned co-op featuring Mexican-inspired food, and Kindred Market, a full-service, organic and natural grocer. 

(top left) Abby Sickles, a chef at Casa Nueva, prepares black bean vegetarian chili; (top right) Casa Nueva chili; (bottom left) Casa Nueva is a worker-owned restaurant in Athens; (bottom right) Kindred Market’s checkout stands advertise the Neighbor Loaves project.

Casa Nueva uses the black beans to make their vegetarian chili for purchase through Neighbor Loaves. Thom Hirbe, food and beverage operations manager at Casa Nueva, said Neighbor Loaves sounded like a workable endeavor for the business to pursue, and it has been an honor to be part of the program.

“One of the reasons I moved to Athens in 1995 and never left [is] because of the sense of community here,” Hirbe said. “It is the idea that people will go out of their way to help out others in their community who are currently not able to help themselves. And so, to me, it’s just an extension of that same reason why I came to Athens to begin with.”

Hirbe said this project has helped connect the community. “It’s just a reminder that we’re all here together doing this thing, which is just living in the space that we live in.”

Riley Kinnard, general manager at Kindred Market, has seen local support grow since the program began. Customers at the market are offered an easy way at checkout to purchase meal for the program that consists of a black bean and sweet potato burger made by the Kindred kitchen team from those same black beans.

“[It’s a] combination of making a smart business choice while also having the opportunity to collaborate with local nonprofit and food shelters,” Kinnard said. “It feels really smart, it feels like ‘Wow, this is a really clever idea.’ We are proud to be involved.”

Once people have purchased a Neighbor Loaves meal from a participating business, the food goes to Community Food Initiatives (CFI), an organization working to build community resilience through supporting a food system in which everyone in Appalachia Ohio has access to healthy, local food.

Ravi Harley, food access coordinator for CFI, helps with the weekly food distribution.

Reggie Murrow, donation station coordinator for CFI, said the meals are then passed along to local food shelters and resource centers, primarily through its weekly Tuesday morning food distributions. 

CFI distributes to places such as the Federal Valley Resource Center, a nonprofit community center that includes a thrift store, a musical instrument lending library and free concerts. Food also goes to Good Works, a community center for people who are struggling with poverty and homelessness in rural Appalachia. 

Murrow said Neighbor Loaves has picked up traction since it began, and he and hopes the project will only continue to grow. “I think the more the people are able to give, the more people will give,” Murrow says.

Judith Morgan, director of the Federal Valley Resource Center food pantry, said the people who come to the center look forward to picking up the produce and meals distributed through Neighbor Loaves. The people who receive the meals are those seeking support and nutrition throughout and around Athens County. 

Athens community members have purchased over $15,000 in bread and meals since June 2020. The success of the program goes beyond the dollars, however. In a short time, Rural Action’s Neighbor Loaves (& Meals) has helped to bring Athens businesses closer together with each other and with the people in the area.

It helps farmers to sell crops, food producers to grow sales and donors to feel good about helping others. Finally, it feeds hungry people in Appalachia, which is the biggest success of all.