As part Rainelle’s Local Foods, Local Places grant recipient process, the Greenbrier Valley Economic Development Corporation (GVEDC) has created a steering committee. The Rainelle LF/LP’s Steering Committee is comprised of Peggy Crowder, marketing director, and India Keller, Greenbrier Valley Local Food Initiative coordinator of the GVEDC, and community and regional leaders: Joe Brouse, New River Gorge Regional Development Authority; Jenny Curry, Greenbrier County Schools; Jonathan Dierdorff, Rainelle Methodist Church; Woody Hanna, Greenbrier County Commission; Tammy Jordan, Fruits of Labor; Eddie Midkiff, Rainelle City Recorder; Rainelle Mayor Andy Pendleton; Liz Spellman, West Virginia Food and Farm Coalition; Mary Surbaugh, Rainelle Medical Center; John Tuggle, WV Region 4 Planning and Development; Stephen Weir, Community and Technical College System of West Virginia; Alan Williams, Western Greenbrier Business Development Corporation; John Yates, Rainelle business owner; and Jill Young, West Virginia Value Chain Cluster Initiative.
The Rainelle LF/FP Steering Committee will meet on Mar. 28 to start the course of this process. The steering committee will start assessing Rainelle and the surrounding communities to ultimately build a local food system to increase access to healthy local food, promote childhood wellness and improve downtown/community revitalization.
After the initial meeting, the LF/LP Steering Committee will complete three conference calls with a team of experts from The White House Rural Council and six federal agencies. LF/LP was established in 2014 as a national initiative that assists communities to create a walkable, healthy, economically vibrant community through the development of a local food system.
The finale of this process will be a community workshop that will be held on the evening of Monday, June 27, and all day on Tuesday, June 28, at Rainelle Methodist Church. If anyone has any feedback regarding this project and/or would like to participate in the workshop, contact a steering committee member or call GVEDC at 304-497-4300.
