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Watauga Food Council Hopes To Grow Programs, Requests Funding

The Watauga Food Council recently held a focus group event to get input from local policymakers, producers, hunger relief organizations, public health representatives, and ASU professors on the food system recommendations for the Town of Boone. Photo credit: Brooke Kornegay

A community group in Watauga County hopes to secure funding to address food insecurity and local sustainability efforts.

The Watauga Food Council focuses on strengthening the county's food system through several initiatives. Those include developing hunger relief efforts and identifying partnerships to improve access in underserved areas. The council was created by local residents and community groups in 2016.

Organizers say their efforts have been a big success and they want more buy-in from the town of Boone and County Commission to keep the momentum going.

They're asking for money for a part-time coordinator position. Brooke Kornegay is currently doing the job and says the need for their services is growing.

“We do have a higher rate of food insecurity than the surrounding counties in our area of North Carolina,” says Kornegay. “And most of the food that is consumed is coming [from] off [of] the mountain, from the Big Ag companies, so increasing the amount of food locally will increase our resilience as well.”

Kornegay says similar food councils have been popping up across the state. She says the goal is to eventually make the Watauga coordinator position full-time.

 

*Follow WFDD's Keri Brown on Twitter @kerib_news

Keri Brown is a multi-award winning reporter and host at 88.5 WFDD. She has been honored with two regional Edward R. Murrow awards for her stories about coal ash, and was named the 2015 radio reporter of the year by the Radio Television Digital News Association of the Carolinas (RTDNAC).Although she covers a variety of topics, her beats are environmental and education reporting.Keri comes to the Triad from West Virginia Public Broadcasting, where she served as the Chief Bureau Reporter for the Northern Panhandle. She produced stories for the state's Public Television and Radio programs and was honored by the West Virginia Associated Press Broadcasters Association for her feature and enterprise reporting.She also served as an adjunct instructor at Wheeling Jesuit University and Bethany College in West Virginia. She worked with the Center for Educational Technologies in Wheeling, WV, and other NASA centers across the country to develop several stories about the use of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) concepts in the classroom.Keri's journalism career began at WTRF-TV 7 in Wheeling. She worked in several roles at the station, including the head assignment editor. She also was a field producer and assignment manager at WPGH-TV Fox 53 in Pittsburgh.Keri is a graduate of Ohio University. When she's not in the studio or working on a story, she enjoys watching college football with her family, cooking, and traveling.Keri is always looking for another great story idea, so please share them with her. You can follow her on Twitter @kerib_news.

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