CONWAY, Ark. (April 21, 2014) – Hendrix College will honor Conway Locally Grown with the Spirit of Hendrix Award on Thursday, April 24, at 11:10 a.m. in Reves Recital Hall.
The award, given to an organization that advances the values of Hendrix College, was approved by the Hendrix College Board of Trustees.
Conway Locally Grown was started in 2008 by Cody Hopkins, a 2001 Hendrix graduate. The organization began as a collaborative effort between local farmers (including Hopkins and his partner Andrea Todt, who run Falling Sky Farm near Marshall, Ark.) and
Faulkner County Supporters of Sustainable Communities to provide better methods for farmers to connect with their customers in Conway.
Conway Locally Grown is now among the top five largest grossing markets using the Locally Grown platform, a web-based farmer’s market program. Hopkins met Locally Grown creator Eric Wagoner, an Athens, Ga.-based farmer, at a food conference in Kentucky.
Conway Locally Grown quickly grew from five farmers and 15 customers in 2008 to 40 farmers and 300 members by 2010.
Several Hendrix students have interned or volunteered with Conway Locally Grown and seen firsthand the difficult space where important ethical questions interact with real and complicated situations in the material world.
Founded in 1876, Hendrix College is a national leader in engaged liberal arts and sciences education. For the fifth consecutive year, Hendrix was named one of the country’s “Up and Coming” liberal arts colleges by U.S. News and World Report. Hendrix
is featured in the 2012 edition of the Princeton Review as one of the country’s best 377 colleges, the latest edition of Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That
Will Change the Way You Think about Colleges, Forbes
magazine's annual list of America's Top 650 Colleges, and the 2013 edition of the Fiske Guide to Colleges. Hendrix has been affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884. For more
information, visit
www.hendrix.edu.