CONWAY, Ark. (April 25, 2014) – Conway Locally Grown received the Spirit of Hendrix
Award this week at a special convocation in Reves Recital Hall.
The award is given to an organization that advances the values of Hendrix College,
was approved by the Hendrix College Board of Trustees.
Conway Locally Grown is only the third Spirit of Hendrix Award recipient. Previous
winners include the J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation in Tulsa, Okla, in 2009 and Heifer
International in 2003.
Started in 2008 by Cody Hopkins, a 2001 Hendrix graduate and physics major, Conway
Locally Grown began as a collaborative effort between local farmers (including Hopkins
and his wife 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 began with five farmers and 15 customers and is now among
the top five largest grossing markets using the Locally Grown platform, a web-based
farmer’s market program created by Eric Wagoner, an Athens, Ga.-based farmer.
Several Hendrix students have interned or volunteered with Conway Locally Grown
and have seen firsthand the difficult space where important ethical questions interact
with real and complicated situations in the material world.
“It is a great honor to be recognized by Hendrix for this hard work,” said Hopkins,
who accepted the award along with Steve Lunk, director of Conway Locally Grown.
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.