On Wednesday, September 16th, The Goodnight Family Sustainable Development (SD) Department hosted the inaugural event of its “Front Porch” series. Over the past three years, SD faculty members Dr. Anne Fanatico, Dr. Cody Miller, Dr. Matt Ogwu, and Dr. Alexia Witcombe worked to secure funding for the construction of a timber frame pavilion at the Living Learning Center adjacent to the Department’s Civic Garden, a working campus community garden where faculty teach students and students volunteer to steward the garden. The pavilion is designed to serve as a traditional Southern front porch, a place where friends gather and share stories, play music and pass the time. The Department's Lead Administrative Support Specialist, Emma Van Gilder, was instrumental in planning the inaugural event, which featured local farmer and SD instructor Jay Bost, owner of Laughing Springs Farm in Boone, as well as live music and food from F.A.R.M Cafe and Mellow Mushroom.
The Department plans to host regular Front Porch series events in the Fall and Spring semesters. “With each event,” Dr. Miller notes, “we will invite a guest speaker within the broad realm of food and agriculture to use the Front Porch in a way that celebrates their expertise and curiosity as vehicles to create community and possibility.” Dr. Miller continued, “I see our Front Porch as one small ‘pocket’ of folks coming together to do dynamic, creative, and productive porch sitting. We can use our small little corner of the American South to create the future(s) we want for our region.”
The new Front Porch pavilion was made possible by generous donations from The Goodnight Family and with grant funding from AgSouth’s “Growing Our Communities” program.
Dr. Cody Miller greets folks at the Inaugural Front Porch event
Dr. Cody Miller greets folks at the Inaugural Front Porch event