Farming is more than a $20 billion industry in Arkansas. So it tracks that an Arkansas family owned farm operating out of Conway would make their way to the Folklife Festival in North Little Rock. This week, we’ve been hearing stories from our reporter Jack Travis, who visited the art, craft, music, food and more fair that took place in North Little Rock late last month. Here’s his next one. It’s about Hardin Farms and Healthy Flavors’ efforts to provide fresh produce to grade schoolers.
What’s better than a cold cube of watermelon on a hot June evening? Not much, by this reporter’s account. That experience, paired with the sounds of a ball game echoing from Dickey-Stephens Park, is exactly what Hardin Farms and Healthy Flavors offered to attendees of the Arkansas Folklife Festival in North Little Rock last month. Rockey Nichols, with Healthy Flavors Arkansas, says their mission goes beyond making summer memories.
“Just within the last decade, we have the farm. The owner of the farm, Dan Spatz, he has such passion, and his goal is to bring fresh produce to primary schools. And currently we’re doing business with probably a half a dozen or better school districts in West Arkansas and Northwest Arkansas, and some more in Tennessee. And we bring all fresh produce that we grew, and we partner with other farms like Hardin Farms and Mid-South Seed Farm. And our goal is to make the young American population healthy by eating non-processed food.”…