I am a firm believer that as students of DePauw, we are members of the Greencastle community.
This may seem like a wild conclusion, but for nine months of the year, we live in Greencastle. We eat at Greencastle restaurants. We shop at Greencastle stores. We fill up our gas at Greencastle gas stations.
We need to support this community. DePauw has the most resources to support this community, and they took a great step by providing all locally grown food at Hoover Hall for lunch yesterday.
Putnam County is largely a rural community, meaning that a large percentage of the county is farmland. Outside of downtown Greencastle, DePauw’s campus, downtown Cloverdale and the business district of Greencastle, the rest is pretty much farmland. Just like we support the local restaurant and shop owners, we need to support these farmers.
DePauw can have the biggest impact on supporting these farmers, and it took a step in the right direction by offering all locally grown food today. They should continue to do this. With the amount of students that eat at Hoover Hall on a regular basis, there isn’t another restaurant or dining facility that can have as big of an impact on the Putnam County farmers as Hoover.
Supporting Greencastle should not just end there. Students and faculty members should continue to support the local businesses like this is their home because we are members of this community. But one of the biggest aspects of Putnam County, its farmland, can be so easily supported and enhanced by DePauw.
Bravo, DePauw. And I hope this was not a one-day occasion. As huge contributors to Greencastle, we can do a better job of supporting the community, and that starts with continuing what was put into effect today at Hoover Hall.