Greater Spring Hill Area Local ‘Farm to Table’ Initiative

Greater Spring Hill Area Local Food Advocacy Formed

Spring Hill FRESH is all about advocating a connected, vibrant, involved community for our the Spring Hill/Thompson’s Station areas.

Our vision is to help provide access, information and opportunities where our communities can flourish in serving one another and serving the greater good for our area.

It is for this reason we believe one of our focuses should be in the area of promoting and ensuring a healthy local food system which includes but is not limited to, our local farmers and food producers, processors, distributors, restaurants, markets, community gardens, local schools, agri-business, health educators and to us…the local consumer.

We felt one of the best ways to help our local residents realize the access they have to locally produced foods and the benefits this brings to our personal health, creation of local jobs, and increase to our local economy, was to form a grassroots effort (we like to think of ourselves as a ‘posse’:>) we call the Local ‘Farm to Table’ Initiative for the Greater Spring Hill Area.

While this initiative is still in its infancy stages…we have a clear vision on our main purposes which are to connect locals with local producers year round via much easier access and availability than what currently exists.

Dawn Craig

A vibrant healthy local food system is a real asset in the makeup of a great community. We have a local food system that resides all around us that can make our lives so much more healthier and enjoyable! We are hard at work to promote and help facilitate information and access points to local grown foods.

We have lists of CSA (Community Supported Agriculture ) farms, small pick your own or farm to market farms, local farmers market and community gardens and more. We are actively searching for local growers and producers to make this information easily available on our website as well as working on organizing special ‘Farm to Table’ events and opportunities that showcase our local food system.

Our Spring Hill FRESH Ambassador for our Agri-Initiative is Dawn Craig.

Dawn is a business professional that covers the West Coast market although she lives here locally. Dawn has a passion for and is personally vested in local agricultural and shares…”A little over five years ago, my husband and I, our two children, settled in Middle Tennessee  after living in eight other locations!

Living in so many places and expanding my family to four children has given me an appreciation for local community and also wholesome local food.

My passion is connecting our community with local producers of food and making it as easy as possible to use all the great resources that are in our area. 

That is why I have partnered with the vision and efforts of Spring Hill FRESH which will provide an active medium about our farmer’s markets, CSAs, and farms, as well as other food-related businesses and news.

Please feel free to contact Dawn if you have information to share, questions, events and such at dawnjcraig@yahoo.com.

In addition to Dawn Craig as member of this initiative is founder of Spring Hill FRESH,  Hazel Nieves. Being a “relo” from California…she has had lots of experience with Community Sustainable Agriculture (CSA’s) programs, Pick-Your-Own, Organic growing, niche farms, roadside stands, farmers markets, Community gardens and such.

She is a seasoned gardener herself with education in growing commercial Christmas trees and blueberry/blackberry farming.

Hazel Nieves

“I am so excited to see the move back to “Farm to Table” among people nowadays! Canning, preserving, natural approaches to health, support and respect for the farmer, being thrifty, recycling, supporting the ‘local’ economy, and more are all important aspects to creating a better lifestyle and environment for now and the future!

Our initiative is also committed to helping our community have current information available to us of area farmers and ranchers with Agriculture-related businesses, Agri-Entertainment and Agri-tourism such as pumpkin farms, wineries, farm tours, farms with campgrounds and picnic areas, Bed and Breakfasts on farms, etc. These enterprises not only enrich our lives…they…

• Create employment opportunities suited to the local workforce.
• Expand and diversify our local tax base.
• Attract new businesses and investments for our area.
• Encourage the continued economic viability of farming and ranching, and agricultural business.

If you would like to join this initiative as well and help grow the vision stated here, please contact springhillfresh@gmail.com.

If you are a farm, grower, producer of anything agricultural and would like to be listed and/or help connect our community with you…we encourage you to contact us as well!

This is our area and state and it’s clear our agricultural identity is an important asset for us all which means we must ensure it is healthy and growing! Join in today, will you!