Appalachian Food Summit wins 2015 John Egerton Prize

Food is very important in Appalachia. Not that food isn’t important everywhere. But Appalachians are distinctly connected to their food as a cultural definition of who they are as a people – whether they themselves would say it in those words or not. The fact is that one of the very few places in which things like soup beans and cornbread are considered comfort food and lifted up as a delicacy is in the hills and hollers of Central Appalachia. We enhance our soup beans with everything from chopped onions to chow-chow relish to hot sauce, making as many variations with our garnishes as there are funnel cake booths at the local fall festival. And they are always served alongside cornbread – alongside, because the cornbread is a dish unto itself, not just an accessory. It’s always cooked crispy on the outside in a cast-iron skillet reserved specifically and exclusively for the baking of the most gaurded of family secret recipes: white, non-sweet cornbread. The non-sweet part is key. Sugar is for pound cake and homemade jam – not cornbread. Appalachian Food. It’s distinctly its own variety of regional fare – Southern, but different. American, but different. Its staples are the most humble, yet noble, of ingredients: corn meal, beans, fried dough, lard or bacon grease, small-garden grown cucumbers and tomatoes, chicken, wild plants and mushrooms foraged from local woods (ramps, dry-land fish – morels to the outsiders – sassafras). It’s food that comes from a past of subsistence and community – of...

Of 36 newly announced POWER Initiative grant awards, Central Appalachia will receive 22...

The Obama Administration announced yesterday new federal grants totaling more than $14 million for partnerships in 12 states and tribal nations. The money comes from the POWER Initiative, which the administration bills as the down-payment on the POWER+ Plan, and addresses immediate need created by the collapse of the coal industry. The POWER+ Plan proposes an almost $10 billion investment in coal communities to help them transition into a new economy.  Of the 36 total awards, Kentucky is getting 14. With those 14 factored in, Central Appalachia is getting 22. That’s a lot of federal money making its way into the mountains, and it’s definitely going to help move the region forward. Some highlights of projects being funded with these grants: $200,000 EDA grant to Appalshop, in Whitesburg, Ky., for Mines to Minds: The Southeast Kentucky High Tech Workforce Certificate Project. Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) is also awarding $75,000 to this project. The project will develop a one-year IT workforce certificate program targeted to communities affected by the reduction in coal employment. $100,000 EDA grant to Perry County Fiscal Court in Hazard, Ky., for the Southeastern Kentucky Economic HUB Opportunities Diversification Implementation Project. This project will fund a position that coordinates implementation of the region’s Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy across targeted industry clusters, while leveraging existing resources to invest in skills development and job placement for dislocated workers. $80,000 to the Kentucky River Area Development District in Hazard, Ky., to fund a first-ever inventory of existing businesses in the region. $274,500 to...