Ground Level Blog

Memorial honors Chuck Waibel, passionate about local food

People are gathering at noon Saturday in the tiny town of Milan in western Minnesota to remember Chuck Waibel, a voice in the local food movement for growing produce all winter long, even in Minnesota.

0.jpg

In the process of building a network of winter-time food producers, supported by a fellowship from the Bush Foundation, Waibel died this summer of colon cancer at the age of 55.

The West Central Tribune has a nice story on him and the event Saturday.

Waibel and his wife, Carol Ford, ran the Garden Goddess Greenhouse, and several years ago when we were writing about local food, we sent MPR News' Molly Bloom to Milan to create this video of what they were up to. It's a nice look at a vibrant man passionate about an idea. As he says in the video, it's not just about food, it's about the essential human need to be in a community.

The memorial will be at the Milan Community Center.