Southwest Wisconsin Local Food Summit

Rink DaVee and his wife, Jenny Bonde, run a diversified certified organic vegetable farm in rural Mineral Point. His passion for having locally grown foods more widely available in SW Wisconsin led him to take the position coordinating the new Local Fare initiative. He is the former general manager of Home Grown Wisconsin, a cooperative distributing organic fruits and vegetables to Chicago's top restaurants.

Kathleen Hein is a full-time mom who has begun a grass roots effort to bring fresh local foods to the schools in Prairie du Chien. She left her job as a chemical engineer after the birth of her first daughter almost seven years ago. Since then she has become very active in the community. She is a member of Prairie du Chien City Council. She serves on the board of directors for Prairie du Chien Downtown Revitalization Inc. (PDRI) and is chair of PDRI’s design committee. Kathleen also volunteers in her children’s class rooms and teaches yoga.

Chef David "Wave" Kasprzak has owned and operated The Dining Room at 209 Main in Monticello since 1996 with his wife, Jane Sybers. Regularly changing menus offer a sophisticated presentation of interesting dishes featuring local ingredients, resulting in an ability to successfully walk the line between uptown food and small-town atmosphere.

Chris McGuire and his wife, Juli, operate Two Onion Farm in Belmont where they grow more than 20 varieties of vegetables. They market their produce to 200 households in the Platteville, Dubuque, Madison, and Galena areas through a community supported agriculture (CSA) program: consumers enroll as farm members to receive regular deliveries and a direct connection to the farmers who grow their food. Chris and Juli communicate with members through weekly newsletters and members have the opportunity to work on the farm for a hands-on understanding of how food is grown.

Ken Ruegsegger operates Paoli Local Foods, a full-service grocery store in Paoli that carries meat, dairy, organic produce and eggs from more than 70 local producers. Ken, his wife Sherrie, and their family have raised and marketed hormone- and antibiotic-free beef, pork, veal, lamb, eggs, chicken, bison and ostrich on their Blanchardville farm since the early 1990s. Ken offers extensive experience in selling at farmers' markets and operating a home delivery service for his own products as well as goods from other local farms.

Jeanne Carpenter was raised on a family farm near Belmont and worked as a city government reporter at newspapers in Wisconsin and Idaho. She spent four years in the corporate world at Epic Systems Corporation in Madison, and then four years in the public sector as a communications specialist at the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. Today, as part of her own communications firm, she assists organizations in promoting local and artisan foods. She lives with her husband and daughter in Oregon, Wisconsin.

Carol Roth has several years experience working with local producers through her work as an Outreach Specialist at the Program for Agricultural Technology Studies with the University of Wisconsin-Madison and UW-Extension. She operates Starfish Consulting in Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin, and is available to conduct educational and training sessions, such as this workshop's afternoon World Café session. This tool has proven to be an innovative, yet simple way for hosting conversations about questions that matter.