Chesterhill: Past & Present

ACEnet Multimedia Designer, Avery Snyder, had the pleasure of meeting up with Dr. Amelia Adams for a personal tour and history lesson of Chesterhill, Ohio in December 2023. Avery is currently designing a logo and website for Chesterhill as a part of the Ohio’s Winding Road Trail Town and Community Networks, funded by a USDA Rural Business Development Grant and an ARC POWER grant

Chesterhill is a small village in Southeastern Ohio that was founded by Quakers in 1834 and was originally named Chesterfield. Chesterhill and the surrounding area have been, and still are, home to a variety of communities including its Quaker founders, the original Native American inhabitants, and a thriving Amish community. There is still an active Quaker congregation that meets weekly at the historic Quaker Meeting House.

In the past, residents of Chesterhill used the nearby historic Kincaid Cave to shelter runaway slaves as a part of the Underground Railroad. Today, the Multicultural Genealogy Center is a place where people can gather to conduct family research and share family histories. The Center also has an Escape Room called Compass to Freedom in which participants seek clues as they seek their freedom along the underground railroad.

Currently, the people of Chesterhill are working together to restore many of the buildings in town, such as the Little Red Schoolhouse and the Union Hall Theatre, which is above the current library. Other places of note include the Chesterhill Produce Auction; the Triple Nickle Diner; and the Milk House Cottage & Garden. Several hiking trails, including the Buckeye Trail, pass through the Village.

Avery is excited to be working on this project that helps showcase all of the rich history and heritage that Chesterhill has to offer to the community at large. Stay tuned to see to see the finished logo and website in March!

Community Update by ACEnet Multimedia Designer, Avery Snyder, and Dr. Amelia Adams

Photo credit: Avery Snyder

February brings us ACEnet Director of Programs Leslie Schaller's 30th anniversary at ACEnet! We celebrated Leslie last week with a locally sourced lunch, featuring a fun Leslie-centric slideshow and a proclamation from the Athens County Commissioners, that was well attended by various clients, partners, and friends.

In her 30 years working with ACEnet, she has made an incredible impact for small businesses in our region. As part of the original staff of ACEnet, Leslie helped create the Food Ventures Center, ACEnet’s kitchen incubator for small food & farm businesses. Since its grand opening in 1996, the Food Ventures Center has provided licensed commercial kitchen, thermal processing, packaging, food service, and warehouse space to hundreds of small businesses.

Leslie has provided technical assistance to more than 1,000 small businesses, written over 500 successfully funded grants (and who knows how many grants total), and delivered hundreds of small business trainings & workshops throughout the years.

Beginning next week, ACEnet will be a plastic film collection site for the Athens Conservancy and Athens Farmers Market. The Athens Conservancy is partnering with Athens Farmers Market to collect 1,000 pounds of plastic film for NexTrex to turn into a park bench.

The bench will be placed at the Lindy Roosenburg Preserve, a 71 acre old growth forest with 1.5 miles of hiking trails.

ACEnet's collection bin will be in Building B and will be accessible during business hours (9am-5pm, M-F). There are other collection sites at the Athens Farmers Market and Kindred Market.

We are accepting clean, dry plastics, including plastic bags (grocery, produce, bread, cereal, ice, dry cleaning, retail, etc.), Ziploc style resealable food storage bags, product wrap (paper towels, bath tissue, water bottle cases, newspapers, etc.), plastic shipping materials (bubble wrap, "bagged air" pillows, shipping envelopes), pallet wrap, pellet bags (wood, salt), and #2 or #4 plastic films (polyethylene films).

Full list of acceptable and non-acceptable items

Looking for meaningful, joyful, hands-on, outdoor, awesome work this summer?

Applications are open for the Appalachian Accessible Food Network summer AmeriCorps Team, serving with ACEnet, Community Food Initiatives, and Rural Action.

See the flyer for more information, and scan the QR code or click the button to apply.

ACEnet's Women in Business Conference will return for its 6th year in May! This annual event unites women entrepreneurs in all stages of business development for a one day conference that focused on professional development, personal development, networking with other women who own and operate small businesses, and connecting to small business resources. In 2023, we welcomed more than 50 entrepreneurs to this event!

Thanks to our generous local sponsors, we are able to keep this event FREE for attendees each year! Stay tuned for details (and sponsorship opportunities), and you can check out our past Women in Business Conferences on our website!

https://acenetworks.org/women-in-business-conference/

ACEnet currently has 988 sq.ft. (19’x52′) of fenced/secured warehouse rental space available in our Nelsonville Business Center warehouse at 296 S. Harpers Street!

Call 740-592-3854 for more info.

In 2023, non-profit partners ACEnet, Community Food Initiatives (CFI), and Rural Action worked with local school districts to capture local children participating in the Sprouts programs throughout the seasons. (Sprouts is a garden education curriculum used primarily with first grade students in conjunction with their school’s garden.) 

The resulting public photo exhibit, Planting the Seed: Engaging Students in Food and Agriculture, has been on display at the Athens Community Center since November 2023. It will move to the children’s area of the Athens Public Library for March & April.

Funded by a USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) grant, the exhibit highlights the results of the agriculturally-focused experiential learning activities at school and community gardens and field trips hosted by area farmers, and features the photography of ACEnet and Rural Action staff: Avery Snyder, Delia Palmisano, Molly Sowash, and Amy Nicolai.

The partners would like to thank all the students, parents, volunteers, and local farmers from Morrison-Gordon Elementary, East Elementary, Amesville Elementary, COMcorps, Blackberry Sage Farm, Solid Ground Farm, and Chesterhill Produce Auction that made this exhibit possible.

We're excited to share with you the second installment of "Home, Cooking" by Rebecca Onion for the Athens County Independent, a new monthly column sponsored by ACEnet, showcasing seasonal cooking with local ingredients currently available at the Athens Farmers Market!

In this edition, Rebecca features Sausage, Squash and Kale Soup, which is perfect for winter.

https://athensindependent.com/home-cooking-jan24/

Starting February 1, we have left behind our two different hourly rates (Prepared Foods/Tabletop) in the ACEnet kitchens and went strictly to one general kitchen usage rate.

This new rate will be $16 per hour (rate is increasing by $1.00)

This new hourly rate applies to both the Athens and Nelsonville kitchen spaces.

There will still be the separate hourly rate for usage in the thermal processing room. 

Our friends in Arkansas at the Spring Creek Food Hub are looking for a Farm Production Manager for their newly established NWA Land Trust Berryville Farm! The Berryville Farm will be a complement to the current diverse mix of excellent growers in Northwest Arkansas, and the Farm Production Manager will implement a production plan developed by Spring Creek Food Hub.

https://springcreekfoodhub.org/jobs/farm-production-manager/

In 2020 we began hosting a Virtual Holiday Open House to introduce you to many of the ACEnet family of entrepreneurs, both present & graduated, and shop their businesses.

Our 2023 Virtual Holiday Open House introduced you to 42 local small businesses, including 9 new businesses, from arts to food ventures to wellness, on our website, in our newsletter, and through daily posts to our Facebook and Instagram.

Our website saw more than 2,200 sessions, with visitors spending an average of 1 minutes and 19 seconds on the Open House page. Our social media posts reached a total of 13,256 Facebook users, 709 Instagram Users, and garnered 772 post engagements on Facebook & 345 engagements on Instagram.

Thanks for stopping by, and as always, thanks for supporting your local businesses!

Your support helps us provide 1-1 training and assistance to entrepreneurs, in all sectors, on a daily basis on everything from business planning & financial management to brand development and marketing. Your support also helps us provide our Food & Farm entrepreneurs with the space and equipment they need to grow their businesses.

You can support us when you shop at Kroger by participating in the Kroger Community Rewards program! By designating “ACE NET” (the space in the middle is necessary) as the recipient of your Community Rewards points, Kroger will contribute a portion of the proceeds to ACEnet.

More info & sign up here: https://www.kroger.com/i/community/community-rewards