This year our chosen focus is on Local Food and Aging Well. For almost eight years, our network has been sharing information resources on the web about food and food resources. The first project to be developed along food lines by Green Dove was Local Food, a directory resource of local foods in the Bloomington, IN area. That project was followed with an expansion of the resource information through various pages on the Indiana Holistic Health site. The Center for Sustainable Living has been very involved with a variety of gardening and food related projects, including permaculture, and has been connected in some ways with the unfolding of the Local Growers Guild. The Local Growers Guild is an alliance of growers producing food for market, CSA's (community supported agriculture) and commercial consumer products and are networking with Middleway Food Works to establish a consumer use incubator kitchen.

We believe there is an integral connection between how we eat and how well we age and what types of tools we use in maintaining our wellness through our older years. Combining food with traditional and complementary wellness practices and products, we think is a win-win strategy for gaining and sustaining health, and research is showing positive statistical results where food, is paired with healing and health sustaining practices, such as Reiki, Naturopathy, Acupuncture, Massage, Yoga and other wellness arts.

With food in mind, we take a closer look at locally grown food in the Bloomington area, means of supporting our local growers and how local food can reach out into our aging community, how to encourage more gardening in homes, schools, housing communities, sharing the harvest, skills for putting food by, saving seed and how wellness practitioners and providers can encourage and facilitate the connection with our natural world.

-- Grandmother, quoted by Lynn Andrews says, "Believe In Magic!" "... for magic to happen in your life, you must believe in magic." Magic is the creation of possibility. Together we work through the ideas and details of how we may develop into a thriving supportive, healthy sustainable local community.

Features of the 2008 Expo will Included:
- a variety of wellness practitioners
-whole food and local food
-eldercare
-workshops, speakers ,demonstrations
-businesses
-organizations
-sustainable and simple living resources
-community development & holistic affordable housing
-green building & permaculture
-renewable land, farming and permaculture resources
-healing sounds of poetry and music, storytelling -inspirational arts and crafts to engage the senses

and more.......

Please join us by participating and visitingthe free vendors area and signing up as a participant for a few workshops.

This education opportunity will again feature another amazing Healing Sounds Concert as a fundraiser and offer Free admittance into the Vendor area .

We would love to have you join us in presenting this community event, and welcome your participation. If you want to have hands on, contact us to learn how you can help with networking "Simply Healthy: Creating Sustainable Communities 2008. We look forward to working with you and sharing these amazing people and resources from Bloomington and across the state!

Conveners 2008