The Kosciusko County Community Foundation put on the seventh Barn and Business Breakfast at the Winona Heritage Room on Tuesday, March 7. It’s meant to allow agricultural and other leaders to hear about community issues.

Text and Photos
By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

WINONA LAKE — Quality of life is essential to helping communities grow.

About 200 attendees at the Kosciusko County Community Foundation’s seventh Barn and Business Breakfast heard about that topic from speaker Dr. Emily Wornell on Tuesday morning, March 7, at the Winona Heritage Room.

The event is meant to allow agricultural and other leaders to hear about community issues. The breakfast returned Tuesday after a three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wornell serves as the assistant director at Ball State University’s Center for Local and State Policy.

She started her talk by noting that statistics show quality of life is more important for attracting new residents to a community than job creation.

“So people choose a good place where they want to live and … because most of the jobs that we’re creating in the country need a strong set foundation of people, those jobs will then follow,” she said. “And people choose where they want to live based on the quality of that community.”

She then talked about “eight different types of capital that every single community in the country has at different levels.” Those are financial, natural, intellectual, human, social, physical, political and cultural.

Wornell said leaders should examine their own communities’ needs.

“So you’re looking at the people who live there today and looking at what are the things that they need in order to thrive,” she said. “And the great thing is that if you were to increase quality of life in your local community today, you’re more than likely going to be attracting people to your community as well.”

She noted even if people don’t move to a community when quality of life is improved there, “you’ve still increased quality of life.”

She encouraged event attendees to think about “the people who are here that you have in this fantastic forum and then think about who’s not here.”

“Who are the groups of people in your community that you don’t actually hear from very often? And how are we to start to engage those people?” she said.

That could include moving important meeting dates to different times to accommodate workers, having translators for those who struggle with English and making accommodations for transportation and child care.

Wornell noted improving measures for one particular group of people usually benefits others as well.

She did add leaders should consider short- and long-term effects when developing solutions to problems.

The event featured speaker Dr. Emily Wornell, the assistant director of Ball State University’s Center for Local and State Policy.

Kosciusko County Farm Bureau President Ryan Martin speaks at the start of the event.

Local FFA members stand on stage before leading the Pledge of Allegiance. From left: Warsaw FFA Vice President Alyssa Swanson, Whitko FFA President Maggie Wolfe, Wawasee FFA President Reagan Scott and Tippecanoe Valley FFA President Lucas Parson.

At the event are from left: Tippecanoe Valley FFA member Skyler Flippo; Tammy Boggs and Ed Boggs with Boggs Angus Farm; Warsaw FFA member Andon Zehring; and Becky Levinson and Frank Levinson.

Having discussion are from left: Debbie Colman, Warsaw FFA Advisor Madelyn Zimmerman, Warsaw FFA member Kaytlin Skeans and Warsaw FFA Advisor Jacob Riley.