Timing turned out to be challenging for the series of Healthy Minds, Healthy Lives meetings scheduled across Indiana this summer. A previous blog discussed the rationale behind this program. It’s sponsored by the Indiana State Department of Agriculture and the Indiana Rural Health Association and was funded by a $500,000 USDA grant.

Initially, a series of more than 20 meetings was planned. “We were working within a tight time frame with the grant, and Mother Nature didn’t cooperate,” explains Bruce Kettler, ISDA executive director. “The first few meetings were held, but farmer attendance was low. That’s understandable since the spring season was delayed, and field work stacked up.

“Farmers are the primary target for this effort, so we wanted to do everything we could to encourage as many farmers as possible to attend. After conferring, we decided it was best to postpone the rest of the schedule and host the meetings when farmers have a better opportunity to attend.”

Kettler was able to receive a one-year extension on completing the USDA grant. He notes that the extension will allow for meetings to be rescheduled, likely late this year or early in 2023.

The Indiana AgriInstitute and Purdue University Extension were also partnering in this effort.

“Our partners assembled good content, and it should be extremely valuable for farmers and farm families,” Kettler says. “We will tweak the program a bit and issue a new schedule. The need is certainly still there, and we will find times which should work better with farmers’ schedules.”