Let's Grow Akron's Lisa Nunn honored as Local Food Hero

September 25, 2017

By Bob Downing

Photo by Tim Fitzwater

 Lisa Nunn is ready, just give her a cape.

Nunn said she is prepared to be honored as the inaugural Local Food Hero on Sept. 26 by the Summit Food Coalition.

Heroes, especially she-heroes, really need to wear capes, she said with a big laugh.

She is being honored for her “significant positive impact” on the local food scene in Summit County.

Nunn is the executive director of Let’s Grow Akron and a partner in many activities in and around the Summit Lake neighborhood in South Akron.

Those at the Sept. 21 meeting of the Summit Lake Neighborhood Association gave Nunn a round of applause for being honored by the Summit Food Coalition. It is a group devoted to increasing access to healthy food.

The fund-raising event, Savor the Summit: Celebrating Local Food, Brews and Heroes, will run from 6 to 9 p.m. at the HiHo Brewing Co. in Cuyahoga Falls.

Nunn’s community-based group, Let’s Grow Akron, has been involved in expanding community gardens. There are nearly 100, many growing vegetables.

It sponsors the Summit Lake Farmer’s Market and has been expanding cooking and canning classes in the area. It has also set up compost stations and works with youth to teach them how to grow and sell food at markets.

Nunn, 44, of Akron told the Akron Beacon Journal that she was “very humbled and honored” by the award.

She started volunteering with Let’s Grow Akron in 2005 and became executive director in 2012 after working on staff for three years with the group’s founder, the late Elaine Evans.