Welcome to Across Indiana.

My name's Kevin Ratermann.

On this trip, we're exploring the phrase “Common Purpose.” In the next half hour, I want to see what a group of Hoosiers can do when they're all working together toward a common goal.

And what better place to do that than right here?

We're at the Riley Festival in downtown Greenfield, a yearly celebration with the common purpose of bringing the city together to honor one of Greenfield's very own, the world famous poet James Whitcomb Riley.

I'll have more about this festival in a few minutes.

But first, I'm going to send you up to northern Indiana, where one group's purpose is to preserve a Noble county structure that's almost as old as the state itself.

Join Across Indiana as I visited Stones Trace Historical Society and their annual Hearthside Dinner.

If you look closely when you're on the road between Fort Wayne and Elkhart.

You'll spot a little trace of history when you're just south of Ligonier, Indiana.

The locals call it Stone's Trace, and these local volunteers are getting dinner ready.

Right now I'm Wendy, but soon I'll be Susan.

Wendy Howard is one of those volunteers, and she's currently portraying a woman named Susan Higgins.

All right, sir Richard Stone, thank you for coming.

And this is Jim Hossler.

He's portraying Susan Higgins son in law.

Richard Stone, the original owner of this historic property.

I'm a history buff.

Basically it is.

I'm a history buff when I was in school.

I love the Civil War era.

I love that time period.

It's a lot of fun to do.

I try to think of how she would have felt, things she would have done.

Both are members of the Stones Trace Historical Society.

And they're currently welcoming guests for an annual fundraiser, The Hearthside Dinner.

An immersive event where everything and I mean everything, The menu, The food, the costumes, All of it is inspired by what life was like right here in Indiana in the mid eighteen hundreds.

This experience means a lot to everyone involved.

I'm actually rather new here compared to many of the members, but have just gotten in and gotten going, and it was actually at the Hearthside Dinner was the first thing that I came to.

Figured you always need someone to wash dishes, and I volunteered to do that.

And they actually put me in a serving, and I've been here ever since.

All the proceeds from this event help maintain Stone's Trace and all of the historic structures here, especially their oldest building.

The tavern, its the biggest attraction is what he had built in the 1830s.

It was his third home.

At roughly 190 years young, this tavern is almost as old as the state itself.

And this wasn't just Richard Stone's home or Richard Stone's Tavern.

Because you think tavern you think of a bar, but isnt necessarily that it was a roadside inn to where people would stay It was the building of the area, the tavern, the inn, the church, the trading post, the courthouse, jailhouse, schoolhouse.

You name it.

It probably housed it.

Just like how it's Housing 20 guests dressed to the nines.

They're getting ready to eat the first of their next nine Courses worth of food.

so your first course, it says spiced apples.

for our next course it's mint cherry ice.

Its amazing how full you get because you're eating more slowly.

So you may look at your plate and it's like, oh, there's not very much on there, But by the time you get to maybe the fourth course, maybe the fifth, I've had people say please stop feeding me because they were just so far with everything.

And each new Course is served with just a little bit of history on the side.

for our next course, it's charcuterie.

Now, most of us think of a fancy charcuterie board.

Charcuterie actually was a smoked meat.

The word broken down is cooked flesh.

it was to preserve again they did not have refrigeration.

for the next course that we have coming, it says sippets and jam how do you describe sippets, It's it's like like a grilled cheese sandwich, but it's just the toast.

And it would just be buttered and toasted they would always cut the crust off because you know, they didn't have like plastic containers to keep everything fresh.

So it would the crust would get really hard.

It takes a lot of work to cook, present and serve all of this history.

And while Wendy has spent the last five months planning every little detail of the evening.

The historical society itself has spent the last 60 years preserving Stone's Tavern.

And that was no small task.

You see.

Richard Stone only owned this building for about 20 years.

You know, he built it in 1837.

He lived there until 1860.

Sold it.

And then it was turned into a barn.

yep.

You heard that right.

The building that all these guests are Currently enjoying their dinner in?

That building spent the better part of a century as just a regular old Barn in the western half of Noble County.

The windows were gone.

And it had lean tos and everything on it.

After Experiencing the next 80 to 90.

Years of wear and tear on a farm.

Stone's tavern, or I guess barn, Looked like it was close to collapsing In the 1960s But it Was never just an old barn to a Special group of people.

The Stone's Trace Historical Society Stepped in and Acquired the property, And those Volunteers worked hard to preserve some of their oldest history still Standing the siding, the roof, the chimneys, the fireplaces are not the original, So the bones of the tavern is still his.

His hands touched every wall stud, every floor joist, every rafter, everything there he touched and put together.

The society brought the tavern back to life, piece by piece.

And they've been bringing the 1800s Back to life ever since.

Welcoming all who enjoy experiencing Indiana history like Barbara Adams.

I thought it was awesome.

I learned different aspects of how they cooked the food and how they prepared the food.

I just always learn when I come to things like this, I like that ice, which I thought was interesting that they use that to cleanse your palate.

That was something I really didn't know.

One historic experience to help preserve one historic tavern.

we've been here forever, you know, tornadoes and storms and all the bad winters.

She still stands.

So we can say our ancestors knew how to build stuff.

to remember that we came from somewhere, and, someone had to come here and do all of the work so that you can enjoy the things that you're enjoying now, And it's just a lot of fun.

Welcome back to the Riley Festival.

Joining me now with some background on this festival and Greenfield's connection to James Whitcomb Riley is Riley Festival board member, Nancy Alldredge.

Nancy, thank you so much for being here today.

Thank you for asking.

I'm not from Indiana.

What is James Whitcomb Riley connection here in Greenfield?

James Whitcomb Riley was born in Greenfield in 1850, and the festival was started in his memory many years ago.

It was called Riley Days for many years.

And then it was changed to Riley Festival about 50 years ago.

we want to keep his memory alive.

And, of course, he's a he's a Hoosier poet.

He was known as a Hoosier poet, and he wrote many poems.

And today we're celebrating the parade of flowers with the 250th anniversary.

And he wrote the poem The Old Glory, which is the theme for this year's festival.

How many years has the Riley Festival or some version of it been happening here?

Well, I've been associated with it about 50 years, and it was Riley Festival back when I started Well, keeps bringing you back year after year.

I love the festival.

I like setting it up.

I've always like working with the vendors and getting them in their spaces and being a part of the community.

What was it like the first time you saw the Riley Festival?

Well, my children were in grade school at that time at the Riley School.

And, they were in the parade of flowers.

The festival parade of flowers is one of the oldest events that we've had.

where the schoolchildren marched down to the statue and placed their bouquets around the statue.

Each school would march downtown and, be in the Festival Parade.

Now then we have to bus the kids in for the festival parade, How many people do you expect to stop by here sometime in the next four days?

Well, we always expect a crowd of about 60,000 during the four days of the festival.

Nancy Alldredge, thank you so much for being here today.

It meant the world to us for you to join us.

Well, I hope I was satisfactory.

Oh, you did fantastic.

And now I'm going to send you to Second Helpings, a hunger relief agency near downtown Indianapolis.

Join Across Indiana's Caleb Lopez as he learns more about this nonprofit's purpose, making sure that people in need have something to eat.

Have you ever wondered what happens to perfectly good food after a grocery store or restaurant doesn't need it anymore?

Every year, millions of pounds of perfectly edible food end up going to waste.

But in Indianapolis, one nonprofit is changing that.

Well, we started Second Helpings 28 years ago to do three things.

Primarily.

One was rescue food One was rescue food that was being thrown out disposed of.

That was perfectly good.

The second was take that food that, is perfectly good food that, is perfectly good food and turn it into nutritious meal for our neighbors here in central Indiana.

And then thirdly, to create jobs for culinary, for the culinary industry through our culinary job training program.

So those three programs are how we started 28 years ago.

And we're still going strong today.

At Second Helpings, we came to learn about food rescue and accidentally showed up on Crazy Hat Day.

A fun reminder that making a difference doesn't always have to look so serious.

Behind the colorful hats is a mission with a simple goal rescuing perfectly good food before it goes to waste.

But what exactly is rescued food?

So when people hear the word rescued food, it's perfectly good food.

Nothing wrong with it at all.

In fact, some of the produce that we get in is as good as the days that I was in a kitchen as a chef.

Getting it right off a produce truck.

The retailers, the food service distributors have decided they can't sell it.

And but it's perfectly good.

So we they offer it to us, which we will gladly take.

Our fiscal year just wrapped up on June 30th, and we rescued 5 million pounds of food last year.

pounds of food last year.

In my tenure, we have just gradually increased every year, so that 5 million was a record.

And I would assume that we will surpass that in this current year.

So what happens after the food is rescued?

The next step is making sure every donation is safe to prepare and serve.

This is where the drivers This is where the drivers will come through that door and they'll deliver whoever's back here.

All the meat, All the meat, produce, dairy, bread.

Just a little bit of everything that they pick up from the other, locations that they rescue.

And then they sort through to make sure one that its good, its time temperature sensitive and safe.

And then, they put it in this cooler, which we call Fiona.

Like This got delivered right at lunch.

Once every item is inspected, the rescued food begins its second life.

So how does the kitchen come up with new recipes for ingredients that change everyday?

It basically just falls down It basically just falls down into what we have available that day, well come in around 7:30 in the morning, see what we have available on our shelves and in our blast chiller.

And then we just kind of create from there.

Today we are making about 120 pans to send out to our agencies.

So we have a carbonara with bacon being made today.

We have a stir fry being made as well.

And then we have some prep work going on.

We're cooking off some rice, we're cooking off some raw meat, and then we're also cooking off pasta today.

Because every food rescue is different, the kitchen has to stay flexible The menu changes every day based on what's available, turning a different supply of ingredients into nutritious meals.

It definitely takes creativity.

Also innovation.

And then the main thing is it takes volunteers, it takes the community, it takes the public to help us make these meals, because without them, we would not be able to do half of what we're doing now.

Preparing thousands of meals each week takes more than a kitchen.

Over the past 12 months, Second Helpings has prepared nearly 1.4 million meals, averaging around 5,000 meals every day.

Since their start, they have served over 22 million meals across central Indiana.

Reaching that scale takes a community.

Every month, volunteers contribute nearly 3,600 hours.

With dozens of people stepping into the kitchen each day to chop, cook, package and prepare meals.

Their support makes it possible to rescue more food, serve more people, and keep the operation running.

We joined Maggie as she demonstrated the packing process to volunteers.

So I'm going to have you scoop families, which are 2 pounds apiece.

Stir it.

Make sure we get all the tasty goodness all together.

Careful, we're not in a rush.

After it's done, close it up.

Handling instructions in the center.

So flavor, instructions, tell me what you think.

Bam!

While some volunteers are here for the first time, others have made Second Helpings a part of their routine for years.

My name is Nora Garrett.

I've been here since 2011, I've been here since 2011, and I volunteer every Wednesday morning.

Second helpings is different and special, and they make you feel so needed and so appreciated.

I just know that every year there are more and more agencies that need Second Helpings food, and I encourage everyone to volunteer.

So once all the food has been cooked and packed, where does it go?

For many of our partners, they don't exist just to serve food to the community food to the community like they have some other mission that they're doing.

So what it means to receive second helpings meals, is it just frees up their resources that they're using to purchase food for the people that come there to put back into their programing and what they're really there to do.

Some of them receive meals every day of the week, some of them receive meals certain days of the week and then redistributed items on other days to help supplement the days.

Maybe when we're not providing the food and again, trying to connect them with what's going to be most beneficial to the community that they're serving.

Every meal has a destination.

Second Helpings supports over 200 local nonprofits and service agencies across central Indiana, some of which include afterschool programs, churches, homeless shelters, and other community organizations.

These meals allow their partners to focus on their mission while ensuring the people they serve have access to nutritious food.

But for the people behind Second Helpings, the mission has always been about something much bigger than food.

It haunted me that there were children in Indianapolis, in central Indiana that were going hungry.

And that was my driving force getting kids fed.

If you can imagine being a child in fourth grade, fifth grade, and not looking forward to summer vacation because you didn't know if you were going to eat or not, because the meals that they had were in a school, in a classroom, at lunch, that I can't fathom that.

Behind every rescued ingredient is a story.

A driver who picked it up.

A volunteer who prepared it.

A partner who served it.

And someone who no longer had to wonder where their next meal would come from.

Making sure that kids get nutritious meals on a day to day basis still, is a priority for me, that there's not much they can do to control it.

But we can help.

And we do every single day.

Welcome back to the Riley Festival.

I'm here with the chair of the flower parade, Terry Beagle.

Terry, I saw something earlier today that blew my mind.

What did I see earlier?

You saw 600 young people with flags and flowers come to decorate Mr.

Riley for his birthday.

James Whitcomb Riley put this town on the map.

He's known as the children's poet.

He is our favorite son.

We have his birthplace and museum here.

It's on the National Register.

it makes Greenfield what it is.

And you look around town, there's an awful lot of Riley things here.

For someone that's not from Indiana, what's the story behind bringing flowers to James Whitcomb Riley.

Back a long time ago, on Riley's birthday, children came to see him on the porch of the Riley home, and they brought flowers He rode in a car down here to the courthouse, and they threw flowers on the car.

That was the beginning, back in 1912.

It has evolved to bussing students in from schools, and we now have not only students from Greenfield Central, students from New Palestine.

And they are bussed in here and they bring their flowers and march up, and our Queen and court and some of our local business people and local dignitaries take them and decorate the statue.

What's the flower parade mean to the people of Greenfield?

Everybody wants to either participate in it or see their kids and grandkids bring flowers, What did it mean to you when you saw them walk around the corner?

I got tears in my eyes.

I thought it was great to see all those flags and all those smiling faces and their school shirts and their patriotism.

I thought it was fantastic.

Terry Beagle, thank you so much for taking the time today.

I really appreciate it.

I enjoyed it.

And I've got one more story for you.

This one will take you to the west side of Indianapolis, where you'll find a museum that was accidentally started.

it quickly became a place for people from all over the world and the Hoosier State to gather together with their one common purpose, sharing a piece of their own culture.

When it comes to starting a museum, you would think that would be something youd do on purpose.

But here on the west side of Indianapolis, that's not always the case.

that's what we called it.

We were accidental museum-ers.

We didn't know what we were doing, but it feels amazing.

Mary Clark is the executive director of Indy's Global Village Museum.

She's west side, born and raised.

Shes spent her career working in and managing a wide variety of different businesses from all around the area and she's a founding member of the International Marketplace Coalition, the local organization that promotes economic growth in this very diverse area.

let me tell you what I know.

If you spend a little time with people, just a little time talking to people, getting to know them, maybe breaking bread with them, those biases disappear.

years ago, when the coalition was still young, Mary started to notice something.

our first office was a 700 square foot office People started donating things People really love sharing and donating bits and pieces of their own culture.

pieces that showcased who they were, where they're from, and what makes that area so special.

More and more of these unique donations kept coming through the coalition's door.

we moved into a 1900 square foot office.

And that's when people really started donating things.

I mean, people were walking in our building with, statues that were tall as me, and I'm almost six feet tall.

And the more that happened, the more we realized.

Maybe we need to start looking at a place where we can show people how our differences aren't so different.

and with that inspiration, Indy's Global Village Museum was founded.

But don't just call it a history museum or just an art museum.

We're a global museum.

We're, museum that will take you around the world Today, the collection takes up over 40,000 square feet, representing over 180 different countries.

there are dolls from India a Native American headdress, clothes a Nepalese man wore to his own wedding.

and sculptures, paintings and other works of art that show slices of life from all around the world.

Mary just has one rule when you stroll through these doors.

So if you walk into one, the galleries and you don't see yourself, I get to say this to you.

It's not my fault, it's yours.

You don't see yourself because everything in this museum has been donated.

out of the entire collection, Mary estimates that 70% came from people that have spent their lives traveling the world.

People like Carol Mehra.

English is my first language.

And I do speak two dialects from India, Hindi and Konkani, And then I speak Spanish, I speak Arabic, I speak Swahili.

Carol was born in Africa.

Educated in India and then spent her nursing career traveling across the world and back.

But after all those years of work and travel and life, some downsizing was in order.

and I just didn't know what to do with it.

I didn't want to have a garage sale.

So that's why I got in contact with Mary and that was able to donate everything here.

And Carol didn't just bring 1 or 2 things.

She donated hundreds of items, So, one is the little dresser that used to be on a little landing in my house.

We would put our keys into the drawer, but that is made of wood and ivory, and it has glass.

You know that you could kind of look into it and see whether your makeup is correct.

furniture, bases and more.

All of it donated.

Just so Carol can share a little bit of herself with the world.

To me, it's just it's worth nothing because I've donated it and I can enjoy it here.

And I'm happy that other people get to enjoy it as well.

Sharing your culture doesn't always mean sharing a particular item from where you're from.

Sometimes it's about sharing a talent that you brought with you.

do what you love in your life, and you don't have to work anymore Meet Norman Norori Lopez, a woodcarver from Nicaragua.

A trait he proudly learned from his father.

He also, taught me how to do carving since I was, like, six years old.

when I was ten years old, I. I did my first carving alone, Norman caught Mary's attention with one of the first pieces he carved after moving to Indiana.

He had did a sculpture of Abe Lincoln.

and I was like, I gotta have it.

We gotta have it here in the museum.

But what I learned was that he carved this sculpture of Abe Lincoln in three days.

Three days looks just like him.

I feel very good, very good.

I don't know how to express it, but it's that feeling is, like, satisfaction to see my sculpture there.

The museum quickly commissioned him for more carvings to showcase leaders, past and present, from all across the world, From Nelson Mandela to Malala Yousafzai.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Barack Obama, And yes, even Shakira.

All of it possible.

Just because of the handcrafted culture one man brought from his home.

He's such an awesome person.

I think he would give his shirt off his back if it made somebody happy.

What I love for this museum is that they are like, like a place you can visit and you are going to find something your country.

Norman.

Carol.

Mary.

Three people out of the many that have shared what makes their own small part of the world something special.

And since this is a place that runs on donations of many different forms, In this global village.

Museum is always on the lookout for support and new items to be displayed.

Ironically, there is one particular country that Mary Clark would love to see more donations from.

It is my wish, my prayer, I would love to have something from every state in the Union.

Hint, hint.

We would love to have something from every state in the Union.

Because when you're at an accidental museum that's showcasing the entire world around us, it's important for us to start showing what makes our own small part of the world something special.

created by the people.

For the people.

It is the museum of the people.

It's a museum that celebrates everybody.

That's all the time we have for this episode.

On behalf of the Across Indiana team and everybody else at WFYI, thank you so much for watching.

Take care, stay safe, and I cannot wait to see you again on our next trip Across Indiana.

To discover more stories, visit wfyi.org/AcrossIndiana.