Alan Mitchell is the food distribution coordinator at Oberlin Community Services. I caught up to him Thursday evening before he left work for the day. We talked about growing up next to, or in many ways on, the Oberlin College campus as well as the Arb, that place full of little kids’ adventures – and big kids’ adventures to be sure.

Mitchell didn’t use the word himself, but the idea of someone growing up here and then returning (boomerang is the word) is an acclimation Mitchell might still be working through. He takes a little time to describe why that is a process harder than expected.

And we talked about his work at OCS and the ways he intends to engage with the community on local food production draped in the guise of teaching the next generation how and why to get its hands dirty.