HBFW typically partners with other organizations to accomplish shared objectives. Our partners include educational institutions, community organizations, faith-based groups and other entities with missions that align with our own focus on mental, physical and spiritual wellness, nutrition and education. Recent examples of HBFW-sponsored projects and events and charitable gifts illustrate what we d
o. HBFW has participated in an ongoing partnership between HBWF, Kettering Medical Foundation, and the North American Division of SDA to produce the Annual George T. This group has worked together since 2018. HBFW Board members developed the vision and contributed directly to design, development and delivery of the initial conference in 2018 and every year since. This training experience is based on previous
conferences produced by members of this group for more than 40 years. HBFW also provides financial support to this event each year. Speakers at the June 19, 2022, event held in Lexington, KY, included Dr. Mary Ann Schaepper, who is a daughter of George T. Harding IV, and HBFW Director Dr. S.R. Thorward. The program focused on dealing with divisiveness and with adolescent su***de. The 1200-seat venue sold out for this event. In 2021, the Harding-Buller Foundation began a relationship with the Worthington Resource Pantry by donating $5,000 to further a shared commitment to connecting central Ohio community members to healthy food, resources and one another. The Pantry serves residents facing food insecurity in northern Franklin County and Southern Delaware County, OH. In early 2022, we strengthened and extended our relationship with the Pantry through a ten-fold increase, to a $50,000 donation. Support for the Worthington Pantry continued in April 2022, when we partnered with Worthington Adventist Academy (WAA) for the WAA Food Fight. HBFW agreed to provide a matching $1.00 donation for every pound of food collected by the
student teams. When WAA students collected and delivered 7,200 lbs. of donated food, we matched that with a check to the Pantry, rounded up to $7,500. HBFW often partners with other local and regional non-profits with similar or complementary missions. Grant recipients in recent years have included the Worthington Seventh-day Adventist Church, Worthington Adventist Academy and Stepping Stones Learning Center; the Kenney Family Foundation/Kemper House Worthington; the Ohio State University Stress, Training and Resilience (STAR) program; and the Cancer Support Community Central Ohio. HBFW sponsored an extensive archiving project to preserve the history of the Harding Hospital (formerly Harding Sanitarium and currently merge with Ohio State University Department of Psychiatry as OSU/Harding Hospital) and Worthington Foods Inc. Archivist Kim Feinknopf Dorrian assembled, identified, organized and preserved thousands of items relating to these institutions, their innovations and their visionary founders and leaders over the years. The archive includes records, correspondence, photos, memorabilia and other articles of interest to historians and the public. The archive can be accessed by advance arrangement with HBFW. Other support for historic preservation included a $25,000 charitable gift by HBFW for the new Warren G. Harding Presidential Sites, including the museum, library and home in Marion, Ohio. Working closely with the Ohio History Connection, the HBFW, along with Harding Family members, George T. Harding IV, and Richard K. Harding and other Harding Family, gave an extraordinary quantity of personal letters, memorabilia and other historic materials to the Ohio History Connection for display. The emphasis was placed on Phoebe Dickerson Harding, MD, the mother of both President Harding and George T. Harding II, the founder of the Harding
Hospital. In addition, she was one of the first woman physicians in Central Ohio. The Harding Presidential Sites were dedicated in September of 2021 with continued plans for additional educational activities suited for youth. HBFW board members have been active in the International Congress on Vegetarian Nutrition (ICVN) since its inception in the 1980s. Allan R. Buller, long-time President and Chairman of the Board of Worthington Foods, envisioned an international conference of researchers, nutritionists and food technologists with expertise in vegetarian nutrition. This forum would enable them to introduce and share information and perspectives on plant-powered food. He collaborated with like-minded experts in the field to launch the 1st International Congress on Vegetarian Nutrition in 1988. The Foundation has been an ICVN sponsor since the beginning. For the 7th ICVN in 2018 we donated $50,000 for publication of the proceedings and we already have set aside funds for the 8th ICVN in 2023. In addition, individual Board members contribute to ICVN program planning.
