New Albany dietitian Kristina Jenny a community leader

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For Kristina Jenny, New Albany was never meant to be home; it just happened that way.

After moving around the U.S. with a stop in Montreal for her husband, Pete’s, job in engineering, Jenny figured New Albany would be just another three- to four-year stint. But the family has known New Albany as its home for nine years now, and they expect this one to stick.

Jenny was born in Valparaiso, Ind., where she attended college at Valparaiso University and got her degree in home economics and dietetics. After she and Pete married, they moved to San Diego, where she went to San Diego State University for her master’s degree in nutritional sciences.

Jenny and her husband have five children: Frederick, Amanda, Harrison, Isabel and Rebecca. Frederick recently graduated from his mother’s alma mater, Amanda currently attends and Harrison will start there in the fall, making him the 22nd family member to go to Valparaiso.

Jenny discovered her love for New Albany when she realized how interested the community was in health, including the city itself. Jenny’s interests in dietetics and in community efforts fit perfectly into New Albany, she says.

“This community is so unique, and I think the reason why Healthy New Albany is so great is because I found people to be less self-centered and more community-centered,” says Jenny. “I read an article that said we make fewer friends as we get older, but I have made so many amazing friends since I have moved here.”

For Jenny, it wasn’t a matter of whether she was going to get involved in the community, it was a matter of when. And, of course, if she could find a tie-in with her dietetics background, so much the better.

The Three Marketeers

When a farmers market was suggested as a Healthy New Albany endeavor in 2011, Jenny raised her hand to volunteer to help run it. With that, her career with the New Albany Farmers Market was launched.

Though Jenny is the only “founding” manager of the farmers market still working there, she is quick to mention that she is only one leg of the three-legged stool that plans, organizes and runs the farmers market each year. Jackie Krebs and Marianne Troutman are fellow co-managers, and are the “boots on the ground” while Jenny is on vacation at her cabin in Wisconsin during the summers, the biggest season of the year for the market. The trio met because of the farmers market, but have become close friends in the meantime.

“Marianne and Jackie are dear friends of mine,” says Jenny. “They’re fantastic to work with. We are such a great team.”

In the first year of the farmers market, Jenny excitedly approached Phil Heit, founder of Healthy New Albany, and announced that she’d scored 15 vendors. Heit responded with a challenge: try for 20. Jenny and the others at the farmers market more than rose to the challenge.

“I think the first year, we had between 25 and 30 merchants, which was fantastic,” says Jenny. “And we were pumped.”

The farmers market today is capped at a whopping 55 vendors filling Market Square, including five food trucks. The market is so popular now, says Jenny, that those 55 spots fill up early in the year.

The market comes complete with live folk music, green space to spread out blankets for picnics, a community tent for New Albany-Plain Local Schools student groups and nonprofit organizations, even a tent for cooking demonstrations by chef Eileen Pewitt, using only ingredients found at the farmers market.

Beyond the Market

The farmers market isn’t the only community effort of Jenny’s.

During her family’s stay in Savannah, Ga., Jenny realized her children were playing on a rusted, outdated and unsafe playground at their public school, and knew it wouldn’t do.

“I moved my four children, at that time, from Minnesota – the land of a Lutheran church and playground on every corner – to a place that didn’t have one,” says Jenny. “I felt as if that was my mission.”

Jenny ended up leading the community to raise a whopping $40,000 to replace the old, dilapidated playground with a brand new one, a gesture the community will benefit from for years to come. And she hasn’t stopped there. Jenny is now working to raise money for a new auditorium at Valparaiso for the swim team, which Frederick was part of, Amanda is part of and Harrison will be a part of come fall. Jenny considers herself a spinner of many plates, and she enjoys the process of each.

“It’s fun. It’s passion,” says Jenny.

She will always reiterate that her many plates are supported by family, friends and community – especially here in New Albany.

“That’s what I look for in my life. It’s how can I best make an impact in my family, primarily, but also in my community and my friendships,” says Jenny. “I think that’s why you find so much good energy here, and you find a giving spirit within this community.”

Amanda DePerro is an assistant editor. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.

New Albany Farmers Market

A community effort

Though Kristina Jenny is the only current manager who was around for the farmers market’s inception, her co-managers are her partners and secure the farmers market’s success year after year.

Jackie Krebs is in charge of finances, and Marianne Troutman has been a volunteer almost as long as Jenny. For farmers market visitors, Troutman and Krebs are the faces of the market, while Jenny works more behind the scenes, especially in the summer when she is out of the state.

And it isn’t just the volunteers that make the farmers market a success. The vendors allow the market to be as colorful as it is, and don’t expect to just see vegetable farmers. Pizza, kettle corn, pies, candles, soaps, doughnuts, meat; you’ll find it all at the farmers market.

Market-goers can rest assured that the products they’re buying aren’t ones that they can get at any chain grocery store. The Department of Agriculture recognizes the New Albany Farmers Market as Ohio Proud, which means more than 51 percent of the vendors create their products in Ohio. Jenny estimates that 85 to 95 percent of the vendors are Ohioans.

Jenny, Krebs and Troutman know it’s a success, Jenny says, when they see that happy customer with a bag full of products all bought from the market.

“When we see people walking around with bags, or we see a kid sitting there eating a Bailey’s (Drive Inn Donuts) doughnut hole with sugar all over their mouth, that’s delightful,” says Jenny. “It’s a lot of hard work, there’s a lot of sweat and not a lot of tears, but we get muddy and we get dirty and that’s really okay for Jackie, Marianne and I.”

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