Farmer Lee Jones appearing in movie

MILAN TWP. — Food for the mind and soul. That's exactly what the Cleveland International Film Festival has provided audiences for nearly half a century. This year's popular affair, running March 22 through April 1 at Playhouse Square, has a slew of documentaries that will edify and entertain. This includes "Food and Country," which screens at 2:30 p.m. March 31 in the KeyBank State Theatre and streams as part of film festival's streams portion from April 2-9. The film finds trailblazing chef, writer and editor Ruth Reichl and documentarian Laura Gabbert, of "City of Gold," exploring how — in the wake of greedy conglomerates and the COVID-19 pandemic — innovative small farmers are transforming the country's broken food system. One of those small farmers is Huron's Farmer Lee Jones, who during the pandemic received a call from his very good friend and former New York Times food critic Reichl about a film project. "She was possibly the most powerful person in the culinary industry at one time," said Jones, who along with his brother, Bob, runs The Chef's Garden and Milan-based The Culinary Vegetable Institute. "Her opinion had a lot of weight. "We had a great relationship with her when she was doing new trends on what was coming next. She would always be so kind to always include us in what we were seeing. Of course, we had an ear to really some of the most forward-thinking chefs in the country." In fact, Reichl pre-pandemic spoke at a conference held at the Culinary Vegetable Institute. "She's been somebody that's been a respected mentor to me and somebody I really admired and looked up to," Jones said. As far as the film was concerned, Reichl initially wanted to document how the culinary world was surviving during COVID-19. After starting off talking to chefs, it became evident the food producers were the bigger story. "They talked to 150 different people," Jones said. "We were all pretty scared and paranoid at the time. All of the (food) producers were having a difficult time during that period. "We felt some really heavy responsibility in taking care of our team. We were doing what we had to do to survive." Part of that survival found the operation, which farms 400 acres, successfully pivoting to nationwide home delivery of its nutritious crops. Naturally, this fits into the operation's motto: "Healthy soil, healthy vegetables, healthy people, healthy environment." That's also what is fully explored in "Food and Country." Jones saw its premiere earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. "It's a great message," Jones said. "We think people need to have an understanding of where their food is coming from. "They do really have the ability to be able to move the needle through choosing how and where they spend their dollars to eat food." Visit clevelandfilm.org for more information. Read more at chroniclet.com.