Photo by Tom Campbell

As chairman of Lafayette’s Food Finders Food Bank, Hank Wadsworth helps distribute more than 2.5 million pounds of food annually.

It was a promise from a father to a son.

“Henry,” the father said, “it’s the Depression. We live on this small

New York dairy farm and we don’t have a lot of money. But you will always have food.”

The son, who was Henry only to his parents and Hank to everyone else, is now 73. In his role as chairman of the Food Finders Food Bank in Lafayette, Ind., Hank Wadsworth is now making that same promise to thousands of Hoosiers who depend on the food bank on a daily basis.

Last year, the food bank distributed more than 2.5 million pounds of food to 180 food pantries in 16 north-central Indiana counties.

However, distributing food to food pantries was not what Wadsworth had planned in 1999 when he retired as the director of Purdue Extension.

“After retirement I came to the realization that I had to figure out what I was going to do now,” Wadsworth says.

“During the time I was Extension director, April Mason, who was the Extension program leader for Consumer and Family Sciences, told me that I should get involved with Food Finders. When I retired I thought about it and decided that I would contact them.”

When he did, he found out that they were looking for a consultant who was familiar with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Indiana State Department of Agriculture. Wadsworth was quick to reply that he would be glad to help them out.

“I started out in 2002 as a consultant for them by contacting businesses and making sure we followed USDA and ISDA policies,” Wadsworth says. “After a year with Food Finders, they asked if I was interested in becoming a member of the board, and that is where it all started.”

But before the journey with Food Finders began, Wadsworth had an impressive career in the Cooperative Extension Service.

After college (Cornell BS ’56, MS ’58, PhD ’62), he worked in the Purdue Department of Agricultural Economics as an Extension specialist in farm management and community development from 1962 to 1973.

Wadsworth

In 1973, an opportunity came from a fraternity brother who wanted Wadsworth to return to New York to become an associate director of Extension at Cornell.

“I saw a move on my career path and those steps just seemed like the right thing to do,” he explains.

That career path had another opportunity waiting for him three years later, when he moved to Oregon State to be Extension director from 1976 to 1983.

Wadsworth’s path wasn’t complete quite yet.

“The Purdue Extension director retired and I had an opportunity to apply for the job. I had gained great respect for Purdue Agriculture and Purdue Extension during my early years as an Extension specialist,” he says.

“Coming back gave me opportunities to do things I wanted to do.”

Wadsworth moved back to Indiana and was the Extension director from 1983 to 1999. He also served as an Indiana State Fair director for those 16 years.

During his time at the head of Extension, Wadsworth says, he was most proud of the highly capable professional staff. He notes that Indiana’s citizens regarded that staff as primary sources of education and information related to their businesses, their families and their communities.

“The level of public support, which that staff generated, can only be achieved if it is earned by good work over a long period of time,” he explains.

Since retiring, Wadsworth has made Indiana his home.

He has been a volunteer for the museum at Historic Prophetstown and a trustee at Federated Church. He does all of this, as well as his Food Finders obligations, while overseeing his small farm outside of Attica.

“What I like best about Food Finders is the feeling I get from all the people involved that together we are really helping people who need help,” Wadsworth says.

“At the end of the day, you know you have done something worthwhile.”

The work brings comforting satisfaction to Wadsworth: “I don’t like the thought of someone going hungry, and I would like to think I am helping people.”

And that’s a promise.

Contact Wadsworth at hwadsworth@verizon.net