Jordan Dawdy and Mary Hendrickson

On April 22, Jordan Dawdy, a second-year doctoral student in Rural Sociology, was inducted into the Rollins Society during Tap Day ceremonies at the University of Missouri. The Rollins Society was created in 1994 by the Graduate and Professional Council to recognize graduate and professional students at MU who have significantly advanced the well-being of communities — academic or otherwise — beyond the scope of their own academic work.

The Rollins Society is named for James S. Rollins, the former Missouri Senator who helped to establish the University of Missouri. Students are selected for induction because of their dedication to public service and affirmation of the watchwords of the society: Officium (Duty), Fides (Faithfulness), and Ductus (Leadership).

Jordan was nominated by faculty and students of the Department who respect his leadership on local foods issues. He was selected for the society based on his work with the Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture. CCUA relied on Jordan — a former dairy and livestock producer in Tennessee — to bring experience from his farming career to teaching a number of workshops on poultry production as well as poultry processing.

The workshops provided by Jordan at CCUA have been extremely important in both the smooth implementation of Columbia’s backyard poultry ordinance and serving the need for education for the local foods movement in Columbia. This year Jordan partnered with CCUA to start the “Meating Needs” Community Supported Agriculture farm which will provide a broad swath of Columbia residents with fresh, wholesome meat this summer.