Heartland Hero Eric Schmehl

Eric is a New Jersey Heartland native who has become incredibly involved in the town of Hammonton during the five years he has lived there. He serves as an elected official of the Atlantic County based Brew Jersey homebrew club, and continues to work tirelessly for the betterment of his community through volunteering, supporting local businesses, and advocating for causes he believes in.

He is an active member of the Hammonton Green Committee for the past five years and a founding member of the Hammonton Community Garden, as well as an enthusiastic and dedicated small business owner at his store, Fermented Food & Beverage Supply Shop. For the past three years, he has given a free Community Garden ‘Garden Talk’ and a free workshop at the Hammonton Green Day Festival each year, typically on the preservation/food security technique of fermentation. As part of the Green Committee he volunteers at quarterly Adopt-a-Road cleanups and monthly community garden work days.

He is a fierce advocate for South Jersey-based small and locally-owned businesses, (especially those in the food & drink and sustainability industries,) both through his role as Vice President of the Brew Jersey Homebrew Club, and as a small business owner himself. Through his store, Fermented, he regularly hosts homebrew competitions to elevate local and aspiring home brewers, and features local and sustainable products in his shop wherever possible. He also periodically offers DIY homebrew kits where the proceeds go toward a worthy cause (most recently, in mid-March he began offering a beer kit whose proceeds go toward tornado relief in Tennessee, where he lived for several years after college.)

Eric’s strength of character, dedication to the improvement and success of the local economy, and love for New Jersey’s Heartland is evident in everything he does. Thank you, Eric. That is why he is awarded New Jersey’s Heartland Hero for May.