Touring Wayne Foods Initiative–Nov 3rd

We don’t have a lot of physical sites to “tour”: the library garden is a beautiful design, the kids’ farm at Dillard Academy is mindblowing, the farmers market on Wednesdays makes me smile inside out, and we may have a new growing site soon, but that is about it on the physical space side.

That said, we did a tour for the national Politics of Food conference in Sept, and we’re going to host a few visiting and city official folks on a similar tour again on Nov 3rd to talk about what we do, and what WE CAN do. If you’d like to join us, contact Shorlette Ammons-Stephens by calling the Wayne Public Library and asking for her at the Children’s Desk. Monday, noon-2.

As Shorlette at the Library is organizing that and busy busy doing so, made me recall that I’d only posted half the blurb that Andrea Gram kindly sent us of her perspective of the tour. Here is her whole blurb on the WFI tour and a link to her whole conference review is on the PoF post.

“Later that afternoon we were handed our lunches and loaded up on buses for selected field trips; I chose the Wayne County Community Foods System Initiative. Our first stop was a gorgeous community garden that was designed, planted, and is maintained by the public library including local citizens and youth from their various programs there. Here we met some pretty incredible women including Shorlette Stephens, the warm and inviting Head of Children’s Services there at the library who casually described a very gracious philosophy of trusting folks to take what they need, in which she revealed a precious and rare faith in humanity. We also met Danielle Baptiste, coordinator at Dillard Academy, who spoke to us about the CASTLES down to earth gardening curriculum and the improvements made by the youth involved in the program. Ms. Baptiste then introduced Ms. Cheryl Alston, a school teacher who decided she was up to the SOL challenge and its restrictive guidelines and so created a remedial educational program using sustainable gardening studies at the elementary school in Wayne County. Ms. Baptiste proudly reported that over 90% of the students who participated in the program, students who had below average grades, had exceeded their grade level by the following year as a result of her down to earth teaching strategies – wow, what an accomplishment! Finally Tes Thraves, a consultant from the Center for Environmental Farming Systems, touched on some of her true and tested organizing methods stressing the importance of taking stock of existing community assets in an effort to start building from the ground up, an approach that appears to be a wildly successful and one that I won’t soon forget.

“After hearing about these interconnected environmental disciplines, we departed for the elementary school in Wayne County where we were greeted by a host of teachers, aids, and community members who had gathered together to commemorate the achievements of the children involved in the gardening project. What came next nearly brought everyone in the room to tears: the children gathered around their music teacher and keyboardist to present two very creative and powerful music ensembles that they had created – not to tote the values of a MTV music culture but to celebrate the joys of fresh vegetables and healthy eating habits! It was the most heart-warming experience I’d had in a long time, all the while munching on the delicious pear preserves and biscuits they had prepared especially for us. The moments of vulnerability, hope, and pride that flickered across their faces as these children strutted their stuff before our teary-eyed audience was a powerfully moving experience. In fact, it left my cheeks sore from permagrin and the incalculable joy of it all. Now that was some real Southern hospitality!”

by Andrea Gram

 

Check out what Andrea is up to at GreenRight http://quasicreator.com/greenright/greenright.html ! Yo CASTLES kids–did you see you are someone else’s site, not just ours!! Amazing stuff Andrea is doing and I have to say that being on the bus going and coming from Wayne that day was such a pleasure and an honor–I love the endless faith that people working in food have for each other and the world. As Ms Cheryl is busy trying to get water at a site that’s been donated, and we make collective decisions about plans we have made and realities that tweak those, and as we develop working groups to start our emerging leaders project with Heifer funding, as Shorlette begins the plans for the community reads project, as Carol is finalizing the SARE funding for our farmers to go to Southern SAWG conference in Jan and Carolyn makes plans to go to CFSA with Travis this weekend, I’m awed and inspired that daily life brings new possibilities. It is good to step back and take a tour now and then of the big picture. And then get back to diggin in the little piece of dirt right in front of you.

 

Someone else is going to blog soon, right Shorlette?

so thanks . . . tes

We have funding! from Heifer

Next Meeting with Heifer International–and we’ve been funded!!!  Come help up lead next steps!

plus we’re going to get a tour of the calves in the dairy!!
Wayne County – Community Food Systems Initiative meeting
www.waynefoods.org
Wed, OCT 29th
3-5 at CEFS main farm complex
Located on Steven’s Mill Road behind the Neuse Correctional Facility
Goldsboro, NC 27534

Directions to Main Farm Complex
From the west:
Travel east on US-70 to Goldsboro (from I-40, take exit 306; from I-95, take exit 97). In Goldsboro, turn right onto US 117 SOUTH. Go ~0.5 mi. and turn right onto NC-581 NORTH ( West Ash Street). Go ~1.5 mi to the stoplight at Cherry Hospital and continue straight on Steven’s Mill Road through the Cherry Hospital Complex. Immediately after crossing the railroad tracks, turn left onto the farm driveway (unpaved). The farm office is located at the end of the driveway.
From the east/north:
Traveling south/west on the Martin Luther King Junior Expressway (US-70/US-13), continue on US 13 South/US 117 South Bypass (do not exit onto US-70 West). Bear right onto the NC-581 North exit ramp. At the end of the exit ramp, turn onto NC-581 NORTH (West Ash Street). Go ~1.5 mi to the stoplight at Cherry Hospital and continue straight on Steven’s Mill Road through the Cherry Hospital Complex. Immediately after crossing the railroad tracks, turn left onto the farm driveway (unpaved). The farm office is located at the end of the driveway.
From the south:
Traveling north on the Martin Luther King Junior Expressway (US-13/US-117 Bypass/NC-581) or US-117 North, turn onto NC-581 NORTH (West Ash Street). Go ~1.5 mi to the stoplight at Cherry Hospital and continue straight on Steven’s Mill Road through the Cherry Hospital Complex. Immediately after crossing the railroad tracks, turn left onto the farm driveway (unpaved). The farm office is located at the end of the driveway.

Politics of Food: a conference hosted by ELP in Raleigh

September 21st-24th I spent in Raleigh at the ELP’s national conference on the Politics of Food. There were numerous good workshops, but mostly the people I met, from literally near and far, will impact my life–that’s “it” right?

Close to home: Eva Clayton opened as keynote, and hearing her was an inspiration as always. Chris Rumley and Rob Jones–with Good Work and Bountiful Backyards–will be partners on some future project I’m certain, and Chris has already introduced me to Margie Ellison, who is phenomenal and already we are working together to find a grad student fto help her develop a community garden and documentary project at the Pittsboro Fair Grounds here in my own town–the Fair Grounds is one of two African American owned fair grounds in NC, plus she’s helping me with outreach for the Center for Environmental Farming Systems’ Statewide Initiative on building a local, sustainable food system in NC. I love that gut knowing when you meet people and just know your paths are going to intertwine.

Since this was in our backyard, two of the conference fieldtrips came to Goldsboro, one to CEFS and one to the Wayne County – Community Food Systems Initiative, more affectionately known as WFI. We had a blast, but I’ll let you read about the conference and our tour in Andrea Gram and Justin Van Kleeck’s elp summary

–but here’s an excerpt cause I’m still teary-eyed over how amazing they were. Will get a video and post it soon!

What came next nearly brought everyone in the room to tears: the children gathered around their music teacher and keyboardist to present two very creative and powerful music ensembles that they had created – not to tote the values of a MTV music culture but to celebrate the joys of fresh vegetables and healthy eating habits! It was the most heart-warming experience I’d had in a long time, all the while munching on the delicious pear preserves and biscuits they had prepared especially for us. The moments of vulnerability, hope, and pride that flickered across their faces as these children strutted their stuff before our teary-eyed audience was a powerfully moving experience. In fact, it left my cheeks sore from permagrin and the incalculable joy of it all. Now that was some real Southern hospitality!

And then there are those friends from afar, particularly two from MI–Guy Williams, who I met a year or two ago at Iantha Gantt-Wright’s Diverse Partner’s for Environmental Progress Conference and we’ve been keeping touch ever since. He’s working for Fair Food Foundation now and loves his new food world! I am completely convinced that Guy, working at FFF, is going to change the world.  And I met the magic Malik Yakini, founder of Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN), who has a packet of stuff he’s going to send me to help us in Wayne with our kids curriculum development . . . and who I just liked talking with . . . but he’s beyond busy, has just moved his school, plus I suspect does something daily to improve the planet. He did send me a link to a great video on detroit today! Check it out! DBCFSN is doing soil remediation work that is going to be vital to cities all over the country, but the positive energy growing in Detroit is truly an inspiration to us all. watch video on Detroit’s food efforts!

Honestly, couldn’t begin to count the number of folks I’ve crossed paths with in powerful ways in last month or twenty four hours, and really that’s just cause I’m back at work. I sat with Lyle Estill on the sidewalk of my local food co-op, Chatham Marketplace, here in Pittsboro with a big bucket of chalk and talked about the town farm/community garden to be. It is still an idea, but the idea is in the middle of a neighborhood that is right out the back of the mill property on the back side of the food coop, and just a few blocks away from the fairgrounds where Ms. Margie is going to have kids gardening and gathering for music.

Connect a few people together, and ideas come to fruition.