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Tall Grass Food Box Project Helps Black Farmers Struggling During The Pandemic - NPR

Tall Grass Food Box Project Helps Black Farmers Struggling During The Pandemic - NPR

Posted: 12 Dec 2020 04:58 AM PST

Gabrielle Carter, Derrick Beasley, and Gerald Harris of Durham, N.C. started a project to help Black farmers during the pandemic: food subscription boxes. They share how it's been working out.

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Gerald Harris has been busy during this pandemic, along with two other friends. Here's how their weeks usually start.

GERALD HARRIS: So we usually spend Sunday trying to curate what the box look like. On Monday, we contact our farmers.

SIMON: Up to 20 farmers, all African American, all in the Durham, N.C. area, are struggling through supply-chain problems from the pandemic. Gerald and his friends, Derrick Beasley and Gabrielle E. W. Carter, run a subscription service to deliver fresh vegetables, the Tall Grass Food Box. Some people get the boxes each week, so do a few restaurants. The project started in March after Gabrielle Carter encountered someone with a restaurant that was in trouble.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

GABRIELLE CARTER: What felt like it was supposed to be kind of a casual run in, where we were going to have, like, a quick positive hi-and-bye moment turned into very quickly kind of a jarring, serious moment where I left and remember reaching out to Derrick and being like, hey.

DERRICK BEASLEY: We just started talking about the farmers that we know we're in community with. And these are mostly Black farmers. We called a few of them, and their pathways to the market had been interrupted. So then I hit Gerald that day (laughter) or the next day and was like, yo, what's up?

HARRIS: It was the day I got married. Derrick was there at the ceremony. When we were outside, he was like, hey, Gabby and I have this idea.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

HARRIS: Fast forward to that. There was a website. There was an Instagram and a Facebook account. And we were, in so many ways, in business. On April - I believe it was April the 3rd is when we dropped our first box. It was a very, very quick turnaround.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

BEASLEY: What was in the first box?

CARTER: Eggs.

BEASLEY: Definitely had collards, sweet potatoes.

CARTER: Herbs - a bouquet of herbs. There was, like, mint.

BEASLEY: Green onions.

CARTER: Garlic scapes.

BEASLEY: Yeah, garlic chives.

SIMON: After getting the word out, the team got orders for about 30 boxes. Derrick Beasley says that two weeks later they had 60 orders.

BEASLEY: I think people were just weary of going to stores and weary of being out in public, mingling over vegetables (laughter) that people have been picking up and putting back and coughing over and, you know, whatever.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

BEASLEY: At our peak - at summer excitement - strawberries, watermelon - we had 225 subscribers. And now we're ending the season with about 150, which makes sense considering it's cold outside. It's a lot of root vegetables (laughter). It's a lot of greens - not quite as glamorous. But I think we feel - we felt really good about the consistency in which people have supported us and the farmers.

CARTER: I really just enjoy in a time of kind of isolation having these moments where we could still connect with our friends and see our people at pickup. They became these big, almost like ceremonious moments, pulling boxes out of the back of a U-Haul. And there would be music playing. And everybody would be kind of lined up six feet apart.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

CARTER: And just seeing, like, the joy in people's faces to be able to get this produce that came from a farmer that even if they haven't met them, they feel like they've met them through this rapport that we've created.

BEASLEY: So we've been able to pay Black farmers over $75,000 since we started in April.

HARRIS: I know that there's a lot of people that have personally been struggling through this time. This work kept me sane. It kept me doing some things that I love with people I love. This work has been, like, everything. And I really appreciated just the opportunity to be able to serve the community in this way because with them, I'm - also feel like I'm being served, too.

SIMON: Gerald Harris, along with Gabrielle E. W. Carter and Derrick Beasley - they run Tall Grass Food Box in Durham, N.C.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

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South Hills Interfaith Movement hosts 3rd drive-through food distribution - TribLIVE

Posted: 12 Dec 2020 11:38 AM PST

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Farm & Food File: Choosing the next ag secretary - Agri News

Posted: 12 Dec 2020 02:26 PM PST

It's a challenge to find one person with the combined skills of a farmer, rancher, forester, food aid administrator, tribal leader, attorney, economist, conservationist, miner, insurance expert, food scientist and finance specialist to fill the about-to-open job of the secretary of agriculture.

In fact, that person — described, in part, by the titles of the eight undersecretaries and 11 specialist "offices" within the U.S. Department of Agriculture — doesn't exist.

Still, USDA boss is a plum job with excellent pay — $210,700 in 2019 — medical benefits, a defined pension and sweet perks like an office on the National Mall, invitations to White House parties and first-class travel to, well, anywhere.

But running USDA isn't all state fairs and Farm Bureau conventions. It's a daunting task to manage 33 agencies, 4,300 offices and more than 100,000 employees while dealing with everything from soup to nuts.

Emphasizing soup and nuts isn't accidental because the biggest program area within USDA doesn't deal with farms, ranches, or forests. Instead, it's nutrition assistance — by far.

How far? Intergalacticly far.

According to its "FY 2021 Budget Summary" — if anything 112 pages long can be called a summary — USDA will spend $98.9 billion of its $151 billion budget, or 65%, on its three biggest food assistance programs, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the National School Lunch Program and the Women, Infants and Children program, or WIC.

By contrast, it will spend $33.2 billion on "Farm, Conservation and Commodity Programs" this fiscal year, or one-third of what SNAP, School Lunch and WIC will cost.

Little wonder, then, why so many food advocates often mumble about renaming the Department of Agriculture to something like Department of Food, Nutrition and Agriculture.

Despite farm programs taking a back seat to assistance programs, six of USDA's seven 2021 "strategic goals" have little to nothing to do with its biggest program and its biggest cost — food aid.

It's not that the six — which include areas like farm production, ag exports and rural development — aren't important; they absolutely are. There is, after all, no life without food and little food without farmers, ranchers and rural America.

Still, many of USDA's current "strategic" goals sound like something out of the 1970s — "Maximize the ability of American agricultural producers to prosper by feeding and clothing the world." — rather than a hard focus on how to sustainably grow more food in an infinitely more complex environment and increasingly competitive world market.

And that's true whether or not you overlook USDA's own "customer," the favorite metric of current Secretary Sonny Perdue, numbers that show, at best, farm programs — like crop insurance, direct subsidies and so forth — impact about 5 million Americans every year while SNAP, the School Lunch Program and WIC are used by a whopping 71.4 million Americans, most daily.

None of this comes as a surprise to farmers, ranchers, or most ag organizations that have fought to keep a "farmer" in charge of USDA despite rising consumer and food aid dominance.

Now, however, they face a change they've known was coming for decades. Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, a 20-year veteran of the House Ag Committee, an attorney and former prosecutor, the first Black mayor of Warrensville, Ohio, and a noted expert on child nutrition and food aid programs, is angling to the be the next secretary of agriculture.

If government experience, farm policymaking and expertise in USDA's largest program area are any measures, Fudge is a highly qualified candidate. Any shortcoming on, say, the inner workings of crop insurance or the Forest Service, can be addressed as they have been by every past secretary: choosing area specialists as undersecretaries or deputy undersecretaries.

Will Marcia Fudge be the next secretary of agriculture?

On the face of it, she should be a shoo-in; her résumé, expertise and politics perfectly align with what USDA needs and what Joe Biden, the president-elect, preaches. It would, however, be a bold choice.

Are we as a nation and we in agriculture that bold?

Farm & Food File is published weekly through the U.S. and Canada. Source material and contact information are posted at www.farmandfoodfile.com.

Johnson Park Center Distributes Food & Gifts - Spectrum News

Posted: 12 Dec 2020 10:10 AM PST

Throughout the past week, staff and volunteers at Johnson Park Center in Utica distributed food and gifts to families in need, just in time for the holidays.

Monday through Wednesday, the organization provided hundreds of gifts to members of the community.

What You Need To Know

  • Johnson Park Center distributed gifts and foot to families in need for the holidays

  • Organization leaders say it's a crucial time to help the community

  • The organization will have an additional food giveaway this upcoming week before a holiday break

It's a way to help out during an unprecedented holiday season.

"People are really suffering at this time," said Rev. Dr. Maria Scates, the founder and CEO of Johnson Park Center.

Scates founded the organization 25 years ago. She's no stranger to the hardships some who visit JPC are experiencing.

"I was once homeless, sleeping in abandoned buildings and cars. I understand what it is not to have food on the table," she said.

Now she's the CEO of the organization making sure that families have what they need for the holidays.

This year's event had to adapt to the circumstances, including having neighbors register to avoid large crowds.

On top of giving away gifts, volunteers were also giving out bags of food.

"I love to help people, any time of the year, but especially now with COVID and during the holidays, everybody needs a little extra help," said Olivia Jones, a volunteer.

While gifts and food were being given out outside, volunteers and staff worked inside to make sure bags were filled with toys and other special items.

"It makes me feel good, great. I'm helping out, there's people that don't have what we have," said volunteer Deirdre Rodriguez.

What goes into each bag depends on the age and gender of the recipient. Once complete, they're marked with a registration number and brought outside for distribution.

Johnson Park Center will have another food giveaway next week before taking a short break for the holidays.

Free COVID-19 testing and food giveaway in Nassau County - WJXT News4JAX

Posted: 12 Dec 2020 10:22 AM PST

FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. – Nassau County is hosting free COVID-19 testing and a food giveaway at the Martin Luther King Center in Fernandina Beach on Saturday morning.

Testing is for the first 100 people ages five and up. Rapid testing is not available. Don't forget to bring your I.D.

The event starts at 8 a.m. at the MLK Center on Elm Street in Fernandina Beach and runs until 10 a.m. The Barnabas Center and Florida Department of Health-Nassau are hosting the testing and food giveaway.

In addition to free COVID-19 drive-thru testing, free flu shots are available. There is also a mobile food distribution that is offering 200 free hams in partnership with the Elm Street Sportsman Association. You are asked to bring tubs and boxes to carry your food.

The Barnabas Center community outreach manager said this happens on a monthly basis but now it's more often because of the pandemic.

"When the pandemic first hit we were doing three monthly food distributions, now we're doing eight. It has increased by 300% in our county," Renee Stoffel said.

For more information, call (904) 875-6100 or go to Nassau EM's Facebook page.


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