greater than through love and support: radio show on hunger and solutions for hunger

Below is the script for the show on hunger in our region! Check it out! 

Download the episode here by date or on itunes: http://hometownsolutions.libsyn.com/

 

 

Happy Saturday Everyone!

Thank you for taking time out of your day to tune in! This is a new show for the Cape Fear Region and we are excited to be here.

It is hard to believe that anyone in our area would not have easy access to food or have the ability to sustain themselves with basic nutrition each and every day. Today’s guests have uncover for us the stark reality of a widespread issue of hunger in our region and live out solutions to meeting the needs to ensure that we all have a seat at the table…It is my honor today to introduce you to…

 

Ms. Katrina Knight, Executive Director the Good Shepherd Center

http://www.goodshepherdwilmington.org

Address: 811 Martin St, Wilmington, NC 28401

Phone:(910) 763-4424

Good Shepherd Center began as a modest soup Kitchen in 1983, when a local church opened its parish hall to serve the homeless a lunch of soup and a sandwich. From this small beginning, the program has grown to include a weekday breakfast and lunch available to anyone in need of food, as well as a dinner meal 7 nights a week for guests of the Night Shelter.

 

Ms. Kim Karslake, Executive Director Nourish North Carolina

Kim@nourishnc.org

http://www.nourishnc.org

Executive Director and co-founder of Nourish NC, a local non profit that makes sure that chronically hungry New Hanover school aged children are fed over the weekend and ready to learn come Monday morning. Our Backpack Program operates as a food bridge to meet the gaps between school and home.

 

 

Ms. Erin O’Donnell, Feast DownEast, Coordinator for the Food Sovereignty buying club

http://www.feastdowneast.org/

info@feastdowneast.org

Background Information Feast Down East (also known as Southeastern North Carolina Food Systems Program) Food Sovereignty Project Rankin Terrace Mobile Market

What is Feast Down East?

Feast Down East (also known as The Southeastern North Carolina Food Systems (SENCFS) Program see www.feastdowneast.org)) began in 2006 as an economic and community development initiative in response to the massive job loss in the region’s agricultural and manufacturing sectors and the growing poverty rate. Feast Down East has developed into a partnership of public and private institutions and agencies in eleven counties & includes both rural (8) & urban (3) counties to maximize market opportunities and profits from the sale of local farm products for both local & regional markets. The University of North Carolina Wilmington is the lead agency in the partnership. Feast Down East completed three years of research and local food assessments that identified seven major elements and needs in a regional food system in Southeastern NC. These are:

(1) profitable private and public markets for local food sales; # (2) comprehensive support for and engagement of limited resource farmers and measurable outcomes to becoming resourceful farmers; (3) the processing and distribution of local foods for year-round sales and consumption; (4) a highly diverse and strong, public- private partnership; (5) food security and engagement of low and moderate income consumers in the 29 food deserts in the region; (6) the establishment of Food, Farm, and Family Councils (adapting the Food Policy Council model) that engage all stakeholders in the coordination of local food production, processing, distribution, sales, and consumption; and (7) significant public and private financial and nonfinancial support.

The goals of poverty reduction, engagement and empowerment of limited resource farmers and consumers are the foundation and the beneficiaries of the system’s development and program.

More about Southeastern North Carolina Southeastern NC is the most ethnically diverse, multi-county region in Rural America with the largest Native American populations East of the Mississippi River (Lumbee, Coharie, and Waccamaw-Siouan), and large numbers of African American, Hispanic, and European American populations. Southeastern NC is also one of the three major regions of persistent poverty in NC. 60% of the farms (2,905 of the 4,809) in the 7th District had less than $20,000 in farm sales in 2007. The 7th Congressional District, serving all of Southeastern N.C. lost 54,866 acres of farmland between 2002 and 2007 (Source: 2007 US Census of Agriculture). North Carolina has lost more farms than any other state in the nation. In spite of this loss, the 7th Congressional Districts continues to rank #1 in agricultural sales in NC with the total value of agricultural products sold at $2,520,862.00 (2007 Census of Agriculture). The NC 7th Congressional District ranks as the 26th most productive, Congressional District in the nation.Feast Down East’s Food Sovereignty Program

Feast Down East is committed to increasing the capacity of limited resource farmers (defined by the USDA as ‘socially disadvantaged’ farmers; in our region predominately African American and women farmers), in becoming resourceful farmers and in supporting low income communities in advancing their own food security. An innovative Feast Down East project that is the Food Sovereignty Project that links rural limited resource farmers in Pender and Sampson County to urban low income public housing neighborhoods (situated in 8 USDA designated food deserts) in Wilmington, through a public housing buying club/mobile market. The Food Sovereignty Project provides healthy, local food to low income residents. Feast Down East ensures that healthy, affordable local food is placed and kept on the shelves of low-income consumers while also directly generating additional income that assists limited resource farmers in becoming resourceful farmers. This project connects and unites the rural supplier of food with the urban consumer of food. African American farmers in rural Pender, Brunswick, and Sampson provide affordable, healthy local food to public housing communities of the Wilmington Housing Authority (WHA) that are located in USDA designated Food Deserts.

The key urban county in the Feast Down East region is New Hanover with a population of 202,677, and is the only county in the region in which Feast Down East works that is not considered economically depressed. Wilmington is the major city in the county and is a relatively affluent, non-agricultural, beach tourist destination. Despite the significant wealth in the county, Wilmington has 8 USDA-ERS designated food deserts. This area includes 16,260 people with 83% of them having low access to healthy foods, including 41.1% people with low incomes (designated tracts are 37129011300; 37129011400; 37129010100; 37129011200; 37129011000; 37129010900; 37129010800; 37129011901). Feast Down East has begun outreach to these food deserts by working with public housing on a community garden and securing EBT Food Stamp availability at the weekly Farmers’ Market, both in downtown Wilmington food deserts. Feast Down East, in partnership with the city housing authority and community partners has created buying clubs for low income residents in the 8 USDA ERS designated food deserts in Wilmington, NC. Both limited resource farmers in the surrounding rural counties and low income neighborhoods benefit from this project.

A buying club is a group of people who pool their time, resources, and buying power to save money on high quality healthy foods. Erin O’Donnell serves as Coordinator for the Food Sovereignty buying club in partnership with Wilmington Housing Authority (WHA) and Feast Down East Processing and Distribution Center located in Burgaw. Buying club participants also have access to weekly nutrition and cooking classes based at WHA through Feast Down East and North Carolina Cooperative Extension Program.

The Feast Down East Processing and Distribution Program in Burgaw also has value added flash-freezing capacity that extends the seasons so that nutritious, healthy food is available year round.                  A branding and buying club marketing program has been implemented to build awareness and expand the buying club membership in the 8 USDA-ERS food desert neighborhoods. One convenience store located in one of the Wilmington Food Deserts has begun selling fresh Feast Down East produce to food desert residents.

Feast Down East has a long-standing partnership with Wilmington Housing Authority (WHA) through a community campus co-created by the Executive Director of Feast Down East. One of the anchor programs has been a community garden and nutrition program for children and family members to connect with local farmers, local chefs and nutritionists on the importance of eating healthy foods. This successful research-based program (entitled Friends, Food and Fun) will be scaled-up to include all buying club participants. In addition, the WHA-UNCW Community Campus, through Erin O’Donnell, has created a leadership training program for public housing residents in an effort to cultivate a volunteer corps of residents to empower residents to take ownership in the various programs offered through the community campus. Feast Down East has helped to develop a Buying Club leadership corps through public housing residents to ensure sustainability of the project so that food desert residents take ownership over their own food sovereignty.

The Feast Down East Food Sovereignty Project ensures positive changes in knowledge, skills and empowerment of public housing residents in participating in the program through nutrition workshops and a Leadership Training Certification program for Food Sovereignty participants that will ensure sustainability of the project and increased community ownership over food access and demand for food security. The project will provide increased revenue for limited resource farmers that ensures sustainability of their family farms and build on local assets of African American heritage farming. Relationships between grower and consumer will develop.

 

Ashley Miller Segment:

Announcements:

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Wilmington Downtown Inc. Economic Development Series Featuring Keynote Speaker Joseph Minicozzi, AICP Presentation by WDI President & CEO on the State of Downtown

Seats for this event are $50 per person, or $450 for a table of 10. Visit http://downtowneconomicseries.eventbrite.com/# to purchase tickets. Sponsorship opportunites are available. Call (910) 763-7349 or email ashley@wilmingtondowntown.com for more information.

Coordinated by Wilmington Downtown Inc. (WDI), the annual Downtown Economic Series luncheon attracts between 400 and 600 of the community’s top business leaders. Past speakers include US Senators and Governors and Mitchell Silver, President of the American Planning Association. For more information on this event, visit http://www.wilmingtondowntown.com/.

CAPP Fashion Show: March 19^th at 11:30 am at the CCL. “Loving Hearts” Guests are $35.00 Write to fashionshow@cappcenter.org or visit their facebook page   (Marian Wright, Noa Alper, Carla Lewis, Jennifer Weiss)

Power of the Purse beneifting the Wilmington Health Access for Teens at the CCL March 14^th -8pm

Email purse@whatswhat.org for ticket info!

 

Polar Plunge

http://www.plungenhc.com/

 

 

Cape Fear Clinic Breakfast at the City Club at de Rossett Monday Morning, May 14th from 7:30am until 10am Donations. Reserve your entry by writing to bowilmington@gmail.com

 

Roya Weyerhaser in concert 35$ for Welcome Home Angel 75$ if you want to go the reception. Thalian Hall.

 

I SPY: this week I have a tale of two people from very divergent areas of our community: one a state worker, an administrator, the other an heir to land and a developer to a family who has done great things in our community. The first is a woman I watched for several years and was privy to emails as the city tried to get an easement through UNCW for the cross city trail. There was a lot of resistance to this easement and concern about traffice and all sorts of issue. But here was this administrator that saw the common good. Saw the potential. It was not her job to be a visionary, nor was it her job to go above and beyond and do all that she did..but she was steadfast. She plodded through and it was indeed her leadership, her tenacicty, her consensus building and ulitmatley her vision insired by trail founder Gary Shell that made that georgous trail happen through our campus. She never asked for attention and never once asked for praise…she allowed it to go to others. She is a true servant leader. The other is a man whose family has great amount of land and I watched as we worked on the trail as this person, who very well could have thrown a gate up around his land and make a lovely gated community, systematically work to ensure that not only was there access to the property that was being built to allow the trail, but made a path THROUGH the property..and amazing journey through a goergous area of our city that few had ever seen, but now all can see and enjoy everyday. He opened it up and left a legacy for our whole city of openness, transparency and beauty. So today, I spy Sharon Boyd of UNCW and Raiford Trask of Trask Land, two people who saw the potential to do something greater than themselves and regardless of the obstacles, not needing the praise or attention, they both sought to serve and to make something wonderful happen for our community that will last and last and last!

 

Affirmation and sign off:

HAVE A NICE DAY, UNLESS YOU HAVE MADE OTHER PLANS!