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
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
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
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:
Coming up:
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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.
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.
Seats for this event are $50 per person, or $450 for a table of 10. Visit http://downtowneconomicseries.
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.
CAPP Fashion Show: March 19th
at 11:30 am at the CCL. “Loving Hearts” Guests are $35.00 Write to fashionshow@cappcenter.org or visit their facebook
page (Marian Wright, Noa Alper, Carla Lewis, Jennifer Weiss)
Power of the Purse beneifting the
Wilmington Health Access for Teens at the CCL March 14th -8pm
Email purse@whatswhat.org
for ticket info!
Polar Plunge
Cape Fear Clinic
Breakfast at the City Club at de Rossett Monday Morning, May 14th from 7:30am until
10am Donations. Reserve your entry by writing to bowilmington@gmail.com
Roya Weyerhaser in concert 35$ 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!
