Hey everyone, Rob Greenfield here.
And I am Ashley Thomas from The Mocha Gardener.
Today we are taking a trip to the city
of Henderson, North Carolina in Vance County.
Interestingly, Vance is
one of the counties in North Carolina
that has the highest rate of food insecurity,
meaning approximately 17 percent of the population here
does not have access to secure food
or sufficient amounts of food for a healthy life.
Driving through parts of the city,
you will notice that food options
are fairly limited.
And for areas that do have more food options,
affordability is often a major challenge
to people getting the foods they need.
So food access is defined as
people's ability to access enough appropriate
foods necessary for a nutritional diet.
The aisles that we are walking through
right now are typical of what a lot of
people have as their access to food
and not just here in Henderson,
but this is representative of many
rural communities across the nation.
You can survive off of this food,
but nutritious food is what helps you to thrive.
Today we are going to introduce you
to a group that has a very different
take on food from what you will find here.
They are just down the street here in Henderson.
They are working to create
greater food access in their community
by turning their yard into a farm
that distributes healthy food.
All right, Rob, let us go.
All right.
We are now here at the Green Rural
Redevelopment Organization,
GRRO in Henderson.
This is a beautiful example
of how we can create food security
in our communities by growing food
right in our own yards.
Mr. and Mrs. Henry and Ardis Crews,
the founders of GRRO,
are on a quest to revitalize their community
one bite at a time,
starting with their own backyard.
Here we have Mrs Crews.
Mrs. Crews, I have a question for you.
Mrs Crews: Okay.
Ashlie: What is access to nutritional
foods like in Henderson?
Mrs Crews: It is not easy.
Believe me, it is not easy.
There are a lot of economic deficiencies
here in Henderson.
You really need a car
to get where the grocery stores are.
Even though their grocery store is here,
quality is not always good
and certainly, in a place where people
do not have cars,
where they do not have jobs,
It is really really hard to get good food.
One thing that I think is very important
that people do not realize
that in today's time,
people are no longer in contact with food.
We are so used to everything being quick,
we have forgotten how to cook food.
Starting with me.
I did not know how to cook food.
So that is something that we promote.
Rob: So one of the really amazing things
about GRRO is that, as we have mentioned,
you know, what you can see here,
it looks like a farm, and it is a farm,
but it was started right here in your yard.
What was your inspiration
and your motivation to start right here?
Mrs Crews: I think people need to know
that wherever you are,
you can do a good thing.
If you have a patio,
if you have a driveway,
if you have got some flowers around your house,
you can get rid of some flowers
and instead of planting some of the things
that you have done in the past,
just simply plant some vegetables,
because the best way to have food is to grow.
As we started growing, I had a realization
that in fact, when I look into my history,
and my ancestors,
the thing that I used to hear
all the time was "food is medicine."
That is a going buzzword now,
but it is true and it was true.
Ashlie: You know, this is, you know,
so important as we look at utilizing
spaces to grow food.
I have to ask you one last question.
And that is, you know,
why is it important for you to grow food,
right now, in a city like this?
Mrs Crews: It was very interesting
when we started this in Henderson.
In North Carolina, the agriculture south,
you did not see what people term as urban farming.
So it was important for people to know
that wherever you are, you can grow food.
It was a way of utilizing empty lots around in the city
And getting people involved.
There is a lot of healing
that comes from growing food.
Ashlie: I can imagine mentally, and physically.
Mrs Crews: And physically, yes.
Ashlie: Yes ma'am. Thank you.
Rob: Thank you.
In the United States we do not
actually have a food shortage,
as a nation, as a whole,
but we do have inequitable access
and distribution to food and to healthy food.
Many neighborhoods have enough food,
but not healthy options.
This is often referred to as a food swamp.
Ashlie: Now, you have probably heard
the term "food desert" before,
but many people are starting to use
a more appropriate term
and that is "food apartheid",
which was coined by food justice advocate,
Karen Washington.
Now, a food apartheid really speaks to
the root of the systemic barriers that
limit access to healthy foods
for many people in our community.
Rob:So now imagine if everywhere,
every community had something like GRRO
and we did this in all of our communities
across the nation.
Ashlie: But we do not need an organization
like GRRO to start now,
because we can start in our own backyard.
Rob Greenfield