Thank you for joining us
for a special edition of News 19
at 7 for the past three months.
News 19 is brought you stories of resilience.
We toured the properties of area farmers and
restaurant owners who shared with us how
they fought their way through the pandemic.
Each person with their own unique journey.
Today, we've compiled these testimonies
and we're sitting down with South Carolina
Commissioner of Agriculture Hugh Weathers.
To learn how his department is
helping farmers for the future,
this is surviving COVID farm to table.
In South Carolina,
May is the month for harvesting collards,
broccoli, strawberries, carrots and cilantro.
Dozens of specialty crops will once
again make their way from the farm
to your table this year thanks to
the resiliency of the nearly 25,000
farmers across the state.
They had to do a lot
of pivoting. I think that was
the word of the year last year.
Wasn't pivoting to find those
other outlets because the
severity and the suddenness was
absolutely what overwhelmed us.
Q Weathers is the South Carolina
Commissioner of agriculture.
He says the impact on
farm to table operations
during the pandemic really
depended on where the food was
going. If it's a restaurant table,
obviously the impacts were.
Terrable if it was from a farmer to a
home table where we were all quarantined,
then the impacts were positive
as long as the farmer could make
those adjustments when necessary
to keep operations running.
Some farmers created
new business plans selling directly
to customers. We put a sign up
at the end of
our dirt Rd advertising the okra.
And then after awhile we started having
a stream of folks that would come
in. Others rolled up their sleeves.
And mobilized efforts to feed those in
need. We fed over 10,000 fans
last year, the Department of Agriculture
worked with partners to develop a privately
funded farmers to food bank program,
which weathers hopes to continue for the
foreseeable future that gay
farmers an opportunity to sell.
We did nearly half $1,000,000 to
South Carolina farmers by way
of our distributors benefiting
all the food pantries around the
state that participated with this.
When restaurants began
to open in 2020, the department teamed
up with multiple agencies to create.
The commercial saying restaurants are
open and highlighting local eateries
using products from local farms.
Going forward, whether it's plans to
get more help for the agriculture
industry as these American Recovery
Act dollars coming South Carolina,
we think it would be very wise
to invest some of those in
Agriculture Department is
also financially rewarding.
Farmers willing to take risks and
pursue innovative ideas. We think there
are ways to support those farmers
willing to take a risk to help make sure
South Carolina's food supply is more
immune to whatever happens next. So the
next time you're perusing the grocery aisle.
Siding which restaurant to visit
Commissioner Wethers encourages
doing a little homework to see
where you can buy certified
SC grown products.
It's a thank you to those who
ensured a steady food supply
during a global pandemic straight
from the farm to your table.
At this small organic farm in Red Bank,
collard greens, ridicule,
kale and potatoes are just a
fraction of the crops sprouting
from the Earth one year.
But this year what's growing in
great abundance at organically?
Roland doesn't come from
the ground mounds and
mounds full of beautiful
jewels, it's hope,
and it comes from the heart.
Absolutely things are looking up.
Jason Roland, owner and operator,
made most of his business by selling
to restaurants. I have been doing
this growing organic produce.
And selling it directly to restaurants.
Since I was 17 years old. So this is
all I've ever
done. Last year's restaurants
began to shut down and
profits began to dwindle.
My income went from 95%,
coming from restaurant to
almost zero overnight, he and
his wife created a business plan in two
days. We started doing a home
delivery CSA and a pickup CSA.
CSA stands for community supported.
Agriculture where consumers can
buy a share of produce every week.
This is my Green hill.
A year later, roll into staying busy.
He's now in a position where
he can operate successfully
using the CSA model alone.
These guys are ready to go and for
the first time in a long time,
he's back in the greenhouse,
working to bring the most
special part of his farm
to your table.
Feel that coming back.
These trays they're all
filled with watermelon in this
greenhouse on the Harris family farm.
They'll be ready for 4th of July.
Owners Larry and Jayne Harris
are preparing for a busy summer.
We could fill two truckloads in a day.
Larry is the President of
Carolina Vegetable Co-op,
comprised of 15 members from 8 area farms.
Last year as he tried to sell,
the co-ops produce,
he says the buyers weren't coming. Some
of the larger farmers that were able
to move their produce to some of the
restaurants and the grocery stores.
When the grocery stores stop selling
as much as they were selling,
there wasn't buying as much as we
have been accustomed to selling
to their sales for farmers in his
Co-op dropped by 75% or more.
Some of them were selling
to some of the restaurants,
but they did not have that marketing
savvy or skills that was necessary
because the average age of the farmers
are like 65 to 70 years old. Harris
Family Farm typically sold
to five grocery stores.
There we go, but as the pandemic
brought sales to a halt,
Harris shifted from selling
to donating the farms
produce. I was trying to
discover person to survive
drip irrigation on a sunny afternoon.
We watched the Harris family work to
grow a fresh crop. These are broccoli,
their sights set on a more prosperous
year. We have to make sure that we are
working together and doing what we can do
to support one another. And then this way
we will support the Community
for this farm. There
sowing seeds of faith that made us all
grow squash to feed you cumbers honeydew
and your family ABBA scholars at the table.
When I would go to my
grandma's house and we would
play in the fields and you know,
instead of Gordon house to eat,
we would just eat what was
in the field and we keep on playing.
Bonita Clemons grew up
eating fresh produce from the family farm. I
am a farmer advocate.
In 2001 she took knowledge from her
childhood and her health studies and
created the nonprofit Diane's call.
Named after her mother who passed away at
42 new, that nutrition is the first line
of the 5th to continue her mission.
Clemons founded pharmacists in 2016.
We are army of women. We don't kill.
We heal. Pharmacist is
a group of 11 black female
farmers from the Midlands who
work together to grow potatoes,
onions, garlic, collards, you name it.
We get it. Anything they
can grow on this half
acre of land feeds their
families. We help and we train
about how food is the medicine we
do sometimes sell to the public.
At a nominal cost, and sometimes we've
given food to the food hub which is
on North Main last year as businesses
shut down and people lost their jobs,
pharmacists and Diane's call rolled up their
sleeves. We went straight into
putting a mask on, putting on
gloves on, and getting food
out to the people.
Her food hub Axiom Farms teamed
up with Harvest Hope Food Bank.
The States Department of Agriculture,
an South Carolina farmers to
feed families most impacted
by COVID-19 may to September
we fed over 10,000 fans. In
2021, Clemmons will continue
giving health education classes
and mentoring young farmers.
By the end of the year, she expects
to start a mobile grocery store.
We've been working the same
soil for so many generations.
It just becomes part of who
you are on this ten and a half acres
in Sumter County. The watermelons would put
us on the map for sure.
Okra and collard greens are the
staple crops for Nat Bradford,
owner and operator of
the Bradford family farm. I'm the
7th generation to be saving seeds and
pass them along before the pandemic.
The family business was based solely
on direct sales to restaurants.
Then came March 2020. We went from
100% of our business down
to about 20% overnight when
restaurants shut down, Bradford
quickly shifted gears to
find other marketplaces.
We started going to grocery
stores, smaller sales, but more
restaurants scattered out over a
broader cross section of the southeast.
He also opened the farm to drive
through traffic, welcoming anyone
who wanted to make purchases on site.
It took most of the summer, he said for
sales to pick up again. COVID really
showed us where we were weak
on the farm with business.
It was really great having
restaurants to deliver to,
but we didn't have a connection with
the with the locals around here we
put a sign up at the end of our dirt
Rd advertising the okra and then
after a while we started having a
stream of folks that would come in.
Our strategy really shifted to where
are the mouse and how do we get to him?
And so we're going to take
that into 2021 and build on it.
We watched from the ground.
And from the sky as the last
of the colors were harvested,
a farmer with hope for a brighter future,
making room for next seasons,
produce from his farm to your table.
Every time that
you put a seed in the ground for a new crop.
It's kind of a chance to start a
new slate, so we're kind of leaving
COVID in the dust. We're hoping.
My husband and
I were actually in Europe,
celebrating the company becoming
profitable last February and we
ended up spending that week in Europe
outrunning the coronavirus. Sarah
Simmons is the CEO of
Citygrid hospitality group.
Which operates citygrid catering,
small sugar, ill Focalor,
a pizzeria and the nonprofit
feed the city for Simmons,
one of the biggest struggles during the
pandemic is preparing for the unknown.
It's like changing the wheels on
a tractor trailer while you're going on the
highway with a blindfold on small sugar
in Colombia's Vista is a farm to table Cafe.
Their menu creations are based
on what local farmers produce,
but at the height of the pandemic,
many farmers decided not to plant.
We would come up
with a plan and then a set of
menus and then all the sudden those
ingredients weren't available.
The disruption in the supply
chain was tremendous, despite
the hardships, Simmons still made
time to give back by delivering
10,000 meals to vulnerable
community members with the feed
the city campaign last summer.
To this day, she says,
all employees have remained on.
The payroll
company will be rebuilt it we
rebuilt it with the purpose of
giving people opportunity and
breaking them from the poverty cycle.
So that really meant from us that
we could not unless it was a
literal last resort lay artemov.
Her businesses
are still operating under take out.
Only with outside seating,
Simmons says she's also started a new
delivery company, although she lost
about 50% of revenue over the past year.
She says PPP loans and community
support helped her restaurants survive.
We saw the train coming January 2020,
as coronavirus cases began
popping up in the United States.
Britney Miller,
owner and operator of Manchester Farms Quail,
started planning ahead our business
before COVID was about 80% restaurants,
20% retailers.
She ordered packaging ahead of
time knowing it was about to
be in short supply. She also started
pulling their flock in early
to produce more retail products.
You wake up and go today.
Did I make the right choice?
In March, when the farm shut down,
she was forced to furlough
employees. We went from 100 people,
basically down to 22 overnight.
By July she started processing birds again.
We fortunately just had to shift
our product mix this time instead of
making more products for restaurants,
she instead made the
majority for grocery stores.
We came back online in July and
we've been sold out of everything
we've produced since then.
We've always had a diverse group of
marketplaces for this very reason,
because coil is.
A nice city, not a necessity,
so when economies are bad people will
slip up well and in good bond in the
grocery store just like they did
in the pandemic.
Now Manchester Farms is in
need of more employees.
We could stand in
probably about 30 to 40 people right now.
A struggle so many business owners are
facing as more consumers are venturing
out to eat. Restaurants are all
scrapping ever all fighting for
the same people that want to have
a job. We used to do open interviews
on Tuesdays from two to four and at
this point we're just walk in the
door. Just come on in,
we'll give you a job.
We've all done this for all of our lives.
We have too much love and
passion for it, and we're not
going to let one pandemic take us down.
Ah, Franklin St in historic
Cottontown sits the warm out little
bit five years old.
We specialize in Midlands cuisine,
specialty beverages and hospitality.
The restaurant occupies an old
auto shop helping revive an old
commercial district to bring
visitors back to North Main.
About a year ago when COVID-19
forced restaurants to close
owners Rep Eliot and Porter,
Baron rework their business concept.
Shifting from full-time dine-in to
full-time takeout allowed the joy turned
to worry. Yeah, yeah, I mean,
it's just the restaurant business
became a very different animal.
I dropped delivery myself for us every day.
It was something different.
Is treading water trying to survive?
Big challenge
was maintaining their menu
due to changes at area farms.
Farm co-ops from Charleston
that quit delivering to Colombia
altogether. We had to drive
the Charleston and get
some. Get some vegetables couple
times been so difficult to
plan for anything more than a week out.
'cause, you know, you're just going to
get the rug pulled out from under you.
Whether it's regulatory or.
Unable to find some ingredients all
of a sudden that was key to what
we were doing. Then in November
of last year as the restaurant
approached its 5th anniversary,
owners wrote an Instagram post
saying they faced imminent closure.
There was a really scary time.
Customers rallied to support the
restaurant and federal assistance
kept the Warmouth afloat. PPP
has been crucial for us
to keep the lights on.
Going back into regular service
but at a lower capacity while
maintaining health safety protocols,
menu items featuring ingredients
from local farms are selling
out a win win at both ends of
the farm to table strategy.
And we hope that we can
just hold on a few more
months and beat
this thing for good.