The US food bank keeping Gullah Geechee farming traditions alive: ‘Our local food is like no other'

The Guardian

3 days ago

For the Lowcountry Food Bank (LCFB), helping to provide food access is a collaborative project. For nearly two decades, the LCFB has worked with farmers, smaller non-profits and community and church-based organizations to support the 10 coastal counties of South Carolina.
The group provides food to seniors or others who, with the rising costs of living, are struggling to pay for food and groceries. The organization also works to feed children, either through schools, families or within communities.
'We meet the needs or try to support the provision of equitable access to food through a variety of different means,' said Nick Osborne, the president and CEO of the LCFB. But we're also looking at filling those gaps where there may be food deserts through other forms of access to food, whether that be through mobile distributions or other forms of partnerships as well.'
The Lowcountry is one of the historic homes of the Gullah Geechee people, descendants of Africans who were enslaved in the remote, coastal Sea Islands in the US. That remoteness allowed the Gullah Geechee to retain many culturally African elements and the creation of a new culture and language. Because of climate change and gentrification, Gullah Geechee are fighting to retain their lands – lands on which their families have lived for hundreds of years. Gullah food producers, including farmers, are essential partners for the LCFB.
'The model of food banking has really evolved in the past couple of decades,' said Margaret Burn, the vice-president of strategic initiatives at LCFB. 'It's gone from a place of really just providing emergency food assistance or charitable food assistance to a multi-pronged approach, recognizing that providing food assistance isn't going to solve food insecurity.'
The Lowcountry's food system is based on and built off of Gullah Geechee foodways. Much of the region's tourism industry – Charleston alone drew nearly 8 million visitors last year – is likewise based off of those foodways. From the early 1600s until the abolition of slavery, Gullah Geechee ancestors produced crops that were also prevalent in west Africa: sweet potatoes, okra, peas and other foods, according to Dr Emory Shaw Campbell, a Gullah Geechee community leader and educator. Today, many of those same foods and crops make up traditionally southern diets.
'The foodways that draw people here are the foodways that the Gullah people brought with them across the water,' Burn said. 'So it is important to preserve that for the economy, but also for the culture and the character of our communities.'
Much has been written about the overdevelopment and gentrification of Gullah Geechee lands, systemic exploitation that has pushed Gullah Geechee people from their homes and islands. But the LCFB and the Gullah farmers with whom the organization partners are working to ensure that people have access to their traditional foods, foods which are typically healthier and more nutritious.
'In order for us to keep the character of our community, we need to keep those farmers on that land and we need to keep that land in the agricultural section for economic reasons and environmental reasons and cultural preservation,' Burn said. 'It's a privilege for the food bank to be able to be part of preserving those foodways.'
The LCFB sources culturally relevant foods for people who use their services, people who Burn calls 'neighbors', providing them with familiar foods that their elders ate. 'When you're in a situation that you need to seek food assistance, there's usually a lot going on. There's a lot of pressure,' she said. 'Having something familiar and comforting is important. That's what local food really does for folks.'
In 2005, the LCFB launched the Growing Food Locally program, which aims to help grow farmers' businesses while making the local food system more resilient. Since then, they have worked with Jackie Frazier, of Barefoot Farms on St Helena Island, and his partner to help develop relationships with other farmers. Frazier has helped educate other farmers on information from the state department of agriculture and US Department of Agriculture.
They have also partnered with groups like the Coastal Conservation League to help grow farmers' business. In 2020, at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, they began thinking about sustainable food distribution in a different way – relying on food from thousands of miles away simply wasn't practical.
In partnership with the Gullah Farmers Cooperative Association, the LCFB is able to offer culturally relevant Gullah Geechee foods grown by Gullah Geechee farmers, such as okra, tomatoes, squash, corn, yams and rice.
Vernita Dore, general manager of the Gullah Farmers Cooperative, said that the partnership was also useful for helping the farmers stay in business and pass farming on to the next generation. Offering culturally relevant foods through the LCFB helps facilitate both passing on generational knowledge and culturally relevant foods.
'We all care about our children, and we want to make sure that they have good, healthy food choices, and we work together to ensure that happens,' she said. 'These are the types of food that we grew up on, like the dark green vegetables, greens with cabbage and our nice tomatoes and eggplant. These are really healthy food choices.
'Part of the history of the Gullah Farmers Cooperative is that we have some strong, healthy people in our communities that grew up on our local vegetables and produce that we were able to grow in the field. We feel like our children and all children deserve that same type of quality food that we enjoyed as children.'
Established in 2010 by a group of small farmers with the goal of ensuring that the Gullah farming tradition continues, the Gullah Farmers Cooperative wanted to figure out a way to pay farmers well for the produce they grow. The local school district was also looking for a way to provide more nutritious, locally grown food to children. The twofold mission still motivates the cooperative, which has grown to about 22 farmers, spread out across the Lowcountry, today. When they are fulfilling larger orders, sometimes the cooperative will reach out to farmers in the middle of the state, who are within a 400-mile radius.
'They're really proud, and we're proud, too,' Dore said. 'We're really grateful for the opportunity to have started this to honor them. In a lot of ways because our farmers, I think, are the bedrock of American society – what they do, what they bring to the table and what they bring to communities, the nation: good, homegrown nutritious food that you can track. We can track where our food comes from. From every farmer, we can tell you what and exactly where that food comes from. We're very proud of that, and they're very proud of that. Our local food is like no other. It's absolutely delicious.'
In working with the LCFB, the Gullah Farmers Cooperative is helping to alleviate food insecurity while providing access to high-quality foods.
'We just want to uplift the communities by providing nutritious, farm-fresh produce, because that indeed, in turn, promotes healthier lifestyles for everyone,' Dore said. 'That's our goal here at the Gullah Farmers Cooperative. Along with that, to honor our farmers, the legacy of farming, and to hopefully pay them a decent pay for the work and the toil that they do to bring us this food because there's none like it.'