As the first African-American woman elected to Congress from North Carolina, I served for 10 years in positions on the House Agriculture Committee and as the ranking member of the Operations Oversight, Nutrition, and Forestry Subcommittees.  Combined with my subsequent tenure as the Assistant Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, I understand the critical need for investment in small and future farmers, and how connected their growth and ability to thrive is to healthy food, healthy people, and robust rural communities. 

There is an old saying that “we are what we eat.” Health professionals recommend eating healthy food to prevent and control diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and heart conditions. Additionally, when food is sold locally, it is fresher. Some health professionals have recently promoted food as medicine.

However, food insecurity is a fundamental problem in the United States, including North Carolina. Those of us living in rural America know that our health indicators, including food insecurity, are challenging and that our rural economy could be far improved. Food insecurity is both a health and economic condition. Access to healthy and nutritious food, a good environment, and healthy rural communities are tied to the survival and growth of small and future farmers. And investing in small and future farmers can benefit our rural economy.

While small farms contribute greatly to local food production and rural economies, they have historically received fewer resources, access to appropriate scaled information and technology, and investment from federal and state programs. This is disproportionately even greater among farmers of color.

Our nation is rapidly losing farmland and farmers, who are getting older (average age greater than 58 years old) and going out of business. North Carolina is currently tied for first in farm loss in the US. Farm families are middle-sized or small; the latter need help to make a profit or break even and must supplement the family income by working outside the farm. Black farmers have suffered the most significant number of lost farms due partly to proven discrimination.

Food insecurity is both a health and economic condition.

We should be attracting and investing in new farmers if we are to have a strong farming system going forward. To grow and sell healthier food locally, we must support and increase the number of small farms, especially minority and female farmers. We must redesign our food systems to be resilient and serve all people in our community, especially the most vulnerable. We can do this through establishing networks and infrastructure linking our public schools, childcare and senior care facilities, local farmers, extension services, hospitals and health professionals, community colleges, and food stores.

The Farm Bill allows for more fundamental changes, however there are improvements we can do now. We should take the following steps to expand existing programs and make them more effective:

• Increase federal and state government financial and technical support to small farmers to help them purchase land, buy equipment to grow healthy food, and sell locally. Fulfill legislative commitment to distress and minority farmers for debt relief under the Inflation Act of 2022.
• Expand the Farm to School programs to promote the value of nutritious, healthy and local food and create an interest in farming among our children. Provide incentives and assistance to school systems to develop these programs.
• Provide more money per meal for school lunches and include fresh vegetables and fruits and local food when possible. Consider modifying the Farm Bill to provide universal meals to all students as we provide books. Supplemental summer feeding programs need to be expanded that extend beyond the school year.
• Revisit, evaluate, and invest in the “Future Farmers of America”.  Expand agricultural education programs, especially those focused on sustainability, with similar focus, coordination, imagination, and resources as the STEM program in schools.
• Provide needed support supply chain infrastructure, and farmer and business training needed to grow local food systems. While recent programs supporting local food procurement we must also focus on the infrastructure and training investments in food hubs, infrastructure and farmer support if these local food systems are to be resilient and sustainable. 

I know we have the capacity to make these positive changes in our food system and there are many farmers, community leaders, university partners and rural communities working collectively to do this but they also need the policies and support to be invested. 

We must continue to press forward in our rural communities to ensure equitable care and access to nutritious food. We launched the Rural Food Institute with a vision to share knowledge, resources and bring others to the table to ensure a healthier rural NC together.  

One of the key takeaways from the recent Rural Food Forum held at Vance-Granville Community College sponsored by the Green Rural Redevelopment Organization and the Eva Clayton Rural Food Institute was how critical small farmers are to the goals of making healthy food accessible to rural communities. 

We must ensure our small farmers are receiving adequate resources, have access to information and technology, and begin to seek significant investments from federal and state programs. — EVA CLAYTON

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The Green Rural Redevelopment Organization, with the help of the honorable Eva Clayton, is set to launch the Eva Clayton Rural Food Institute and host the inaugural Rural Food Forum scheduled for Thursday, January 12, at 8:30 a.m. at the Vance-Granville Community College Civic Center.

The Green Rural Redevelopment Organization (GRRO), founded in 2012 with a vision to revitalize rural communities across NC and focus on poverty, food insecurity, and chronic health issues, is excited to launch the new Institute named in honor of board member and the first African-American woman to represent North Carolina in Congress Ms. Eva Clayton. 

“I am a Board Member of GRRO and continue to be impressed with its founders Ardis and Henry Crews. I believed in the vision and mission of the Institute and how it could help rural communities across North Carolina,” said former Congresswoman Clayton. “I want to play a significant role in its success. The data in most rural counties in North Carolina clearly show high levels of food insecurity, poor health indicators, weak school systems, and weak economies. Rural North Carolina is home; I care and have a responsibility to help make it a healthy, better educated, more prosperous, and engaging community where I can.

The launch of the Eva Clayton Rural Food Institute will take place during the organization’s inaugural Rural Food Forum on Thursday, January 12.  

The forum will convene leaders, community members, rural farmers and a host of influential guests to discuss existing programs, resources and opportunities to address challenges and solutions to create sustainable economic growth in rural communities through the creation and increased utilization of rural farming and equitable food systems.

Congresswoman Eva Clayton

“This is an extraordinary opportunity for our organization and the people in rural North Carolina, said Henry Crews, executive director of GRRO. “Ms. Clayton has dedicated a large part of her life to fighting for rural communities, equitable care, and access to nutritious food, and we can’t think of a better way to tap into that knowledge. The forum is how we share knowledge, resources and bring others to the table to ensure a healthier rural NC together.” 
 
Key speakers include Stacy Dean, Deputy Under Secretary for USDA’s Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services; Debra Farrington, Deputy Secretary/Chief Health Equity Officer NC Department of Health and Human Services; Bob Etheridge, State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) in NC; Dr. Norbert Wilson, Director of Duke University’s World Food Policy Center; Honorable G.K. Butterfield, Former Congressman First District of North Carolina and a host of other community leaders and advocates.  

While the forum is free, registration is required to ensure adequate seating and food accommodations. 

See the full forum agenda at: grronc.org/rural-food-forum

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For far too long we have neglected to provide equitable and adequate health care and food systems in parts of rural North Carolina. As we work to create greater access to healthier foods, we must take a deeper look at the cause and effects of those who have and those that don’t.

On September 28th members of the Green Rural Redevelopment Organization (GRRO), a Henderson, NC based nonprofit with a mission to reduce health disparities and improve health outcomes in rural communities across North Carolina attended the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. This was a historic event given it has been more than 50 years since the first and only White House Conference on Food, Nutrition, and Health was held in 1969.

Henry Crews, executive director of the Green Rural Redevelopment Organization talks with conference attendees and members of the Biden-Harris administration about rural food insecurity and resources needed to move the needle on health disparities. (Provided Image)

The 2022 White House Conference aimed to catalyze the public and private sectors around a coordinated strategy to accelerate progress and drive transformative change in the U.S. to end hunger, improve nutrition and physical activity, and close the disparities surrounding them. The Biden-Harris administration shared their national strategy on hunger, nutrition and health and announced more than $8 billion in new commitments as part of their call to action during the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health.

GRRO’s executive director Henry Crews attended the conference and spoke with the members of the Biden-Harris administration asking them to consider the advantages of healthy food and how locally grown produce positively impacts hunger, health, local economies, and the environment.

resident Joe Biden delivers open remarks at the historic White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, & Health. September 28, 2022. Photo taken by Gregory Hedgepeth, Green Rural Redevelopment Organization

“Most health professionals recognize that nutritious foods are good for our health. Also, certain diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, and heart conditions, can be controlled or prevented by consuming healthy foods. Some professionals have promoted food as medicine and we’re on the ground floor of this new initiative to promote produce prescriptions and ensure they can be a covered benefit for all eligible patients covered by Medicaid & Medicare.” – Henry Crews, executive director of the Green Rural Redevelopment Organization (GRRO).

Hunger and food insecurity were problems before COVID-19 and remain critical problems nationally and within North Carolina. Food advocates and the US government indicate that 12% of the population struggle with hunger, about 41 million people. North Carolina is the 10th most food insecure state in the nation; more than 585,000 families do not have enough to eat. Our children and seniors are most vulnerable. Low-income families and minorities in inner cities and rural communities are the most affected.

“To grow and sell healthier food locally, we must support and increase the number of small, minority, and female farmers. We must establish an infrastructure linking our public schools, farmers, extension services, health professionals, community colleges, and food stores,” said Former Congresswoman Eva M. Clayton, Board member for the Green Rural Redevelopment Organization and the Eva Clayton Rural Food Institute. “Our nation is losing farmers and farms rapidly, and North Carolina is currently tied for first in the US in the loss of farms. The average age of farmers in the state is 56. With our state population growth in the 2020s and continued growth expectations, there will be significant demand for new residential development, risking even greater loss of farmland.”

The Green Rural Redevelopment Organization with the help of Former Congresswoman Eva M. Clayton wrote the White House and laying out their own recommendations to increase locally grown healthy food that helps the hungry and the economy of rural communities. Highlighted in their letter they stated that policy makers must consider:

● Federal and state governments increase financial and technical support to small farmers to grow healthy food and sell it locally.
● Expand Farm to School Programs to promote the value of nutritious, healthy food to our children.
● Provide more money per meal for school lunches to include fresh vegetables and fruits.

Providing healthy, locally grown food to the hungry and the food insecure population is an opportunity for federal government action through USDA’s existing programs and in collaboration with states, local governments, and community organizations.

The Green Rural Redevelopment Organization is just one of many who recognize this need, however we must all work together to end hunger in America, and toward reducing health disparities and improving health outcomes.

* Eva M. Clayton
Eva Clayton Rural Food Institute of GRRO
Former Congresswoman NC 1st Congressional District
Former Assistant Director General United Nations – Food Agriculture Organization

* Henry Crews
Executive Director GRRO – Green Rural Redevelopment Organization

WATCH: President Biden delivers remarks at White House conference on hunger, nutrition and health

For more information about the Green Rural Redevelopment Organization, visit GRRONC.org.

Cover Photo: Henry Crews and Greg Hedgepeth of the Green Rural Redevelopment Organization pose at the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health in Washington, D.C.

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