Franklinton Center at Bricks is partnering with the United Church of Christ’s Justice and Witness Ministries, disadvantaged farmers, community development corporations, and policymakers to address food insecurity in eastern North Carolina. The Center is located in rural Edgecombe County, one of 23 counties in the state’s 1st Congressional District, which comprise the second largest food desert in the United States.
The Situation on the Ground
Youth from the surrounding community explore the cotton fields surrounding the center.
Today, Edgecombe County is one of the poorest in North Carolina; it has the second highest unemployment rate in the state. While more than 25% of the population lives in poverty, the poverty level for individuals under the age of 18 is even worse—34.8%.
In the area’s public schools, an overwhelming percentage of students are considered a low wealth and high risk population. Health conditions for the area’s residents are extremely dire. Out of the state’s 100 counties, Edgecombe ranks 96 in overall health outcomes. The adjacent county of Halifax (beside Franklinton Center at Bricks’ property) ranks 98.
Edgecombe County has the lowest life expectancy at birth in the state and our Congressional District ranks fourth worst in the United States for health outcomes especially for conditions such as diabetes, stroke, heart disease, hypertension, and cancer. Most of the high incidence of chronic disease is directly related to lifestyle choices related to food insecurity and limited access to healthy foods in these underserved communities. A recent report ranks North Carolina second in the nation for children under five who are food insecure.
Working for Food Justice
The Just Food Program garden at Franklinton Center at Bricks.
Although agriculture continues to be the largest economic contributor in the area (cotton, tobacco, and soybeans), many of the area’s families and youth know little about farm life and freshly grown foods as small family farms continue to decline. In keeping with the Center’s history, JWM and the Franklinton Center at Bricks have developed the Just Food Project to support the community through initiatives that enhance the viability, vitality, and sustainability of families, small farmers, and economic development projects. Activities include:
• Operating a local Bricks Farmers’ Market for local farmers
• Maintaining a sustainable community garden, along with training, mentoring and networking opportunities
• Offering agricultural entrepreneurship training for small farmers
• Implementing a summer youth food and health justice program
• Offering hands-on education in healthy cooking, eating, and food preservation
• Providing education and awareness information to help individuals take responsibility for their health and the health of their community (summits, conferences, workshops, etc.)
• Providing opportunities to improve health through activities such as swimming, canoeing, kayaking, walking, biking, fitness dancing, and other fitness experiences for all ages
• Building effective partnerships with stakeholders and providing opportunities for ongoing dialogue to maintain responsive, effective, and positive relationships and programming.
Through these and other efforts that demonstrate faithful public witness to the communities, it is believed that families will be healthier, lives will be saved, and God will be glorified.
Part of our History
Franklinton Center at Bricks is the descendant organization of two former historically African American-serving educational institutions that originated in the 1800s by the Congregational Church and the Afro-Christians of the Christian Church. The 250 acres where the Center is currently located are part of a 1,100-plus-acre former slave plantation that became the state’s first accredited school for African Americans. The school and college taught academic, industrial, and agricultural education to African American families. As a rural life center, it also has a long history of providing opportunities for farmers and families to work, study, recreate, and worship together while enhancing their abilities to make decisions about family life, crop selections, best practices, crop sales prices, and debt reduction, etc. The Just Food project enables us to celebrate and live into that history in new ways.
