Virginia Hostetter ’25, 3.9.25
Early this morning, our group met Dr. Reverend Brown to help the Black Church Food Security Network (BCFSN). Wearing a bright green cap that read “Support Black Farmers,” Dr. Brown welcomed us to the garden of New Creation Church. As part of Dr. Brown’s work with the BCFSN, he invited us to un-winterize and prepare this garden for seeding in April – an essential step for many of the 250 congregations in his network. His goal was to motivate us and encourage us to be a voice in this garden. His goal was to motivate us, encourage us to be present in this space, and ensure that our voices and hard work were heard.
His teachings were simple yet profound: Focus on the illness, not just the symptoms. In terms of food distribution, this means each church provides their congregations and neighbors with fresh veggies and fruits from their garden. Take it one step further, and each church can grow and harvest one type of food, so when their work is combined, you have even more. Take it another step forward and you can have children playing, learning, and participating in the garden. Keep going, and you’ll implement a system that gives out composting bags one Sunday and collects them the next. Suddenly, we’ve turned feeding one church congregation into feeding neighborhoods, teaching the next generation how to keep it going, promoting earth sustainability, and truly creating a giving food economy.
The point is that growth and change require creating a community-ecosystem – one where we can feed, uplift, and root for everyone at every level. To emphasize this, Dr. Rev. Brown taught us the meaning of “giving the hungry the ability to feed themselves.” It is easy to recognize that a struggling community member could benefit from more money, but it’s harder to see that money to go to a grocery store is a very short-term solution. The real solution comes from growing a community that shares food, resources, tools, knowledge, and support to ensure long-term food security and health for all.
After farming, we met with Dr. Rev. Brown over lunch. He wanted to know more about each of us and what drives us. It’s like he was trying to envision the ultimate sports team, where we know each other’s strengths, weaknesses, and how to work together. His mindset? Don’t focus on the systems you don’t like or that don’t work. Instead, focus on what you can do to make them better. What can I bring to the table? What should be changed about some xyz system? The next step is to go and do it. Dream first, plan later. Start the group, then find the funding. That’s exactly how he built BCFSN.
I don’t know if this was the lesson he wanted me to take away most, but for me, it was this: Just do the damn thing. Don’t dwell on the past. Don’t fixate on what you lack. Instead, build the community you want to see. Work with the people around you. Cherish them for who they are and what they know. Share your resources, always think deeper and one step ahead, and focus on creating real change—even in systems that are much larger than you.