The Church and Rural Food Systems

Resourceful Communities, a program of The Conservation Fund, focuses on environmental stewardship, social justice and sustainable economic development across rural North Carolina. The team pursues a number of strategies, detailed below, that help faith-focused groups rethink their food ministries with a focus on lasting, positive impacts for – and with – those in most need.

In “The Church and Rural Food Systems” episode on the Means of Grace podcast, host Luke Edwards talks with Jamie McGirt of Resourceful Communities about this important work.

Training and Technical Assistance

• We provide free training and technical assistance to help launch or strengthen efforts to increase healthy food access and grow local food economies.
• We support project planning, grant writing, budgeting, evaluation and more.
• We provide skills-building workshops in community and youth engagement, volunteer management and other topics to strengthen community programming. We also offer a variety of workshops to strengthen skills and promote replication of successful strategies.

Small Grants

We provide small grants to fund innovative projects that improve local economies and access to healthy foods. We can share strategies to develop effective projects and help you connect with other resources. Projects might include supporting innovative buying programs to reach vulnerable populations, teaching food preservation using local produce, launching farm-to-table programs that highlight local growers and more.

Connections

We help churches and faith-based groups engage with one another, community groups and the resources they need to serve their communities.

Resourceful Communities is uniquely positioned to help organizations in North Carolina because of our unique triple bottom line approach, which strengthens community resilience and self-sufficiency.

Case Studies

The case studies below highlight innovative Food and Faith projects developed by some of our partners. We hope these examples provide inspiration for other innovative food ministries. Contact us for more details.

• Wheels of Hope
  Mobile food ministry, Edgerton Memorial United Methodist Church. Wheels of Hope is a food truck that gives away homemade, hot balanced meals to neighborhoods in need in Selma, North Carolina. Not only are they providing good food, they also are building bridges within their community. The ministry is unique, mindful about whom it serves and intentionally strengthening relationships in the town.

• The Garden of Concord
  Community garden, Concord United Methodist Church. The Garden of Concord in Graham, North Carolina, does more than just grow food. The variety of outreach that the garden carries out shows how many ways a garden can foster community. The Garden of Concord is also creative in the different ways it shares and distributes produce, including selling to local restaurants.
• Black Creek Sow and Reap Garden
  Community garden, Black Creek United Methodist Church. The Sow and Reap Garden at Black Creek United Methodist church in Black Creek, North Carolina, provides good food and learning opportunities to anyone who is interested. The garden started in response to the need for increased food access in the area and transformed into much more than a food source. The group is a welcome part of the community and has many partnerships within the town that help the garden succeed.
• Open Hearts Bakery
  Bakery at St. Matthews United Methodist Church. What’s better than buying delicious baked goods at your local farmers market? When all the profits support missions and outreach! Open Hearts is a completely self-sustaining bakery run out of St. Matthews United Methodist Church in Morganton, North Carolina. The $50,000 the bakery makes a year goes toward employing economically and employment-challenged folks and funding other missions of the church and community. Sometimes a food ministry is more than just feeding people!