Roots: Cultivating Culture

All proceeds go to the Green to Green Initiative in the Historic West End of Charlotte promoting sustainable business development, especially in the agricultural and environmental fields.This collection of personal stories and recipes represents several generations of Afro-American food culture and serves as a first effort in documenting and curating the history of our food in Charlotte's Historic West End. In an area that has undergone disruptive transformation over the past century,...
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All proceeds go to the Green to Green Initiative in the Historic West End of Charlotte promoting sustainable business development, especially in the agricultural and environmental fields.This collection of personal stories and recipes represents several generations of Afro-American food culture and serves as a first effort in documenting and curating the history of our food in Charlotte's Historic West End. In an area that has undergone disruptive transformation over the past century, stories like these have kept the soul of the community alive, but this rich history is now at peril as more and more people find themselves without access to fresh nourishing food, have very little time and lack the know-how to prepare it.The Historic West End is one of Charlotte's food insecure areas and bears great similarity to others around the country - majority minority, low socio-economic status and low upward mobility among the residents that call the area home. This area is currently undergoing its third liberation, with revitalization projects that not only promise an economic boom in the near future, but threatens the neighborhoods and residents who have helped build it, fought the historic fights to free it and have held on only long enough to transfer the benefit to transplants from far and wide. This area is steeped in history and culture, and the food culture of the South is one of the oldest and richest in American cuisine, with origins that date back to free men in Africa.