City aims to provide fresh food

A new healthy food initiative by the Rocky Mount City Council is underway with approval of the development of a municipal food system plan.

Its implementation will be designed to increase access to fresh produce and food in under-served communities while promoting economic development opportunities, said Councilman Richard Joyner, who spearheaded the project.

Joyner, who was appointed in May to represent Ward 3, will oversee the plan's implementation.

Joyner established the Conetoe Family Life Center, which provides a grassroots response to combat the healthy food deficit in some areas of the region by producing and providing fresh food. For his efforts, he was recognized at a national level during the 2015 CNN Heroes Tribute.

“It’s not only about having healthy food in our region — but also how we develop and grow the healthy food we need is just as important because it brings us to the place of accountability,” Joyner said. “At the same time, it is a way to create a social climate in our community where we can produce our own sustainability.”

The food system plan will be a collective effort with entities from Rocky Mount, Tarboro, Nash and Edgecombe counties, local school systems and the Opportunities Industrialization Center each participating in and benefiting from the collaboration.

Councilman Reuben Blackwell, president of the OIC, said the most vulnerable residents in the city are children and seniors.

“We have not had affordable and varied options for locally grown, fresh produce in core center communities in Rocky Mount for 25 years or more,” Blackwell said. “That means our children and our elders do not have access to many choices for healthy fruits and vegetables. A Municipal Model Food System can serve as a pathway for ensuring that everyone in our city has the ability to grow, purchase, sell and consume food that is good for them and good for our community's economic health as well.”

Joyner said he's hopeful the program will boost the local economy while having a direct impact on the finances that go into after-school programs, summer camps and the overall welfare of children in local communities.

Joyner added that it’s about more than food — it’s an opportunity for Rocky Mount and surrounding areas to be a model for human development, physically and economically.

People need to understand that there are people in the area that either do not have access to healthy food or cannot afford it, Mayor David Combs said.

“If we look at the long-term benefits of having access to healthy food choices, it will make a difference in health care costs, productivity and a new generation of children who grow up eating healthy food opposed to junk food. Overall, everyone benefits,” Combs said.

Tarboro Mayor Joe Pitt said the plan takes what Joyner has done in Conetoe a step further. Pitt said that with all the challenges Tarboro and Edgecombe County face, it is important to see this issue through the process.

“Sometimes we get so involved in things like fundraising that we forget the basics — food and protection from weather,” Pitt said. “The need is there, no question.”

The Edgecombe County Board of Commissioners signed off on a resolution to embrace the effort at its Oct. 1 meeting.

Edgecombe County Commissioner Evelyn Powell said that although the development of the plan is still in its early stages, she's confident of the concept, which goes many steps further than anything currently offered to residents of Edgecombe County.

“We are all about the same thing — we want to look at how education merges into the effort as well as healthy food and healthy living,” Powell said. “We want to see our kids grow healthy, and it starts at birth by giving them the right kinds of food. That plays an important role in the success of a child who might come to school hungry. It will definitely benefit the community.”

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