Richard Ilgenfritz - MediaNews Group Patricia LaRoche, a member of Bethel AME Church of Ardmore, packs bags of food local residents in need.

Richard Ilgenfritz - MediaNews Group Monica McGilvery, from the Household of Faith Deliverance Church in Ardmore, helps pack bags of food for the needy.

Richard Ilgenfritz - MediaNews Group Members of the James W Bell Allen No. 97 mason lodge helping to bring food to people in need. From Left to right Bernard Burrell, senior warden; Ernest Pendleton Bernard Burrell Jr. and Brother Bryan Jackson.

Carolyn Cavaness, pastor of Bethel AME Church Ardmore, holds a bag of food that was to be given to people in need.

LOWER MERION – In 2018, members of Bethel AME Church in Ardmore decided to put a small plot of land next to their historic church to good use. They’d grow fresh, healthy vegetables.

Over time, that garden idea has expanded to help inspire and empower others in the community to learn to grow some of their own food at home by placing gardens in front yards, side yards, backyards – wherever there might be space.

Through their garden experiences and due to outside factors, they’ve learned something over the past couple of years. The current food system has problems.

“The pandemic has really emphasized just how dysfunctional our food system is,” said Reverend Carolyn Cavaness, pastor of Bethel AME Church in Ardmore.

The longtime expression that says “you are what you eat” could have an added addendum of, “you eat what you have access to.” And if that food people have access to isn’t always the healthiest to eat, it can cause health concerns.

“That has added a commitment for us to empower people of color to take the power in controlling their food source – how do you grow your own food and how do we support black and brown farmers.”

This past week, Bethel teamed up with pastor Heber Brown III, founder and executive director of the Black Church Food Security Network, a national organization based out of Baltimore, Md., to help bring freshly grown food to those in need.

Brown’s organization purchases vegetables from black farmers and then distributes it through a network of African American churches, such as Bethel, who then help get it to the people who need it.

“We are co-creating local food systems that center small farmers and center the assets and strength of local churches,” Brown said as he made his first delivery to Bethel this weekend. “Our particular focus is on African American churches because of the disproportionate rates of food insecurity, health challenges and disparities in the African American community. And so, we feel like when you put African American churches and farmers together, it helps to get that much closer to a solution to some of those challenges.”

Brown’s organization purchases the food from small farmers. The food he brought up this week came from places such as King and Queen County, Va.; Warfield, Va.; Beckenham, South Carolina and others.

Once the food arrives in Ardmore, Bethel AME and its small army of volunteers packs up the food into what they are calling power bags. The food is then distributed to people who signed up for the program. Most were from the local area and a few people were from West Philadelphia.

Brown said not only does the program help get food to those in need, but it also helps small farmers.

“These are small farmers, many of them don’t have big contracts at the big stores, they’re not in the government program for food distributions, and so we create the avenues for them to earn a living based on the delicious food that they grow and connect them with the churches – this is a niche market made just for them,” Brown said.

Brown’s own church began a garden as part of an Earth Day event in 2010 for many of the same reasons Cavaness started the garden at Bethel.

“As a pastor, I would see members of my church be hospitalized repeatedly for diet-related issues,” Brown said. “And to be frank, I got tired of just praying for them and hoping that they made it. I wanted to do something in addition to prayer, and so the idea came, let’s grow food on the land that we have on our church.”

So, once he saw the benefits of having a garden with fresh produce at his church, he began thinking about how it could be scaled upwards to make it larger and then network different churches together. This weekend was his first trip to deliver food in the Philadelphia area. Over time, he hopes to connect with other churches throughout the area.

About 1,500 to 2,000 pounds of produce and goods were brought up to Ardmore on Saturday to fill about 200 grocery bags full of food.

“I love it,” Brown said about getting food to people who need it. “You can’t read the bible and not bump into many stories about food. Many of the miracles we celebrate in scriptures are miracles where food is somewhere in the pitcher – or wine, Jesus’s first miracle was transforming water into wine or taking a little boy’s lunch and feeding 5,000. Food is sacred, and it’s always been sacred, scripturally.”

For Cavaness, working with Brown and his connection with farmers is also important.

“You are looking at a plate that has been grown and supplied by generations of black and brown farmers,” Cavaness said.

With his first trip delivering food to the area, Brown said he wants to be back.

“I would just continue to invite more churches, synagogues and mosques and other faith-based organizations to dream big about how their current assets can be utilized for a greater public good,” Brown said.

For more information on the Black Church Food Security Network, they can be found at blackchurchfoodsecurity.net.

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