Day 14 - North Carolina - The LaStraw

Eat locally and support your local farmers, thereby sustaining the health of your local agriculture. Shop locally and support your local businesses, thereby sustaining the health of your local business environment.

These are mantras that many Americans are incorporating into their daily lives. Instead of shopping the cheaper Wal-Mart, people are heading to mom and pop shops, small boutiques, and neighborhood stores. Instead of buying produce from out of state, or even out of country, residents are buying shares at CSAs or looking for local crops at the supermarket. In fact, the meal we shared with our host in North Carolina was exceedingly local – every bit of food on the table had come from within 10 miles of the house.

But, to complement the food and the business, we pose that you add one more component to your locally minded routine:

Volunteer locally and support your local service organizations, thereby sustaining the health of the local community.

When Tim and I decided to travel, we wanted to add a service component to our trip. Additionally, we wanted to focus on community-based organization, meaning organizations that are located within the community that they serve. We figured this would enable us to see the best in each community, bear witness to the good work that is being done by local residents in order to help other local residents. And in visiting these organizations, their volunteers, and the people/animals that they serve, we would be witnessing communities maintaining their own health. And, yes, I did just use the word community 4 (well, now 5) times in one paragraph. COMMUNITY. Six, ha.

After divvying up the states, Tim and I began researching opportunities and contacting organizations. I remember finding The LaStraw on a Friday evening – I was sitting on the couch researching, while Tim was at the stove, making our perfunctory Friday night chicken tacos. An organization built on the principle of community involvement and input. Huh. I stopped Tim and made him read the description of the organization.

Founded in Greensboro NC by a group of women who grew up in several of the low-income areas of Guilford County, The LaStraw seeks to work with the community to identify issues affecting the members and sculpt creative solutions for those issues. Instead of an outsider entering the community, naming perceived problems, and imposing solutions that they believe will fix all grievances, The LaStraw transfers ownership to the community, urging community member involvement. The LaStraw’s mission is to create an accessible network of human and social services, empowering low-income people to improve their quality of life. This will result in the eventual reduction in the need for emergency based social services by actively engaging individuals in low-income areas in a root cause analysis of issues perpetuating poverty unique to their community as well as their overall demographic. To use their own words (as I tend to), “Issues perpetuating poverty are exacerbated by the absence of impacted individuals.”

At this point, no other organization had even responded to us. It was Friday evening, a very silly time to be sending out emails to people, given very few people would even look at their emails till the next week. Hopefully Monday they will have a chance, we thought. But, throwing caution to the wind, I decided to send executive director, Melva Florance a note (via Facebook, no less). And almost immediately, I got a reply back. She was supportive of us, wanted us to visit, and even had a concept already planned for the day – a community health fair.

“Dude, you think she knows there are only two of us?” I asked Tim, after reading him the email chain (yes, I say “dude” frequently. I realize it makes me sound idiotic. I will stop saying it the day I turn thirty. Until then, let me have my small verbal indulgences). I immediately started to panic, imagining the disappointed look that would cross Melva’s face when she realized that The Civic Projects was only two interested and passionate people, rather than 40 or 50 individuals constituting the basis of a social revolution. Tim, remaining as calm as ever, continued to slice lettuce and recommended I email her back – “just emphasize that there are two of us, see if she changes her mind.” But, she remained totally supportive and resolved – The LaStraw would host us during our time in North Carolina.

On MLK Day, The LaStraw hosted a Community Health Fair, with a focus on getting attendees tested for HIV/AIDS. Because we were there the day before, Tim and I helped with setup and neighborhood canvassing.

After touring The Hive, a collectively run not-for-profit community space in which The LaStraw is located, we began setting up for the community health fair. The floor was swept and mopped, tables arranged, and pamphlets put on display. We organized and reorganized information, making sure there was a logical flow and delivery. We arranged a reading room, so that children could be entertained as their parents perused literature and got tested. We piled books on tables, so that parents and children could collect volumes to add to their home libraries (Books, holy books! You should see the amount of books they had). We compiled packets of sensitive information. We ate Bojangales (no, not related to the success of the health fair, but an important part of our North Carolina experience none the less). And we canvassed.

I should not have worried about the lack of bodies associated with The Civic Projects; Melva assembled an army of her own. About thirty individuals convened at The Hive, the majority of which came from the A&T School of Nursing. Acting as queen bee, Melva split us into groups and gave us our instructions. Teams set out, traversing the nearby streets and depositing information about the health fair with local residents. Many people opened their doors, meeting us on the porch. A team from a local testing facility explored the area, charting the course they would take while they went door-to-door, offering to test people who wished to remain in the comfort of their own homes. In a later conversation, someone informed us that during this door-to-door march, typically 40 to 50 people get tested. That means that there are 40 to 50 more people informed about their own health, above and beyond those who made the effort to come to the health fair.

Once the swarm of volunteers had returned to The Hive and, then slowly dissipated, we too said our goodbyes and returned to the car. One of our initial goals had been to explore the good in each community, but instead, we had begun to really experience each community that we visited, becoming entrenched in a faction of it, if only for one day (and not only because they make us line dance before we are allowed to leave. Even Tim. He danced. Awkwardly). It struck me that we are now privy to the commitment and passion of those members of the community who are looking for a better future, as well as to the faith of those who have enough trust in the members of their own community members to establish organization born from community wisdom, rather than individual assessment.

So, when the weather gets warmer and people are more apt to be outside, go visit your local lemonade stand (you know, the one down on the corner that buys its lemons from a local farmer and donates its a potion of its proceeds to a local charity - what a civic minded venture!). While they get your order poured into a cool, paper cup, already sweating from the ice, take a few moments to observe the beauty in your community - the people out, walking down the street; kids playing in front yards and on sidewalks; people enjoying each other's company on the front stoop. Look at the networks, the relationships. And when you are called back to attention, when they ask you if you need a straw, tell them heck no, you have plenty. You are no longer down to your last one.