Podcasts about Durham County

Welcome to the Sisterhood of Sweat, today I'm talking with versatile actor Louis Ferreira, known for his roles in Breaking Bad, Stargate Universe, Durham County, and his latest role as Jesse in House of David. With a career spanning over three decades, Louis has captivated audiences with his powerful performances in film and television. In this engaging conversation, he shares insights into his journey, the lessons he's learned, and the wisdom he has to offer. Questions Asked: Can you tell us about your journey into acting and what initially drew you to this career? You've played such a diverse range of characters. How do you prepare for each role, and is there one that has impacted you the most? What was it like being part of Breaking Bad, and how did that role influence your career? Your new project, House of David, sounds incredibly exciting. Can you share what drew you to this role and what audiences can expect from the series? You've worked on major projects like Shogun, The Man in the High Castle, and Bad Blood. How do you choose your roles, and what motivates you to take on certain characters? What has been the most challenging part of your career, and how have you overcome obstacles along the way? How do you maintain balance and mental wellness in the entertainment industry? What advice would you give to aspiring actors who want to have a long-lasting career like yours? Do you have any personal routines or habits that help you stay focused and motivated? Looking ahead, what are some dream projects or collaborations that you'd love to be a part of? Five Notable Quotes from Louis Ferreira: “Every character I play teaches me something new about myself and the human experience.” “Resilience is the key to longevity in this industry. You have to be willing to adapt and grow.” “House of David isn't just a historical drama—it's a story of faith, leadership, and transformation.” “I've been blessed to work with incredible storytellers, and at the end of the day, that's what it's all about—telling stories that resonate.” “No matter where you are in your journey, remember that passion and persistence will always guide you.” Connect with Louis Ferreira: IMDb Profile House of David Trailer

From a recent SAND Community Gathering (Feb 2025) hosted by SAND co-founders, Zaya and Maurizio Benazzo. Deep Medicine Circle (DMC), a collective of healers, farmers, artists, and storytellers, is challenging colonial structures by redefining health and wellbeing through practices that heal communities and restore connections to land. Led by Dr. Rupa Marya, Charlene Eigen-Vasquez, and Walter Riley, this visionary group is creating a holistic food and wellbeing model that nourishes both people and land, recognizing the profound interconnectedness of human health within social, environmental, and historical contexts. Dr. Rupa Marya  is a physician, activist, writer, mother, and a composer. She is a Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and a co-founder of the Do No Harm Coalition. Her work sits at the nexus of climate, health and racial justice. She is the co-author with Raj Patel of the book Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice. She works to decolonize food and medicine in partnership with communities in Lakhota territory at the Mni Wiconi Health Circle and in Ohlone Territory through the Deep Medicine Circle. She has toured twenty-nine countries with her band, Rupa and the April Fishes, whose music was described by the legend Gil Scott-Heron as “Liberation Music.” Charlene Eigen-Vasquez, J.D. is of Ohlone descent, from the village of Chitactac. She is dedicated to land back initiatives, land preservation, land restoration, cultural revitalization and environmental justice because she feels that these initiatives have a direct impact on physical and mental health. As a mother and grandmother, she completed a law degree so that she might better serve Indigenous communities. Today her focus is on regenerative leadership strategies, leveraging her legal skills, and mediation skills to advocate for Indigenous interests, negotiate agreements and build relational bridges. She is an acknowledged peacemaker, trained by Tribal Supreme Court Justices. Charlene is the former CEO and Director of Self-Governance for the Healing and Reconciliation Institute. Charlene also serves as Chairwoman of the Confederation of Ohlone People, Co-Chair of the Pajaro Valley Ohlone Indian Council and Board Vice President for the Santa Clara Valley Indian Health Center. Charlene was recently brought into the Planet Women's 100 Women Pathway, a cohort designed to increase the number of diverse women leaders at the helm of the environmental movement. Walter Riley was born in 1944, number 9 of 11 children born to a farming family in Durham County, North Carolina. His family farmed until he was about 6 years old. He grew up in the Jim Crow south and in his early teens, Walter became active in the Civil Rights Movement organizing voter registration, sit-ins, jobs campaigns, and in his late teens became Field Secretary for CORE (Congress for Racial Equality), got married and became a father. He moved to the Bay Area in the 1960s where he became active in the political, social justice movements. Walter is a long-time community activist and civil rights attorney. Topics 00:00 Introduction and Greetings 00:47 Introducing Dr. Rupa Marya 01:46 Deep Medicine Circle and Board Members 02:36 Charlene's Introduction and Ancestral Tribute 07:33 Walter Riley's Introduction and Civil Rights Work 23:48 Connecting Food Systems and Colonial History 26:40 Healing Through Music and Cultural Awareness 27:43 Addressing Hunger and Malnutrition During COVID 28:06 Farming as a Path to Justice and Resilience 30:26 The Role of Historical Trauma in Land Restoration 30:51 Holistic Problem Solving and Cultural Stewardship 36:13 Youth and Community Engagement in Healing 41:28 The Importance of Ethnic Studies and Solidarity 43:08 Reflections on Historical Movements and Future Change 52:29 Concluding Thoughts on Healing and Unity Resources Farming is Medicine (film) Do No Harm Coalition Inflamed (Rupa Marya) Rupa and the April Fishes Boots Riley (Filmmaker and Musician) “I'm a Virgo” (TV Series by Boots Riley) “Sorry to Bother You” (Film by Boots Riley) The Coup (Boots Riley's Band) Support the mission of SAND and the production of this podcast by becoming a SAND Member

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are headlining several rallies on Saturday, with both presidential candidates ending the day with competing events in the key swing state of North Carolina. More than 70 million people have already cast their vote - a landmark number. Also on the programme: Spain has announced its biggest deployment of troops in peacetime to deal with this week's flash floods in Valencia; countries at the world's biggest nature conservation conference have approved the creation of a permanent body for Indigenous peoples that will consult the United Nations about biodiversity; and the British Conservative party has elected Kemi Badenoch to be its new leader.(Picture: Duke University students wait in line with residents of Durham County, North Carolina for early voting on November 1, 2024. Credit: REUTERS/Jonathan Drake)

Lt. Anthony Sharp is a rising star in the Durham County, North Carolina Sheriff's Office who takes pride in leading by example. Find out more about his ups and downs in this episode.

In this special two-part edition of The Dose, we're bringing listeners along to an exhilarating gathering of health care's most innovative thinkers and changemakers — Aspen Ideas: Health. In part 2, host Joel Bervell talks to two people who are reshaping how we think about community health: Mary Oxendine, a Lumbee and Tuscarora woman and the former North Carolina Food Security Coordinator at Durham County; and Shameca Brown, a mental health provider and advocate for Black and brown people in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and former member of the Mental Health Association of Oklahoma's board of directors.

//The Wire//1930Z June 12, 2024////ROUTINE////BLUF: RUSSIAN AND NATO EXERCISES CONTINUE IN CARIBBEAN AND BALTIC SEA RESPECTIVELY. DOMESTIC HOMELAND THREATS CONTINUE TO MOUNT.// -----BEGIN TEARLINE------International Events-Caribbean: The previously announced Russian naval exercise continues in Cuban waters as planned.Baltic Sea: The similarly-timed NATO exercise (BALTOPS 24) continues simultaneously to the Russian activities in the Caribbean. This year's demonstration is the largest in the history of this routine naval exercise, with 20x NATO members contributing over 50 surface vessels to take part in maneuvers throughout the Baltic Sea.-HomeFront-North Carolina: Local media reports indicate that the FBI is investigating an attack on electrical infrastructure that occurred last week. Allegedly, small arms were used to target an electrical transformer in Durham County, which resulted in a power outage in Raleigh. AC: The location where the attack took place is a remote site in the vicinity of the 3900 block of Carpenter Pond Road, well outside of the typical bounds of small arms fire that is fairly routine in the well-known hotspots in Durham and Raleigh. The general area around this site is very high-income, with a major electrical substation being located only a few hundred yards away from the alleged attack location.USA: Various mainstream media outlets have announced the arrest of at least 6x potential ISIS operatives in the United States, as part of a coordinated counterterrorism operation. All 6x suspects allegedly are from Tajikistan and obtained entry into the U.S. illegally via the southern border.-----END TEARLINE-----Analyst Comments: As this information comes from closed-sources not made public by any media outlet, independent verification of these claims is not possible at this time. However, considering the tens of thousands of people that also exhibit terrorism concerns (along with the thousands placed on commercial flights with zero identity documents), only arresting 6 potential terrorists is merely a fraction of the total number of potential terror threats that authorities have confirmed are entering the United States daily.Analyst: S2A1//END REPORT//

On this episode of The Movie Podcast, Daniel and Anthony are joined by Special Guest Hugh Dillon, Co-Creator and Lead of MAYOR OF KINGSTOWN, a Paramount+ series also co-created by Taylor Sheridan. The series follows Mike McLusky (Jeremy Renner) and the McLusky family – power brokers in Kingstown, Michigan, where the business of incarceration is the only thriving industry. Hugh plays Ian Ferguson, a seasoned, hard-nosed detective for the Kingstown Police Department. Hugh also starred in five seasons of the Canadian iconic series Flashpoint and went on to appear in Durham County, Wind River, as well as Yellowstone. Hugh also voiced the character Nick in Valve's Left 4 Dead 2. Season 3 of Mayor of Kingstown airs on Paramount+ every Sunday beginning June 2, 2024. Watch and listen to The Movie Podcast now on all podcast platforms, YouTube, and TheMoviePodcast.ca SUPPORT THE MOVIE PODCAST ON PATREON! Contact: hello@themoviepodcast.ca FOLLOW US Daniel on X, Instagram, Letterboxd Shahbaz on X, Instagram, and Letterboxd Anthony on X, Instagram, and Letterboxd The Movie Podcast on X, Instagram, TikTok, Discord, and Rotten Tomatoes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Calling all Law and Order Fans! This week, the Holler sits down with Satana Deberry, Durham County's B.A. D.A. Satana recounts her journey from working as a defense attorney in her hometown to serving as the General Counsel of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, and now as Durham County DA. A pioneer of restorative justice, Satana emphasizes the importance of communication, victim-led justice processes, and addressing systemic issues such as generational poverty and wage theft. Keep up with Satana at ww.deberry4da.com and on Instagram @satanadeberry 00:00 Greatest Podcast Intro in the History of the Universe 01:31 Getting to Know Satana Deberry: A Trailblazer in Justice Reform 03:40 Inside the DA's Office: The Role and Impact of Prosecution 13:44 Myths and Misconceptions about Criminal Justice 21:06 Exploring Restorative Justice: A New Approach to Crime and Punishment 28:54 Empowering Communities and Embracing Reform 33:39 Rapid Fire Questions

In this episode, hosts Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon speak with Derek Bowens, the Elections Director in Durham County, North Carolina.  They spoke about crafting narratives to help election administrators share and showcase the need for local investment in elections and about the importance of having election administrators that represent and reflect the voters they serve.

Back in September of 1980, 13 year old Darlene was at her best friend Tammy Cardens house on Glenn School Road near interstate 85. They played some softball and when it came time for Darlene to head home, Tammy offered to walk with her but she declined…saying “no I'm OK, I'll walk alone.” That was last thing they ever said to one another. 

Our guest today is Jasmine Crowe-Houston, social entrepreneur, and founder of Goodr.co. Jasmine started her journey cooking soul food for hungry unhoused people in her kitchen in her one-bedroom apartment in Atlanta. She fed upwards of 500 people a week for years with pop-up kitchens and parks and parking lots. Then in 2017, she founded Goodr, a technology-based food waste management company that connects firms with food surpluses to nonprofit organizations that can use the food. She has worked with organizations that have food waste issues, such as the Atlanta International Airport, Hormel Foods, and Turner Broadcasting. Today, Goodr has expanded nationwide and sponsors free grocery stores and schools. She has combined charity, innovation, and market-based solutions into a for-profit waste management company that Inc. Magazine called a rare triple win.  This episode is in collaboration with Policy360, a podcast of the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. Interview Summary   Would you describe what Goodr is today?   Goodr is a blessing. We are a sustainable food waste management company that leverages technology to connect businesses that have excess food to non-profit organizations that can use that food. And at the same time, we have a line of business, which is Hunger Solutions, and we're helping brands and government and other municipalities rethink how hunger is solved in their communities. We believe that hunger is not an issue of scarcity. It's really a matter of logistics. And so, we are using technology and logistics to drive out hunger and food waste. We've built technology that includes our mobile app and portal. Imagine you are using an Uber Eats or DoorDash app. You go onto your favorite restaurant; you click the item that you want. Similar experience for our users. So, for example, a restaurant in the airport. Their menu is in our system. They click chicken sandwich; they tell us 50. Our platform is going to calculate the tax value of those sandwiches, the approximate weight of those sandwiches, and our algorithm is automatically matching those sandwiches with the non-profit that is serving 50 or more people that can take those items and then get it distributed to people in need. Another big thing that our technology is capturing is the poundage that we're keeping out a landfill. So, it's really important because we're able to tell our clients we have kept 2 million pounds of food from landfills. This is equal to this much CO2 emissions that you've helped to prevent. We do a lot of fun gamifications as well, but we're data-driven and we believe that you can't manage what you don't measure. And for too long, people have thrown everything away. They've never measured it. And now we're giving them real insights and they're seeing things like, wow, my number one wasted thing is pork. Why am I making pork so much? Maybe people here at our offices don't eat pork. Start to make changes. So, we really work on the source reduction, but the number two on the EPA is the food hierarchy chart is feeding hungry people. And so that's really where we are.   Wow, that's amazing. I want to ask because I've seen this in the food waste and food donation world, that sometimes food that's donated isn't appropriate or fit for human consumption. What happens to those food products?   Traditionally, they end up in landfills. One of the big things that we have to do at Goodr, and I'll tell you too, that change is by county. So, think of not by city, not by state. Wake County and Durham County probably have different rules because it's based off the health department in each city. So, a good example is when we were working in Florida, what we do in Miami is absolutely illegal in Fort Lauderdale. They're 10 minutes away from each other. Broward County and Dade County have different rules. So, we spend a lot of time, our R&D team, creating quality assurance checklists. And we know this food is going to live for three hours. So, you've got to get this either cooled, frozen, or donated within three hours. So, we tell our businesses that. We are moving food in an average of about 30 minutes from the time it gets picked up. Some of our customers will put in their pickup requests and ask that it's picked up the next morning. So, they're going to automatically put it in their refrigerator. That's their comfort level. They feel a lot better. It makes the food last longer and they don't always have to worry about it being fresh. A lot of the time when we're dealing with weddings, really big events, that's when we have to move right away because maybe that business doesn't have access to the kitchen the next day. And so, we need to move a little bit differently. Most of the time when a business has food that's passed that timeframe, they typically do throw it away. But what we've done is we've introduced organics recycling into our fold. So, our customers now have the ability to send that to an animal farm. We can also send it to an anaerobic digester and turn it into an organic product, or we can compost it. We're still keeping it out of landfill. It doesn't have to end up in landfill ever. That's the positive.   Yeah, that's amazing. I saw your 2019 Ted women talk entitled "What We're Getting Wrong in The Fight to End Hunger". And it has been viewed by more than 2.2 million times.   Wow. Yeah, it's so good. I didn't know if you gave me those last million, but that's good to know.   Good job! No, it was over that by the time I got to it, but it's really amazing and I'm just intrigued to get your opinion about why do you think people are interested in solving hunger and food waste?   I think people are questioning why it hasn't been solved yet. It's almost like it's not as big as cancer, right? But it's as big as cancer. Cancer's big, it kills people, right? But we spend a lot of money and there's a lot of research and we feel like we're getting closer to the fight. I don't know if people feel that we're getting closer to the fight as it relates to hunger. And if you think about it, Norbert, when me and you were kids, we probably did a canned food drive. Anybody that's listening right now is probably thinking, "I did some kind of a food drive when I was in elementary school to solve hunger in our communities." Why are we still doing that? Why are we still doing the same things? I always look at it as being the definition of insanity, right? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. I think that's what people are interested in. What are we getting wrong? Why is my kid, 35 years later, why am I still doing canned food drives for my kindergarten kid and this is something that I did in kindergarten? And is this moving the needle? Is this really working? People want to know that. People want to know are we pacifying problems or is the money that we're putting behind these actually driving solutions and should we look at something else that's different? Even with my TED Talk, I remember the first week it came out, we got a lot of, "Oh, you're talking negatively about food banks, and they do great work and I volunteer at the food bank every weekend." There's a whole section in my TED Talk where I say food banks and food pantries are vital. They play a pivotal role, but they don't solve hunger alone, and we need to be open to doing new things. We're using technology in every other area of our lives. I mean, we're getting our groceries delivered, we're meeting our spouses, we're going to college. Why are we not using technology to try and solve a big problem like hunger and food waste? And so, it's just getting people open. I think that's what people are interested in finding a solution.   I'm really intrigued by the model of Goodr, the fact that it is a for-profit company. What's also interesting is given all the success that you've had up to this point, it's hard to believe now that investors hesitated to support you.   Yeah, shame on those investors, I would say. I'll tell you, Norbert, the sad thing is, right, any woman listening should know this. Women as a whole get 2% of all venture capital funding from investors as a whole. So, you take a pie and then you take 2%, and now of that 2%, you have women that are Asian, women that are Black, women that are Hispanic, women that are White. We're all taking a piece of that small 2%. So, there's part of that. I think another thing is it's hard to sometimes get conviction around that, which you don't understand. And a lot of investors, quite frankly, have never been hungry, you know? They don't really understand food waste. It's probably not... It's not AI, it's not blockchain, it's not crypto. It's not always in the headlines. It's not the cool thing. So, I think those all played a factor in it. I think that's just the reality. Investors like to invest in things that they can get excited about, and sometimes hunger and food waste just are not exciting. I also think a lot of people felt like this is so good, they should be a nonprofit. And for me, I saw the business case in what we were building right away because businesses were already paying to throw food away. That's the simple thing about it. So why would I create a nonprofit and must ask everyday people to donate so that we can get this food picked up, have to rely on volunteers that may or may not come, which possibly would cause more food to go to waste. Because if you're being paid to pick something up, you're being paid to do something, you're 99% more likely to go, right? If you're volunteering and it's raining, you may not go that day. It doesn't matter how much you care about the cause. You may not want to get in your car, you may not like to drive in the rain. Those are the things that happen. And so I also believe that businesses would value what they pay for. So, if you're investing and you're paying in a service to divert your food waste from landfill, you're more likely to make sure that your employees are actually packaging that food, recording it for donations, scheduling pickups, than you would be if it was just a free thing, and it was a nice to do. I think that was kind of like we needed to prove that, and now we've proven. We have world-class customers. We work with... You name some of them. And I mean, we've worked with everybody from the NBA to Google to Oracle, Nike World Headquarters. These are our customers, you know? People have now seen that this works. One of our biggest customers, they sent over a testimonial the other day and it says, "All the other locations are banging down my door to try and get Goodr." People just needed to give it a try. And so now hopefully when we have those investor conversations the next go around, this market's a little crazy, but hopefully we'll have a bit more willingness to give our solution a try. And there have been great investors who have made an investment in what we're doing.   Right. Thank you for sharing that. And we're at a university and we have a lot of young people who are excited about social entrepreneurship. What can you say to them to encourage them along this path?   I could say to them that they are needed. We were talking about my goal of wanting to be a professor one day, and what I want to talk about is social entrepreneurship and this model of being able to do well by doing good. That there is a way to do that in business and that it ultimately works. And we've seen the big companies that I think are pretty keen and they've seen success for are your Warby Parkers, your Patagonias. These are other B Corps, Goodr is a B Corp as well, who are kind of existing. The first model I ever saw of social entrepreneurship was Toms Shoes. They were really popular maybe 15 years ago, maybe not as much now, but there was a point when it was like, I'm going to buy a shoe and give a shoe. Bombas, the sock and undergarment company, the same thing. They're supporting homelessness. You buy a sock, you're giving a sock, you buy a T-shirt, you're giving a T-shirt. People love to do good. And so, these students that are interested in creating ways and solutions to solve some of our biggest problems, are needed now more than ever. I mean, this world is... I read an article the other day talking about all that millennials have lived through. And I was thinking to myself, goodness gracious, I've lived through a lot, two recessions, a couple of wars, a pandemic, just like everything, technology. I mean, that's the reality of it. I don't recall a smart cell phone when I was in high school and college. That was... I think the iPhone came out maybe in 2008, 2009. I graduated college by then. I didn't have that. Facebook wasn't around until 2008. You start to see what's happening to young people now because of social media, their self-esteem, the anxiety. There are so many things that we need people to be addressing because we're creating a lot more technology, but we're also creating a lot more problems, and they need to be solved.   They do. And it is interesting to think about the anxiety that's associated with some of these issues.   Oh yes.   And the fact that Goodr is trying to address food waste, which is a contributor climate change, I mean, you're providing a solution. And this is great and it helps me think that our students can start to think differently about what they can do to help address these issues.   The Project Drawdown, which is pretty much a leading climate solutions organization, they named, in 2022, food waste. Reducing our food waste is number two after fixing our energy grid. Number two thing that we could do to combat climate change is to reduce our food waste. In America, nearly 2% of GDP has been on food we never eat, which is just insane to think about. 2% of everything that we spend is on food we never eat, from production to transportation to the disposal. And so even around the food waste chain, there's still a lot more solutions that are needed. So even if that's going to be what we're producing at the farm level, what's going to waste? What can we do with it? Can we reuse it? Can we turn things into other products? I was reading an article recently about there's a new kind of leather that's going to be... It's already kind of on some runways, but it's made out of banana peels. That's a social entrepreneur that thought of that.   I love the fact that you're so welcoming and you're trying to bring people in. And that brings up the book that you've published recently, "Everybody Eats," and it's there to inspire young people in the fight against hunger. It is beautiful. And I see my daughter in this text and so I'm really appreciative of it. And it was illustrated by Nadia Fisher. And there is also a website with resources for parents and kids and teachers. What do you want to accomplish with this outreach effort?   I am often asked, will I solve hunger in my lifetime? I want to say yes, but I have to think possibly not. Hunger grows every single year. I mean, there's a new study I just was reading that it was in the Washington Post two days ago. It's increased 12%. Childhood poverty is up 20%. So sometimes I'm going, or you make the shot, we're at Duke, right? This is a basketball place. So, you make this shot and you can't keep your hand there because the team is already down, the other team's already on the other side of the court. That's often how I feel about hunger. It's like I do something that's really good. It's monumental. We've got grocery stores in schools, we're feeding students, and then I read that childhood poverty is up 20%. How do I leave a legacy that really focuses on solving hunger? I need to inform the next generation and I need to do it in a way, and how I wrote that book is really my story in the eyes of a kid. Me learning that one of my friends, my college roommate did not have food in her household, and that shaping my whole life. And now thinking like your daughter, what would she come back and tell you if she learned that a friend of hers at school doesn't have food in her kitchen like you have food in your kitchen? And they ask questions, and they want to understand that. She goes on this journey asking grocery stores and her school like, "Hey, what's going on with this food? People are going hungry. My friend at school doesn't have access to food," and she's trying to help her friend. And the reality is just like with my friend and the young protagonist in the book, her father just lost the job. I mean, so many people read these stories. I think the most recent article I saw said something like 75% of Americans are living... Are one paycheck away, just one paycheck away. And to see that, that happened to my friend, and it's the most jarring thing that has ever happened to me, probably in life. Because I had a completely different picture in my mind of what hunger looked like until that happened to me. And this happened to me probably three years into feeding people that were experiencing homelessness on the street. I've been feeding people for over a decade of my life. To learn that someone who had volunteered with me, someone who had been out feeding people with me, that they too wouldn't have food in their home, it changed my whole life and my life story. I use all the proceeds from the book to fund a Neighborhood Eats program where I feed kids on the weekends, and I know that I'm making an impact in the lives of children. And they will. My hope is in 15, 20 years, you'll be sitting here talking to someone else who's doing something around this. That's the goal.   You've touched on this, but I just want to push it a little bit further. Food waste and hunger are longstanding challenges and they touch people all along the supply chain. How do you manage the complexity of this problem?   Yeah, I think we have to continue to focus on the verticals that we're really good at because it is big. You'll probably think I'm lying to you, Norbert. I may get a hundred phone calls and emails a week. "Hey, we need Goodr here. We want it... How can I bring this here? Can I bring this to my community? I need food. My senior home needs food. The trailer park that we live in, a lot of us are... It's rural. We're not near a grocery store." I look at myself as trying... I think it's like hero overload. I'm trying to solve all this. How do I get to Canada? Oh, someone just called me from Denmark. How do we go to Denmark? How do we get here? I think what I have to really focus on is US first. I do really well with large scale venues, colleges and universities, enterprise corporate cafeterias, stadiums and arenas, airports, convention centers, places where there's a lot of food in one location. A lot of people wonder, why don't you go to small restaurants? We get calls from, "Hey, we have a deli in Long Island, New York," And we're like, "Hey, we're not there yet, but here's our resource guide for how you can donate food. Here's organizations that you can look for in your community. Here are ways you can create your own food donation programs." We try and give them resources to still solve the problem while realizing that we can't do it all ourselves. And I could tell you as an entrepreneur and as a social entrepreneur, that's the hardest thing ever. Because at first, when I first started Goodr, I'm very happy people in Canada didn't call me then because I probably would've been from Atlanta to Vancouver, and just missing a whole other part of the process. But you've got to follow the process and you've got to get really good at something and then drill in and just become the best at it. The best in class. And that's what we... When we have our all-hands meetings and our team retreats, we talk about what are we the best at? And we also say are there things that we're doing that we're not good at? And to your point, that's why I said I'm inviting other people in, right? Because I know that there's other use cases. We don't work with grocery stores. That's something that's really fascinating to a lot of people. I spent probably the first six months of customer discovery, when I was really trying to figure out who are going to be the Goodr customers that we're going to pitch to of working with trying to work with grocery stores. And what I learned is the two largest grocers in the country created and kind of funded Feeding America. There's a strong system there. I was like, okay, they've got that. Now I'm still trying to work with them on prepared foods. That's my hope with the grocery stores now is those rotisserie chickens, those are the things that don't get donated and so that's what we're really trying to focus on. But the shelf stable things, the produce items, they have a strong solution for that. And it took me six months of trying and hitting roadblocks to see that sometimes people don't want to change what they feel like they've focused on. I had to go and say, okay, well where's the food not going? Where's it missing? And I realized it was prepared foods. And that's why I'm really trying to stay on those rotisserie chickens at these grocery stores, because I think if a parent can get a rotisserie chicken, you could pull some other things together. The meat is kind of what you really need.   So how do you stay inspired?   I try and keep my eye on the prize. I got an email from a lady and her name was Bertha, so I've assumed that she was a senior. Her email said to me, Norman, "I just want to thank you guys for your food today. When I got home, my meat wasn't brown. It was fresh and everything was good. And it came from good stores, I could tell it was quality." And I'll never forget that because I thought just imagine, she's saying I got meat that's fresh. That's her thing. I'm hungry. I'm getting food from your organization and it's good, and I'm shocked by that. So shocked that I needed to send an email to say, "Hey, when I got home today, you gave me something that was good." So that's the stuff that I think keeps me going. I got another email from a lady; this is when we were doing a lot of work. We did a ton of work around hunger during the pandemic if you can imagine. And her email was just like, "I was sitting on my porch, my kids were sleeping, they were napping. And my only thought was what am I going to feed these kids when they wake up? because they're going to wake up hungry. Kids ask me for snacks. We're running low, we don't have anything. And I get a call from a driver named Jarvis who says, 'I'm around the corner. This is Goodr. I've got this food delivery.' And not only did he bring a box of food for my family, but he also brought me a pizza that was warm." because we had... I think Papa John's at the time was giving us pizzas, this is heavy in the heat of the pandemic, to deliver boxes of food that we were bringing to families. And she was just like, "This was a godsend." And she said that we gave her hope in her darkest hour, and I'll never forget that. Those are two emails, and I think both of those emails are from 2020, 2021, that still are in my head today. I think about that as a guiding light to continue to keep going and just knowing that we are really making change.   Bio   Jasmine Crowe-Houston is the creator of Goodr, a tech-enabled sustainable food waste management company that strives to eliminate hunger and save food from landfills. Through her years of work feeding vulnerable populations, Jasmine saw a great opportunity for technology to solve a real problem: hunger. In January 2017, Jasmine founded Goodr, a food management platform that allows users in the food industry to track and redirect surplus food. She's a proud alumna of North Carolina Central University. A resident of Atlanta, Georgia, she enjoys spending time with her family and friends and being a new mom to her daughter Journey. She is an avid traveler who has visited more than 30 countries. Jasmine sits on several nonprofit boards and continues to use her time for good. She was named by Entrepreneur Magazine as one of the top 100 influential female founders and recognized on the Black Enterprise 40 Under 40 List.  

Be Connected DurhamExciting news! Be Connected Durham and Beyond will be using $350,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds to uplift marginalized residents and foster community resilience. We share how the nonprofit will be doing that. Joint Affordable HousingMore affordable housing projects are in the works for Durham – thanks to American Rescue Plan Act funds. We and Durham County are each dedicating an additional $3.5 million in ARPA funds to support the development of new affordable housing units. Unified Development OrdinanceThe important task of rewriting the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) is moving forward. Find out why and how it will intentionally include an equitable engagement component. Electric BusesWe're making more progress toward our sustainability goals with a new contract for buying 32 new electric buses over the next five years. We share why the new buses will help us reach zero emissions by fiscal year 2027. Holiday Tree Drop-OffOnce the holidays are over and you're ready to get rid of your live tree if you have one, there are several free options for you to consider.

Miss any of our Bull City Today episodes? Catch up on your local government news with Bull City Wrap or listen to our podcast.· If you're an aspiring or new entrepreneur, you'll want to mark your calendar now. Our Office of Economic and Workforce Development is hosting the Bull City Business Summit on November 16 and 17 at the Durham County Main Library. · Our 2023 Innovate Durham program is now accepting applications. The program is a partnership between us and Durham County that allows entrepreneurs to use local government as a laboratory to test products and ideas. Learn more about how it works.· Underrepresented communities and formerly incarcerated residents will soon benefit from healing and wellness programs tailored specifically to their needs through the Transformative Justice Program. Find out what the program is and how it will work.· Some of Durham's historically underutilized businesses and small commercial property owners and businesses will get support from the Bull City Equitable Development Fund. Learn which businesses may qualify and why it's needed.· The process to find a development partner for the site of the former Police Department headquarters is moving forward. We share the latest developments and what happens next.

Homeowner Relief ProgramLow-income homeowners in need of help paying their taxes will continue to get the financial support they need from us and Durham County. Find out all about the Low-Income Homeowner's Relief Program.Community Partner DevelopmentParticipants in the Community Partner Development Course Certificate Program are now ready to start creating change throughout Durham. Find out how the course helps to prepare participants to lead engagement for change in their communities.Museum of Durham HistoryThe Museum of Durham History will once again receive our financial support in the coming year. Find out how this is one of the many ways that we provide educational and cultural services to our community.Green Fleet AwardsCongratulations to our Fleet Management Department for receiving national recognition as one of the top green fleets in the country! We share what this honor is all about and why our fantastic fleet management staff received it.East Durham Mobility HubPlans are in the works for a possible new mobility hub to better serve people who travel in a busy area of East Durham. Learn all about the possible Village Transit Center and where it might be built.

This episode discuss the impact of the attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion on minorities individuals and the workplace. Our guest is Dr. Brent Lewis former Associate Vice President of DEI at James Madison University. Dr. Lewis has extensive experience in DEIB and is currently serving the Durham County.

Unleash your inner Shakira with @DPRPlayMore beginner-friendly Belly Dancing class! Gain strength, flexibility, and confidence while you shimmy your way to a happier, healthier you. Find out more.We now have a $610 million budget in place to guide our spending over the next fiscal year. Get the scoop on city employee pay raises and how we're expanding the HEART program.We and Durham County will be providing Housing for New Hope with funding to help with the creation of a new supportive housing campus. We share where that campus will be located and who it will help.More local affordable housing projects will be able to be completed – thanks to a partnership between us and Durham County and the use of American Rescue Plan Act funds. Find out more about how the funding will be used.Work to rewrite Durham's Unified Development Ordinance is moving forward. We explain what the ordinance is, how it regulates growth and land use in our city, and what the next steps are in making sure that it's as up-to-date as possible.

We are once again beginning the process of finding a development partner for 505 West Chapel Hill Street. Find out what the first phase is in this two-phase process.In an innovative step toward helping to create shared economic prosperity for all Durham residents, we are moving closer to launching a Business Registry and Legacy Program. Find out how the program will work.We will soon be working with a new company to process and market our recyclable materials. We share how this will help maximize the value of Durham's recyclable materials.An important sewer improvement project will soon be getting underway at Forest Hills Park. Learn more about what will be involved with the project and why it's needed.We now officially have a vote in how Durham County's transit plan is implemented as well as future Transit Tax revenue funding. Find out how and why this is an important change.

If you live near or simply love @DPRPlayMore Merrick-Moore Park, here's an event for you! Come celebrate the re-opening of the park's playground as well as the completion of its new sensory garden on May 11! Get all of the details. It's National Drinking Water Week and your chance to learn more about where your water comes from. The week is being celebrated May 7-13 and is an annual celebration recognizing the vital role water plays in the everyday life of our community. Learn more. This year's point-in-time count to assess the number of people experiencing homelessness in Durham County is shedding light on an uncomfortable truth. Find out what that is. Summer is just around the corner, and the @DPRPlayMore newly released June-August Play More Guide is available to help you make your plans. Find out how.Families in East Central Durham are getting a chance to weigh in on what they want to see from future improvements at Grant Street Park South. Find out how you can offer your input.

A shift to electric and fuel-efficient vehicles has left North Carolina with a shortage of revenue to pay for roads and other transportation needs — even as the state's population booms and traffic gets worse. WUNC Capitol Bureau Chief Colin Campbell talks with Sen. Mike Woodard, D-Durham, about a bipartisan effort to find new sources of revenue to replace the gas tax. Woodard also discusses his proposal to address what he calls “one of the stingiest” unemployment benefit programs in the country, as well as this week's legislative developments on private school vouchers and gun violence prevention measures. And he explains why Durham County's Bahama community isn't pronounced the way you might expect.

State Rep. Marcia Morey of Durham County provides an update on the events at the General Assembly – including the disturbing votes to repeal the state's pistol permit system and introduce online sports gambling to the state. The post Rep. Marcia Morey discusses sports wagering, repeal of the state's pistol permit system appeared first on NC Newsline.

Durham County District Attorney Satana Deberry and Duke University Law School professor Brandon Garrett discuss their unique and extraordinary new joint initiative to shine a light into a long-hidden corner of the criminal justice system: plea bargains. Read the full report here. The post Durham County District Attorney Satana Deberry and Duke University Law School professor Brandon Garrett appeared first on NC Policy Watch.

From around campus, Appalachian State Theatre and dance production of “The Moors” is chosen for the 2023 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival is a prestigious national theatre program that recognizes and celebrates the work done at college theatre level. According to HCPress , the November 2022 production of “The Moors” will be performed during the 55th annual festival. This year's festival will take place at Georgia Southern University from February 7 through February 11 on their Statesboro, GA campus. In state news, Durham, NC hosted the 5th annual Chili-Cook Off. According to ABC11, mature cooks in Durham brought flavor to Downtown Durham this past Sunday, February 19. The 5th annual Chili-Cook Off was hosted by the Ponysaurus Brewing Company. The winner received a $75 gift certicificate and a trophy. All donations from the event went towards Porch Durham, an organization that helps provide meals to families facing hunger in Durham County. In national news, extra SNAP benefits, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, are to end in 32 states and threaten food security in rural America. According to USA Today, food bank managers fear demand for food banks will spike in March, when officials take back the pandemic era increase to SNAP benefits. Officials estimate that families on these benefits will see a 30-4-% decrease in SNAP payments. as emergency allotments tied to the public health emergency halt in 32 states. Now time for sports. First, today women's track and field will participate in the Sun Belt Conference Indoor Championships after starting yesterday in Birmingham, Alabama. Baseball will today be in High Point, NC to take on High Point. This is coming off of a 3 win sweep against Queens including a 13-5 win. On Wednesday, women's basketball will take on James Madison here in Boone while the men's team will take on Georgia State in Atlanta. The men's team coming off of a tough loss to Old Dominion during senior day here at home, and the women's team losing on Saturday to Troy 66-73. Both teams are trying to end their season strong. Friday, the App State softball team will start playing against Georgetown in Wilmington on Friday and Baseball will take on North Carolina A&T in High Point. Women's basketball on Friday will end here in Boone against ULM, and the men's basketball team will end their season in Statesboro against Georgia Southern. Finally rounding out the week on Saturday, Softball will take on Georgetown again, Men's golf is in the Wolfpack invitational in Raleigh, Baseball will take on North Carolina A&T here in Boone for their home opener, women's tennis will be at UNC Asheville, and finally Softball plays again in Wilmington against UNCW. Now to the weather. According to Booneweather.com, it will be partly cloudy with a few rain showers. The high is going to be 58 with a low of 43.

Libby Taylor started SchoolUp to provide families in Wake County with the knowledge and guidance they need to find the right school for their children. And she's now expanded to Durham County and will be at the coast soon. With first hand knowledge of the challenging intricacies navigating our school system, I can say with certainty that her services are needed. Whether you are new to Wake County, don't have the time, or just need some advice to get you started, her goal is to help families stay informed and feel empowered to choose the right school for their needs. She works hand in hand with your family, looks at your unique goals and desires and then assists you in researching school options that best fit your needs. She has an undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University and a Masters from UNC. She started her career in education working in Washington D. C. before transitioning to the classroom. She taught in both Wake Co. and Durham Co. before moving on to The National Humanities Center where she planned and coordinated professional development for teachers. She started SchoolUp in 2017 as an independent consulting business helping both local families and those relocating to the area. She spends her days touring schools and talking to parents about their experiences in schools. And today on this episode we get to dive into all of this. On Sunday, March 5 at 3pm she is hosting a very important event that is perfect for families moving to the Raleigh area and interested in learning more about k-12 schools. She will cover all the basics of what you need to know and where to find the right information. From traditional public to magnet, charter, and private she can help you with the information and resources you need to confidently navigate your move. Bring all your questions! You can register for the event on her website at https://schoolupwake.com/events/ and you connect with Libby on Social at: @schoolupwake And after you give this episode a listen be sure to visit some of her favorite places around town to really get a feel for why she calls Raleigh home: Lynwood Brewing Concern: http://www.lynnwoodbrewing.beer/wp/ Crawford & Son: http://crawfordandsonrestaurant.com Buffaloe Road Aquatic Center: https://raleighnc.gov/parks/aquatics Lafayette Village: https://lafayettevillageraleigh.com Sola Coffee: https://www.solacoffee.com Jubala: http://www.jubalacoffee.com Lake Lure: https://www.townoflakelure.com Jolie: https://restaurantjolie.com Colletta (my suggestion): https://www.collettarestaurant.com #raleighschools #raleighnc #wakeforestnc #raleighkids #summercamp #athletics #wakecountyschools #raleighmoms #athleticcoaching #coaching #summeractivities #kidsactivities #raleighsports #sports #youthfun #wakeforestsportstraining #durhamfootball #raleighkidscamps #durhamsports #raleighbasketball #durhamnc #raleighfootball #wakeforestfootball #wakeforestbasketball #durhambasketball #durhamyouthsports #wakeforestyouthsports #durhamsportstraining #raleigh #raleighrealestate --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/chuck-belden/support

In this episode of Building sustainably: the road to net zero, Maggie Bosanquet, Low Carbon Economic Development Team Leader at Durham County Council, joins Chris Lavery to discuss Durham County's sustainability strategy and climate change initiatives.

Hugh Dillon was sick with worry after hearing of Mayor of Kingstown co-star Jeremy Renner's recent snow plow accident. The crushing mishap put the Avengers star in the hospital with critical injuries. Dillon's fears were put to rest after speaking with Renner.“I knew he was going to be okay because he was just so profane and so funny,” says Dillon. “That's the testament to the kind of person he is because he wants you to not worry.”The bracing prison town series has just returned for a second season on Paramount+. Dillon doesn't just act on the series, he co-created it with his pal and long-time acting coach Taylor Sheridan. The two previously worked together on Sheridan's Yellowstone, where Dillon played Sherriff Donnie Haskell.Dillon based Mayor of Kingstown on his own hometown, Kingston, Ontario. Friends and family members worked in the prisons there and Dillon played hockey with prison guards. He reflects on how a few misdeeds along the way could have made prison life even more familiar to him.He worked over a decade on his dream of making his prison series a reality. He even convinced producers to shoot the first season in a decommissioned prison right in Kingston. (Season Two wrapped on a larger prison field in Pittsburgh.)On the podcast, Dillon also talks about his previous acting work on the CTV-CBS series Flashpoint as well as on other dramas such as The Killing and Durham County. He's racked up close to 50 IMDb acting credits so far – not bad for a guy who has been rocking, recording and touring with his band The Headstones for decades.

Miss any of our recent #BullCityToday episodes? Catch up now on your #localgov news with #BullCityWrap.Residents in the Lakewood Avenue area now know more about the Third Fork Creek Stream Stabilization Project. They recently got to learn more about how the health of the creek will be improved and how nearby sidewalks will be better protected. Find out more.A new landlord engagement program is expected to help provide more housing for people who have experienced homelessness. We share how it will do that. We now know what it will cost to make the minimum recommendations for the GoDurham Better Bus Project a reality. The project is working to design bus stop and bus service improvements on GoDurham routes. Find out what the cost is expected to be.The recommended Durham County Transit Plan is now available, and your feedback is needed. The plan is a blueprint forhow we will invest in our public transit system using Durham County sales tax and fees over the next 20 years. Find out how you can have a say. In coordination with the City-County Planning Department, Durham County is looking at ways that it can be more involved in helping to lessen the negative impacts of development in Southeast Durham. We share what some of those are.

Making a Scene Presents the PODCAST of LIVE from the Midnight Circus Featuring Durham County PoetsThis is the Voice of Indie Blues, the future of the blues. Artists who embrace the diversity of the blues that always has and still is being created from it's roots. These artists understand the blues is a living art form that is driven by innovation and creativity. These are the Indie Blues Artists!

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with The Durham County PoetsDurham County Poets are a “band” in the truest sense of the word!It all started in a small café in Ormstown, Quebec. The band continued to percolate and spread onto the Canadian music scene, allowing them to tour across Canada and on into the United States. Each member writes and arranges, and brings something unique to the table. You'll hear a variety of genres and a broad range of styles. Be it Blues, Soul, Folk, R&B or Gospel, it all weaves seamlessly together to create a truly authentic contemporary Canadiana sound.

Join Charlie and Michael as they explore the history and hidden features of Durham's historic American Tobacco Campus! This was presented over Zoom at the gracious invitation of Durham County Library. If you prefer video over audio there's a link in the show notes, including timestamps for when we show images to accompany the discussion! PLUS: a bonus on-the-scene report from official friend of the show, Gary Mitchel, of the DragonCon American Sci-Fi Classics Track! Links: Video recording of this episode (YouTube) 12:20 - ATC photos 20:00 - subterranean photos Durham County Library Upcoming Live Recordings: Arcana (Durham, NC - 9/29) Splatterflix @ Carolina Theatre of Durham(Durham, NC - October 7 & 9) Upstate Spirit Conference(Abbeville, SC - October 8) Ret-Con (Cary, NC - February 24-26, 2023) Follow us! AC Monthly Arcane Carolinas on Patreon Arcane Carolinas on Facebook Arcane Carolinas on Instagram Contact us! arcanecarolinas@gmail.com

The man accused in the stabbing death of his ex-girlfriend when they were both teenagers was sentenced Thursday after he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in connection with the killing. A Durham County judge sentenced Kelton Breshon Fox to serve a sentence of 12 to 15 years for the slaying of Tierra Hall in April 2015. Her body was found behind an empty home on Trotter Ridge Road. Investigators linked Fox to the case after police found the words “King K tha Savage” scrawled on a door of the house, which had been previously lived in by Fox's mother. Investigators also used security video from Jordan High School, which captured Hall and Fox the day she was last seen. Both students left school grounds at 12:25 p.m. and were seen walking to Garrett Road. Fox was seen on video returning to campus alone, with his hands pulled into his sleeves. He went immediately to the bathroom and never returned to class, investigators said. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/leah-gordone/support

This episode of EMS One-Stop With Rob Lawrence is brought to you by Lexipol, the experts in policy, training, wellness support and grants assistance for first responders and government leaders. To learn more, visit lexipol.com. Durham County, North Carolina, commissioners recently passed a pay increase for paramedics. The increase, which went into effect in August, took the starting hourly rate for paramedics from $20.84 to $28.25. Officials said the current staff will receive this rate and a multiplier based on their years of service to determine their final salary.  One of the catalysts for this change occurred when Durham EMS Chief Paramedic, Mark Lockhart, read an article by Lexipol Editorial Director, Greg Friese, MS, NRP, “Pay paramedics a thriving wage to end the retention crisis,” and was inspired by the approach Greg suggested. “The thriving wage initiative was born,” Lockhart noted. Across the board (EMT, AEMT, paramedics and supervisors), the average increase is 16.8%. For paramedics, the average salary increase was 25%. “We're still facing recruitment challenges, but our retention significantly improved,” Lockhart wrote EMS1. In this week's podcast, Host Rob Lawrence welcomes both Mark Lockhart and Greg Friese to discuss the process that Durham EMS went through to achieve their increase as well as the pay situation across the EMS profession at the moment.

Quebecois band Durham County Poets are part of the Cayadutta Crawl Music Festival on August 20th.

So why is the food history of a community so important? And can Durham's food history be applied to other places? Who owns land, who can grow food and make a living doing so, and who has access to food, any food, least of all healthy food? The answers are deeply influenced by historical policies and practices. These in retrospect, clearly exacerbated, supported, and even created food related calamities, the dual burden communities face of both food insecurity and diet related chronic diseases, such as diabetes and obesity. Understanding these practices is important in creating change. And in understanding that conditions imposed on neighborhoods rather than personal failings of residents explain what we see today. This is a story about Durham, North Carolina. These days, Durham is famous as one of the South's foodiest towns and known for its award-winning chefs, thriving restaurant scene, and reverence for even the most humble foods served with down-home charm. But Durham, just like the rest of North Carolina, like other states and other countries, has discouraging any high rates of food insecurity. This is juxtaposed to high rates as well of obesity, diabetes, and other diet-related chronic diseases. It is helpful of course, to know how things are now, but a more complex and highly important question is how we got here. Enter history. What can be learned from a detailed historical analysis, in this case of Durham, and how relevant is this information to other places?   The Duke World Food Policy Center worked with historian, Melissa Norton to write a report titled, "Power and Benefit On The Plate The History of Food in Durham, North Carolina". This recording is an abridged version of that report and features documented historical quotes from the relevant periods in history as read by contemporary voices.   Let's go back to the beginning. Durham, North Carolina is the ancestral home of the Occaneechi, the Eno, the Adshusheer and the Shocco indigenous peoples. Before European colonizers came, land was not something that people owned. Instead land and its natural resources were shared so that everyone could benefit.   “To our people land was everything, identity, our connection to our ancestors, our pharmacy, the source of all that sustained us. Our lands, were where our responsibility to the world was enacted, sacred ground. It belonged to itself. It was a gift, not a commodity. It could never be bought or sold.”  Robin Kimmerer, Potawatomi Nation.   Durham's tribes and clans supported themselves through hunting, foraging and communal farming. They managed the habitat for fish, fowl and other wild animal populations. They used controlled fires to clear land, had complex farming irrigation systems and created a network of roads for trade and exchange. When European settler colonists came into North Carolina life for indigenous people changed dramatically. At first, they taught colonists how to forage and clear land, what to plant and how to care for crops. The colonists came to North Carolina believed that they had the spiritual, political and legal blessing of Pope Alexander the sixth through the doctrine of discovery. This decree labeled indigenous peoples as subhuman because they were not Christian and treated their land as available for the taking.   “The Indians are really better to us than we are to them. They always give us rituals at their quarters and take care we are armed against hunger and thirst. We do not do so by them, generally speaking, but let them walk by our doors hungry and do not often relieve them. We look upon them with scorn and disdain and think them little better than beasts in humane shape. Though if we're examined, we shall find that for all our religion and education, we possess more moralities and evil than these savages do not.” John Lawson, English settler colonist in North Carolina, 1709.   Settlers forced native people off ancestral homelands and took possession of the stolen land and its resources. As a result, many indigenous people left to join other tribes, some hid in order to remain in the area. And some were forced into assimilation programs or enslaved and shipped to the Caribbean.   Going back to the early colonial settlers, most were small scale farmers who grew corn, fruits and vegetables and commodities such as tobacco, wheat, and cotton for their own use or to barter. As farms grew from the 1500s through the 1800s, colonists brought West African people by force to use as free farm labor. West Africans brought seeds from their homelands and foods such as hibiscus, yams and sweet potatoes, watermelon and bananas and millet, okra and sorghum became a permanent part of the Southern food culture. Food was an essential connection to home, to community and resiliency. Indigenous and enslaved African people interacted and exchanged practical and cultural traditions.   “My name is Alex Woods. I was born in 1858. In slavery time I belonged to Jim Woods. My Missus name was Patty Woods. They treated us tolerable fair. Our food was well cooked. We were fed from the kitchen of the great house during the week. We cooked and ate at our home Saturday nights and Sundays. They allowed my father to hunt with a gun. He was a good hunter and brought a lot of game to the plantation. They cooked it at the great house and divided it up. My father killed deer and turkey. All had plenty of rabbits, possum, coons and squirrels.” Alex Woods   In 1854, the development of the North Carolina railroad transformed agricultural markets. The farming economy shifted from fruits, vegetables, and grains toward large scale cash crops, such as tobacco. The railroad stop in Durham became the center of the city. By the time the civil war began in 1861, nearly one out of three people in Durham county were enslaved. A quarter of the area's white farmers legally owned enslaved people. Cameron Plantation was the largest plantation in the state with 30,000 acres and 900 enslaved people.   To be self sufficient, create security and build wealth. People needed to own land. The federal government passed the homestead act of 1862 to create new land ownership opportunities. As a result in the west 246 million acres of native people's land were deeded to 1.5 million white families.   That same year, the federal government also passed the moral act. This established North Carolina State University in Raleigh as a land grant university to teach white students practical agricultural science, military science and engineering. 29 years later in 1891, North Carolina Agriculture and Technology University in Greensboro was established to serve black students, but the institutions were never funded equally.   In 1865, the civil war ended at Bennett Place in Durham with the largest surrender of Confederate troops. Reconstruction occurred in the subsequent years from 1865 to 1877. During this time, Durham struggled with its own political, social and economic challenges. One of which were the circumstances faced by formerly enslaved people who were freed with no land, no jobs, no money and no citizenship rights. Historians estimate that more than a million freed black people in the country became sick for malnutrition, disease and near starvation. And tens of thousands of people died.   Listen to the words of Martha Allen, a young black woman at the time.   “I was never hungry till we was free and the Yankees fed us. We didn't have nothing to eat, except heart attack and Midland meat. I never seen such meat. It was thin and tough with a thick skin. You could boil it all day and all night and it couldn't cook. I wouldn't eat it. I thought it was mule meat. Mules that done been shot on the battlefield then dried. I still believe it was mule meat. Them was bad days. I was hungry most of the time and had to keep fighting off them Yankee mans.” Martha Allen   In the years after the war, a few people had cash, but landowners still needed farm labor, poor farmers and families of all races struggled. Landowners began hiring farm labor through share cropping and tenant farm contracts.   “The Negros have as their compensation, a share of the crops that shall be raised one third part of the wheat, corn, cotton, tobacco, syrup, peas, sweet potatoes and pork. But the seed wheat is to be first passed back to the said Cameron, the hogs to be killed or pork shall be fattened out of the corn crop before division. The said Cameron is to have the other two thirds of said crops.” Cameron share cropping contract 1866.   Sharecroppers work plots of farmland, and then received a fraction of the crop yield for themselves as payment. For newly freed black people. Many of whom worked the same land, lived in the same housing and worked under the close supervision of the same overseers sharecropping felt like slavery under another name.   In 1868 and 1877 North Carolina passed the landlord tenant acts, which legalized the power imbalance between landowners and sharecropping farmers. For poor farmers there was simply no way to get ahead. And so-called black codes, laws enacted throughout the south in the 1860s and beyond denied black people the right to vote, to serve on juries or to testify in court against white people. With tenant farming, workers paid rent to landowners and kept all the proceeds from the crops.   “We lived all over the area because we were tenant farmers, very poor living on the land of the owner who was of course, white. We used his mules and he paid for the seed and the tobacco and the stuff that we planted. Of course, as I look back now, I know how they cheated us because we never had anything.” Theresa Cameron Lyons, 1868, on growing up in a black tenant farming family in Durham County.   North Carolina politics during this time was dominated by white supremacist ideology and by efforts to keep blacks from voting and from holding political office. In 1896, the US Supreme Court ruled that separate but equal treatment of blacks was legally permissible. This created the legal basis of racial apartheid known as Jim Crow. From 1896 to 1964 Jim Crow laws imposed racial segregation on nearly all aspects of life, including schools, transportation, and public facilities. These laws institutionalized economic, educational and social disadvantages for black and indigenous people, such court sanction exclusion combined with violence and intimidation from white people created severely hostile living conditions for North Carolina's black people. As a result, registered black voters in North Carolina plummeted from 126,000 in 1896 to only 6,100 in 1902.   As the year 1900 dawned, more than half of the US population were farmers or lived in rural communities. Durham County was still largely farmland, but there was incredible urban growth in the early decades of the 1900s. This too had an impact on Durham's food and the community.   Demand for tobacco and textile factory workers was growing in Durham. Although only white workers could work in the textile factories. Both black and white migrants found work in Durham's Liggett Myers and American tobacco factories. Black workers had the lowest pay, most backbreaking jobs in the factories and were paid less than the white workers.   Outside the factories black women had more job opportunities than black men, but as cooks and domestic servants. And they also held some administrative positions. As people traded farm life for the city, they had to adjust to a new way of life. This meant living off wages in the new cash economy and the crowded close quarters of urban living.   Textile mill owners in the East Durham Edgemont and West Durham areas built subsidized mill villages to provide housing for white workers close to the factories. Each mill village had its own churches, schools, recreation centers, and stores.   “Yeah, it was a complete store. They'd have very few wise work in the mills. They would have a man that went out in the morning, they'd call it taking orders. He'd go to all the houses and the woman of the house and tell him what she wanted. He'd bring it back in time to be cooked and served up for what they called dinner, which is of course lunch. And he'd go do the same thing in the afternoon. Have it back in time for a good supper.”  Zeb Stone, 1915, a white business owner from West Durham, North Carolina.   Many textile workers had grown up on farms and knew how to garden and raise chickens, pigs, or even cows in their yards. Families preserved extra garden produce and meals for the winter. Home canning became popular and increased during World War I and later in World War II, as food shortages meant rations for canned food. The federal government urged people to rely on produce grown in their own gardens called victory gardens and to share resources with neighbors.   Six predominantly black neighborhoods developed in Durham, along with black churches, schools and businesses, people form close relationships with each other. And even though the yards were often small, many black people also maintained gardens, kept chickens until the local government banned livestock in the city limits in the 1940s. Buying from black businesses meant investing in the whole black community. Community leaders preached how each dollar spent would flow in a wheel of progress throughout black Durham. Neighborhood grocers were owned by and for people who lived in black neighborhoods, here's what longtime Durham state representative Henry Mickey Michelle has to say about growing up in the Hayti area of Durham.   “We didn't have to go across the tracks to get anything done. We had our own savings and loans bank, our own insurance company, our own furniture store, our own tailors, barber shops, grocery stores, the whole nine yards.” Durham state representative Henry Mickey Michelle   Black and white farmers came to Durham's urban areas to sell fresh produce on street corners and created popup farm stands throughout the city. Many came to Hayti, Durham's largest black neighborhood and to the center of black commerce that was dubbed Black Wall Street. Durham established the first official farmer's market then called a curb market in 1911 to connect county farmers with urban consumers.   The federal government helped farmers stay informed of developments in agriculture, home economics, public policy, and the economy. The Smith Lever Act of 1914 launched cooperative extension services out of the land grant universities. In 1914 extension services for Durham County's white people began and services for black communities started in 1917, hoping to draw young people into farming.   Segregated schools in Durham offered agriculture training. Programs for the future farmers of America served white students and new farmers of America programs served black students.   By 1920 farmers comprised 50% of the population in Durham County outside the city core. Nearly half of these were tenant farmers. Arthur Brody, a black man who made his home in Durham had this to say about his family's experience.   “My granddaddy had 50 acres of land. They said he was working for this white family and the man took a liking to him. And back then land was cheap. And that man told him, Robert, what you ought to do is buy an acre of land every month. He gave him $12 a month. So he bought an acre of land a month, a dollar a month for a year. And he bought that farm with 52 acres of land in it. And he built his house out of logs. I remember that log house just as good I can.” Arthur Brody   Black families were beginning to acquire farmland. Although black owned farms were generally smaller and on less productive land than white owned farms. At its peak in 1920, 26% of farms nationally were owned by black farmers.   The shift to industrialized agriculture concentrated on just a few crops, created new pressures for farmers, especially small scale farmers who were already struggling with the depressed economy, depleted soil, outdated farming tools and the constant demand for cash crops, black and white farmers alike struggled with a lack of fair credit and chronic indebtedness. Here is what the Negro Credit Unions of North Carolina had to say about the farm credit system in 1920.   “Perhaps the greatest drawback to the average poor farmer, struggling for a foothold on the soil and trying to make a home for himself and family in the community is the lack of capital. If he buys fertilizer on time, borrows money or contracts to be carried over the cropping season, it is usually at such a ruinous rate of interest that few ever get out from under its painful influence. The man who owns a small farm as well as he who rents one has long been victimized by the credit system.” Negro Credit Unions of North Carolina brochure   In Durham, life still followed the seasonal cycles of farming. There were special times for communal rituals, such as berry picking, corn shucking and peach canning. Mary Mebane described growing up in a black farming community in Northern Durham County in this way.   “Berry picking was a ritual, a part of the rhythm of summer life. I went to bed excited. We didn't know whose berries they were. Nobody had heard about the idea of private property. Besides the berries wild, free for everybody. The grown people picked up high and the children picked low. We children ate them on the spot, putting purple stained fingers into our mouths, creating purple stained tongues while the grown people wiped sweat and dodged bumblebees.” Mary Mebane   Many black Durhamites joined in the great migration of black people to cities in the North and Western parts of the country. More than 6 million black people left the South between 1917 and 1970. Those who stayed found themselves caught between traditional farming culture and an increasingly modernized urban world and black farmers had the further burden of discrimination in federal farm lending programs, which hampered their ability to sustain, adapt and expand their farming.   In the 1930s, the country was grappling with a great depression and the dust bowl. The textile industry was hit hard by the reception and white textile factory workers struggled. Families survived on cheap fat back, flower beans and their own homegrown produce. Through bouts of unemployment or underemployment. Hunger was never far off. Durham's black working class occupied the bottom rung of the economic ladder even before the great depression. Poverty and food insecurity increased to such an extent that black Durhamites were six times more likely to develop pellagra than whites in 1930. Pellagra is a disease caused by niacin deficiency. It was the leading cause of death in the city after tuberculosis. Nurses counseled Durham's black residents to eat green vegetables and fresh milk, but they were told that economics not lack of knowledge led to poor eating habits.   As one black patient remarked: “We would like to do everything you say, but we just haven't got the money.”   During the great depression, the food situation became so desperate that the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and the Works Progress Administration and charities such as the Red Cross began distributing food relief. The supplies staved off hunger to some extent, but black and white residents were both complaining the food wasn't what they would normally eat. Here an unemployed white textile worker in East Durham described his family's struggle with the emergency relief rations during the great depression.   “I go around to the place that the WPA distributes commodities and the last time they gave me four packs of powdered skim milk, five pounds of country butter, three pounds of navy beans, 24 pounds of flour. That was grand flour to mix awful bread. I've tried every way I could think of to cook it. And it ain't been able to do anything with it yet. That stuff just ain't fitting for a dog to eat, but I have to use everything I get. One of the boys gets up early every morning and goes out and picks berries for breakfast. They with butter do make the flour eat a lot better. He wants to pick some for preserves, but we can highly get sugar for our needs right now. But there is something about us that keeps us hoping that in some way, the future will take care of itself.” Unemployed white textile worker in Durham during the Depression   Over time federal, state and local Durham aid efforts shifted toward training and getting people new jobs, but black men and women did not get the same opportunities as Durham's white residents. In 1933, the federal government passed the agriculture adjustment act later known as the farm bill. This legislation raised market prices and paid farmers to rest soils depleted from intensive farming. But this created new problems for small farmers already struggling to survive. Davis Harris reflects on the changes these policies caused in the black farming community of Northern Durham County.   “The federal government started paying farmers to put their soil in what they called the soil bank. At the time the US was producing more grain than they needed. So they asked farmers in order to preserve the land and soil, if they could just let the soil rest. And if you did that for 10 years, the people like me growing up who got public jobs, it was difficult to go back to the farm because you get accustomed to getting paid every month. And to go back to once a year was difficult, almost impossible. And then the farmer's equipment gets obsolete and the facilities get obsolete and there is no help. So I see that as a turning point because you've lost all your resources, your equipment, your facilities, and your workforce, and the farmers are 10 to 12 years older. So a lot of the farmers had to get public jobs so they can get enough credit to draw social security.” Davis Harris   Black land owners also contended with private property laws that put them at a very real disadvantage. Black families had little reason to trust institutions and were far less likely to have a will than white families. So when a property owner died without a legal will, their property passed to all their direct heirs as partial shares. A form of ownership transfer called heirs property. Over several generations property ownership became increasingly unclear as dozens or even hundreds of heirs could own a small share. Heirs were then more vulnerable to land speculators and developers through a legal process called partition action. Speculators would buy off the interest of a single heir. And just one heir, no matter how small their share, and this would force the sale of entire plot of land through the courts. Black farm ownership peaked between 1910 and 1920, and then dropped dramatically due to the changing farm economy, discrimination and coercive means. From 1910 to the 1930s, the total number of farms in Durham declined dramatically. But black farmers lost their land at more than twice the rate of white farmers.   Willie Roberts, a black Durham County mechanic and farmer was interviewed in the 1930s and had this to say about the tensions of the time: “We got some mean neighbors around here. They hate us 'cause we own, and we won't sell. They want to buy it for nothing. They don't like for colored people to own land. They got a white lady, Ms. Jones on the next farm to say that I attacked her. I hope to be struck down by Jesus if I said or did anything she could kick on, it's all prejudiced against a colored family that's trying to catch up with the whites. They hated my father because he owned land and my mother because she taught school and now they're trying to run us off, but we're going to stay on.”   In 1942, many young men were serving in world war II and black agricultural laborers were leaving farms as part of the great migration to Northern and Western states. So the federal government enacted the Bracero Program to address severe farm labor shortages. This allowed contract laborers from Mexico into the country to fill the labor gap. Where you live, determines where you buy food and what food is available. And Durham's black urban residents were grappling with Jim Crow laws and with segregation.   “In all licensed restaurants, public eating places and weenie shops where persons of the white and colored races are permitted to be served with and eat food and are allowed to congregate. There shall be provided separate rooms for the separate accommodation of each race. The partition between such rooms shall be constructed of wood, plaster or brick or like material, and shall reach from the floor to the ceiling…” The code of the city of Durham, North Carolina, 1947, C13 section 42.   Segregation and racial discrimination meant that opportunities for home ownership, loans, and neighborhood improvements favored white people, discriminatory policies and practices also impacted access to nutritious foods and to restaurants and resentment was building.   A black woman recalls her childhood experiences during this time: “When I was a child, the Durham Dairy was a weekly stop on Sunday evenings as part of our family drive, we would park, go into the counter and then return to the car with our ice cream. After my father finished his, we would drive around Durham while the rest of us finished our ice cream. I had no idea as a young child that the reason we took that ice cream to the car was because the Durham Dairy was segregated and being an African American family we were not allowed to eat our ice cream on the premises. I was shocked to learn as an adult how my parents had been so artful in sparing this ugly truth from me and my younger siblings.”   As early as the 1920s, Durham's white homeowners had to agree to racial covenants on their suburban home and land deeds, such covenants explicitly prevented black ownership and restricted black residents in homes, except for domestic servants. This practice was legal until 1948. The National Association of Real Estate Boards code of ethics at that time directed real estate agents to maintain segregation in the name of safeguarding, neighborhood stability and property values. The industry practice known as steering remained in effect until 1950.   “A realtor should never be instrumental in introducing in a neighborhood members of any race or nationality whose presence will clearly be detrimental to property values in the neighborhood…” National Association of Real Estate Boards code of ethics   The great depression stimulated the country's new deal, social safety net legislation, including the social security act of 1935, which offered benefits and unemployment insurance. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 set a national minimum wage and the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 created the right for workers to organize. However, agricultural and domestic workers positions held predominantly by black people during the 1930s were specifically excluded from these programs, losing out on both fair pay and labor protections.   Historian Ira Katznelson wrote extensively about the impact of these policy decisions on the country's African Americans: “Southern legislators understood that their region's agrarian interests and racial arrangements were inextricably entwined. By excluding these persons from new deal legislation it remained possible to maintain racial inequality in Southern labor markets by dictating the terms and conditions of African American labor.”   The federal government also recognized home ownership as one of the best ways to stabilize the economy and expand the middle class. The homeowner's loan corporation, a government sponsored corporation created as part of the new deal developed city maps and color coded neighborhoods according to lending risks, these maps became the model for public and private lending from the 1930s on. In Durham and elsewhere, red lines were drawn around black, mixed race and the poorest white neighborhoods, the effects of redlining now close to a century old had profound effects that are still felt to this day. Over time these maps discourage investment in home ownership and also business development in these areas ringed in red and encouraged and supported these things in white neighborhoods.   By defining some areas as too risky for investment lending practices followed, poverty was exacerbated and concentrated and housing deserts, credit deserts and food deserts became a predictable consequence. Redlining maps also shaped lending practices for the GI Bill Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944. The GI Bill made mortgages available to World War II veterans with little or no down payment. And with very low interest rates. The aim was to create financial stability and the accumulation of generational wealth for those who would serve the country through home ownership. However, most homes were in suburban neighborhoods, primarily financed by the federal government. Between redlining lending practices and real estate covenants restricting black buyers, home ownership simply wasn't possible for the vast majority of the 1 million plus black World War II veterans. Between 1935 and 1968, less than 2% of federal home loans were for black people. The GI Bill also did not issue home loans on Indian reservations, which excluded many Native American veterans.   In the late 1950s, Durham received federal money for a local urban renewal program to clear slums and blighted areas through the Housing Act of 1949. The city chose to demolish a large section of the Hayti area, the city's largest and most prominent black neighborhood and home to most black owned businesses. This changed everything. City officials cited the poor physical conditions of Hayti as the reason for demolition. The land was then used to build North Carolina highway 147, a freeway connector.   Louis Austin editor of the Carolina Times wrote in 1965: "The so-called urban renewal program in Durham is not only the biggest farce ever concocted in the mind of moral man, but it is just another scheme to relieve Negroes of property."   Hayti's destruction included a significant part of the neighborhood's food infrastructure, such as grocery stores and restaurants. What was once a thriving and resilient food economy where wealth remained in the community became a food desert.   Nathaniel White, formerly a Hayti business owner in Durham had this to say about the destruction of the Hayti neighborhood: “Well, I think we got something like $32,000 for our business. As I look back on it now, if you're going to drive a freeway right through my building, the only fair thing to do is to replace that building. In other words, I ought to be able to move my equipment and everything into a building. If they do it like that, you will be able to stand the damage. Now, the highway department has a replacement clause in their building, but the urban renewal had what they call fair market value, and that won't replace it. And that's where the handicap comes. Just say, you give them $32,000 that probably would've bought the land or whatever, but it wouldn't put the building back and everything like that.”   In the 1950s, Durham built federally funded housing projects for low income families. But by the late 1960s, public housing in the city was almost exclusively for black people and clustered in existing black neighborhoods. This further reinforced patterns of residential segregation, Durham's lunch counters and restaurants became rallying points during the civil rights movements. North Carolina's first protest was at Durham's Royal ice cream restaurant in 1957.   Virginia Williams, a young black woman at the time was a member of the Royal Ice Cream Nine who staged the protest: “None of it made any sense, but that had been the way of life. And that's the way the older folk had accepted it. And so I guess I was one of them who thought, if not us, who, if not now, when. So the police officers came and they asked us to leave. I remember one of them asking me to leave and I asked for ice cream. And he said, if you were my daughter, I would spank you and make you leave. And then I said, if I was your daughter, I wouldn't be here sitting here being asked to leave.”   In 1962, more than 4,000 people protested at Howard Johnson's Ice Cream Grill in Durham. The struggle to desegregate eateries intensified in 1963, when protesters organized sit-ins at six downtown restaurants on the eve of municipal elections, hundreds of people were arrested and protestors surrounded the jail in solidarity. And in the weeks that followed more than 700 black and white Durhamites ran a full page ad in the Durham Herald newspaper. They pledged to support restaurants and other businesses that adopted equal treatment to all, without regard to race. The mounting public pressure resulted in mass desegregation of Durham Eateries by the end of 1962, ahead of the 1964 federal civil rights act that legally ended segregation.   Although civil rights wins brought about new political, economic and social opportunities for black people, desegregation didn't help black businesses. They suffered economically because black people began to explore new opportunities to shop outside their neighborhoods, but white people didn't patronize black owned businesses in turn.   In 1964, the federal government passed the Food Stamp Act as a means to safeguard people's health and wellbeing and provide a stable foundation for US agriculture. It was also intended to raise levels of nutrition among low income households. The food stamp program was implemented in Durham County in 1966. A decade later the program was in every county in the country.   From 1970 through the 1990s, urban renewal continued to disrupt and reshape Durham central city. As both white and middle class black residents left central Durham for suburban homes, banks and grocery stores disappeared. Textile and tobacco factory jobs were also leaving Durham for good. Thousands of workers became unemployed and the domino effect on home ownership, businesses and workplaces disrupted much of Durham's infrastructure and its community life.   From 1970 through the 1980s, the availability of home refrigerators and microwaves also changed how families stored and cooked their food. Durham already had higher numbers of working women than the national average. As a result, convenience foods, foods from restaurants, prepared meals at grocery stores and microwavable foods from the freezer were in demand.   Like many Americans, Durham residents had become increasingly disconnected from farming and food production, both physically and culturally. Food corporations now used marketing in the media to shape ideas about what to eat and why. The food system became dominated by increasing corporate consolidation and control. And by large scale industrial agriculture emphasizing monoculture. Corporations were fast gaining political and economic power and used their influence to affect trade regulations, tax rates, and wealth distribution.   In the 1980s, the federal government passed legislation that boosted free market capitalism, reduced social safety net spending and promoted volunteerism and charity as a way to reduce poverty and government welfare. These policies negatively impacted Durham's already historically disadvantaged populations. Nonprofit organizations began to emerge to deal with the growing issues of hunger and food insecurity and nonprofit food charity became an industry unto itself. More than 80% of pantries and soup kitchens in the US came into existence between 1980 and 2001.   The H-2A Guest Worker Program of 1986 allowed agricultural workers to hire seasonal foreign workers on special visas who were contracted to a particular farm, but workers did not have the same labor protections as US citizens.   That same year, the US launched the war on drugs to reduce drug abuse and crime. Low income communities were disproportionately targeted when Durham's housing authority paid off duty police officers to patrol high crime areas, particularly public housing developments. Hyper policing, drug criminalization, and logger sentencing for drug related offenses caused incarceration rates to rise steadily. Durham's jail and prison incarceration rates from 1978 to 2015 rose higher than anywhere else in North Carolina.   Here is an excerpt from an interview with Chuck Omega Manning, an activist and director of the city of Durham's welcome program. “Being totally honest, high incarceration rates for people of color is very detrimental to our health. Even in the Durham County Jail, you have a canteen that's run through a private company who only sell certain things like oodles of noodles that are not healthy. And then in prisons, you don't get to eat vegetables unless it's part of your dinner. And even then it's oftentimes still not healthy because of how it's cooked. But if you don't work in the kitchen, you don't get to decide, you just get it how it comes and you pray over it and eat it. But then over time, people get institutionalized in the system. And when they return home, they continue to eat the same way because they're used to it. And the financial piece only enhances that because you have individuals coming home, looking for employment, trying to do something different. And there are just so many barriers even with food stamps. So it almost feels like you're being punished twice. And it's very depressing.”   In the 1990s, Durham wanted more investment in the downtown area. Instead of the factory jobs of the past, the downtown area shifted to offer low paying service jobs and high paying jobs in research and technology. Wealthy newcomers were called urban pioneers and trailblazers and purchase properties in historically disinvested city areas.   Low wage workers today cannot afford new housing prices in Durham, in most cases, or to pay the increasing property taxes. Many people are losing their homes through when increases, evictions and foreclosures. Gentrification has also changed which food retailers exist in the local food environment. Sometimes this creates food mirages where high quality food is priced out of reach of longtime residents.   The North American Free Trade Agreement NAFTA of 1994 also changed Durham and North Carolina. Farmers from Mexico and Central America driven out of business by the trade agreement immigrated to places like North Carolina, looking for agricultural and construction jobs. Durham's Latino population grew from just over 2000 in people to 1990, to nearly 40,000 in 2014, one out of three Durham public school students was Latino in 2014. Today, 94% of migrant farm workers in North Carolina are native Spanish speakers.   In 1996, the federal government made changes to the nation's food assistance security net. It dramatically cut SNAP benefits, formerly known as food stamps and limited eligibility to receive benefits and the length of benefits. In Durham, SNAP benefit participation rate decreased by 14% between 1997 and 2001 despite a 2% increase in the poverty rate.   Durham's Latino Credit Union opened in 2000 at a time when three quarters of Latinos did not bank at all. Over the next 20 years, Latinos developed and operated restaurants, grocery stores and services across Durham. This provided the Latino population with culturally resident food, community gathering spaces and jobs.   Processed foods had become a central part of the American diet by the early two thousands. And the vast majority of food advertising promoted convenience foods, candies, and snacks, alcoholic beverages, soft drinks and desserts. In addition, companies did and still do target black and Hispanic consumers with marketing for the least nutritious products contributing to diet related health disparities, affecting communities of color.   During the great recession of 2007 to 2009, job losses, wage reductions and foreclosure crisis increased the number of people struggling to afford and access enough nutritious food. As a result, SNAP participation rose dramatically in Durham.   In 2008, the farm bill included language about food deserts for the first time. A food desert was defined as a census track with a substantial share of residents who live in low income areas and have low levels of access to a grocery store or to healthy affordable foods in a retail outlet. Today some scholars describe such places as areas of food apartheid. This recognizes the outcomes of past policy decisions that disinvested in disadvantaged populations and locations, the cumulative effects of living under food apartheid have profound impacts on the health, wellbeing, and life expectancy of people of color and the poor.   Here's an excerpt from an interview with Latonya Gilchrist, a Durham county community health worker: “I've suffered a lot in this body for a lot of people it's genetic, but I feel like, and this is my personal feeling based on what I've experienced and my whole family. It's the role of food deserts and the cost of food, not being able to have a community grocery store and what I'll say for Northeast Central Durham or the East Durham area where I grew up, we always had corner stores that sold everything we didn't need. And very little of what we did need. Back when I was a child growing up, potato chips cost 16 cents a bag, and you could get potato chips all day long and all night long, and people could get beer and wine in the neighborhood, but you couldn't find fruits and vegetables until my daddy started selling them on a truck. So diseases come about genetically, but it's increased or enhanced through living in poor poverty stricken neighborhoods.”   Durham foreclosure spiked during the great recession of 2008 and were disproportionately located in historically black neighborhoods. Owners in high poverty neighborhoods have been targeted for high cost subprime loans by lenders through a practice known as reverse redlining. As neighborhoods gentrify and longtime residents get displaced, there is an increasing spatial disconnect between services and amenities and those who utilize them and need them the most. Food, housing and retail gentrification are closely intertwined.   Here's an excerpt from an interview with Eliazar Posada, community engagement advocacy manager of El Centro in Durham: “Gentrification is affecting a lot of our community members and not just affecting the youth, but also the families, unless we can find ways to subsidize housing or find a way to make gentrification not so dramatic for some of our community members. The youth are not going to be staying in Durham if their parents can't stay.”   Durham's people of color and low income people overall have disproportionately high incidents of diabetes. In a 2016 survey in the Piedmont region, 16% of respondents with household incomes, less than $15,000 reported having diabetes compared to only 6% of residents with household incomes of more than $75,000. By 2017 black patients were 80% more likely than white patients to have diabetes in Durham.   In Durham County in 2019, the average hourly wage for food preparation and serving jobs was $10.83 cents an hour or $22,516 annually before taxes. Such wages are all been impossible to live on without government assistance. The fair market rent for a two bedroom housing unit in Durham in 2018 was $900 a month or about $10,800 a year.   Food inequality is a lack of consistent access to enough food for a healthy, active life is caused by poverty, the cost of housing and healthcare and unemployment and underemployment. It is also impacted by the interrelated forces of home and land ownership, political power, economic resources, structural racism, gender oppression, and labor rights. Durham's communities continue to build community solidarity and mutual aid as people lend money, time and other resources trying to make sure everyone can access adequate and healthy food.   In a remarkable feat of resilience the Occaneechi band of the Saponi Nation was awarded official recognition by North Carolina in 2002, following 20 years of organizing and sustained advocacy. They purchased a 250 acre plot of land just outside of Durham County and planted an orchard of fruit bearing trees for collective tribal use. This is the first land that the tribe has owned collectively in more than 250 years.   Durham's black farmer's market emerging from 2015 to 2019 is also a testament to community building through food. The market supports local black farmers and makes healthy eating attainable for individuals living in some of Durham's food apartheid areas. Market organizers are challenging social norms, classism and racism, and believe that healthy living should be possible for everyone.   So why is the food history of a community so important? And can Durham's food history be applied to other places? Who owns land, who can grow food and make a living doing so, and who has access to food, any food, least of all healthy food? The answers are deeply influenced by historical policies and practices. These in retrospect, clearly exacerbated, supported, and even created food related calamities, the dual burden communities face of both food insecurity and diet related chronic diseases, such as diabetes and obesity. Understanding these practices is important in creating change. And in understanding that conditions imposed on neighborhoods rather than personal failings of residents explain what we see today.   A few pieces of this history are specific to Durham, the role of tobacco and textiles, for instance, but most of the fundamental influences on the economic and food conditions are broad social attitudes and practices around race and poverty. And from federal, economic, agriculture and housing policies that have affected urban rural areas in every corner of the country, there is hope from local ingenuity to change food systems and from people in local, state and federal policy positions who are working to reverse inequality and to re-envision the role of food in supporting the physical and economic wellbeing of all people, learning from the past is really important in these efforts.

Before Biden's “American Rescue Plan,” three friends in Durham County came up with their own plan to save the Black farmers they knew. Now they're seeing their work pay off.

In our final installment of our Women Leading Locally Series, we speak with the Honorable District Attorney Satana Deberry. D.A. Deberry who discusses her path to the office of district attorney and the importance of bringing her whole, authentic self to the position.

In our final installment of our Women Leading Locally Series, we speak with the Honorable District Attorney Satana Deberry. D.A. Deberry who discusses her path to the office of district attorney and the importance of bringing her whole, authentic self to the position.

Today we continue our DWI Masters Series, with Durham County attorney Marcus Hill. Despite having handled criminal, traffic, and DWI cases for over 30 years, Marcus is always looking to improve his knowledge of DWI law. He spends many hours each month researching the latest cases, legal treatises, scientific literature, and articles on the subject of drunk driving defense, allowing him to be on the cutting edge of DWI defense at all times. Marcus has spoken at numerous seminars about various aspects of DWI defense and his website is packed with great resources for lawyers who handle DWI cases. You do not want to miss the entertaining and enlightening way that Marcus discusses practical tips for handling your DWI case.    Highlights: Hear Marcus tell the story about how he knew he was going to be a lawyer at six years old. Understand why Marcus' life and practice motto is: Do the Last Thing First. Discover why Marcus writes his closing argument to the jury immediately after his initial conversation with the client. Learn the reason Marcus believes lawyers have the ability to be heroes in the lives of their clients and why this is so important to your practice.

I believe it's impossible not to like Nida Allam. In our conversations, the 28 year-old elected official comes across as thoroughly honest, hardworking, and brilliant. Did I mention she's a genuinely kind person? That, too.Last year, Allam was elected to the Durham County Board of Commissioners in North Carolina, receiving the most votes of any commission candidate (voters could choose five), the first Muslim woman elected to any office in the state AND completing the first all-woman Board of Commissioners in the county's history. This followed her historic election in 2017 as one of the Vice Chairs of the North Carolina Democratic Party and appointment as Chair of the Durham Mayor's Council for Women, the first Muslim American to achieve both. You might be wondering: what's the rush? Why is this 28 year-old accelerating into her political career?On February 10, 2015, a racist terrorist whose name I would rather not mention murdered 23 year-old Deah Shaddy Barakat, 21 year-old Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, and 19 year-old Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, all of whom were either studying or had graduated from North Carolina colleges. The terrorist lived in the same apartment complex as the victims and claimed the murders were spurred over a supposed parking dispute. Despite a well documented history of anti-Muslim posts on social media by the terrorist, investigations into the shooting felt there wasn't enough evidence to support hate crime charges.Allam had been a bridesmaid in Barakat's wedding only two months prior to the shooting. She waited in the parking lot of the apartment complex with friends and family until midnight to find out from police if their loved ones had been confirmed dead.Her response to this unimaginable, violent tragedy was to be part of the solution, and in her mind, representation in elected office was the way forward. And she had no time to waste.The district she's running to represent, NC-06, is not only overwhelmingly Democratic but more than half of it is composed of Durham County, where Allam had an incredibly strong and successful showing in her election last year.In talking to Allam, what I love most about her is the full heart she seems to place at the center of this campaign. Yes, she would certainly make history as only the third Muslim woman elected to Congress, but for her, serving in such a historic context plays a distant second to her insatiable desire to help others. To put it plainly: I'm quite a fan of this young leader, and it's why I'm supporting her for Congress.Tonight, I'll be chatting with Allam on Twitter Spaces, a new function of that terrible hellsite that permits folks to gather in audio rooms for conversation. It's probably the best new function Twitter's ever introduced.Our conversation will begin at 6pm ET, and I hope you'll join us. I think you'll see why Nida Allam makes me excited for the future. In the meantime, please donate to her campaign. It's arguably the best possible single campaign investment you can make toward Midterms.Hi, I'm Charlotte Clymer, and this is Charlotte's Web Thoughts, my Substack. It's completely free to access and read, but if you feel so moved to support my writing, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription: just $7/month or save money with the $70/annual sub. You can also go way above and beyond by becoming a Founding Member at $210. Get full access to Charlotte's Web Thoughts at charlotteclymer.substack.com/subscribe

Durham County plans to build a new youth detention center for an estimated 30 million dollars. But people in the community are skeptical about more dollars being put toward detainment for juveniles.

Welcome to episode ninety-three of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!This week we have Stirling Miles and Lolo Armstrong, A.K.A., Team Run For Tacos, on the show. They share their inspiring Swimrun journey of training, traveling, and racing their first Swimrun at Ödyssey Swimrun Orcas Island a few weeks back. We loved chatting with them and their story will make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside!But first... Training UpdateÖdyssey Swimrun Austin is four weeks away. We're starting to pump up the volume on our training and did a 2 hour-plus Swimrun on Saturday to start dialing things in again.ShoutoutsThis week we're shouting out Lindsey Ludwick from Virginia. Thanks for being a fan of the show and for wearing your Tie-dye hoodie with pride. Hope to meet you in person at a race soon!Feats of EnduranceThis week's award goes to Robb Damman and his buddy Yanni for their 8 hour, 30.33 mile point to point Swimrun adventure in Durham County, North Carolina this past Saturday. They called the route “SCRAMP the Falls” and while we don't know what that means, it's still an impressive feat!Check out and join our Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for Swimruns and stuff.This Week in SwimrunAll the news that we could find on the internet contained herein.It's race week for ÖTILLÖ Cannes. Best of luck to everyone racing and remember to ignore the paparazzi. We'll be putting out Cannes memes all week so make sure to follow us on IG to witness the ridiculousness. If that wasn't enough, we will have some bonus race coverage thanks to our friends G Flo and Tobias from Team Max Mockermann who will be our “LTBz Correspondents in the Field” taking over our IG stories to share all the sights and sounds of Cannes. And it THAT wasn't enough, we will also be releasing a Cannes Race Recap episode in the next few weeks so stay tuned for that!This past weekend, Swimrun Cyprus held their annual race on the island. We loved seeing all the photos on IG and the event looked fantastic.Gravity Race hosted the 6th edition of their Annecy Swimrun over the weekend. According to their website, they had 700 athletes participating in their three distance formats. Can't blame the athletes for wanting to race because the Lac D'annecy is a pretty majestic location for a Swimrun.If you're looking for something to do on October 24, we recommend that you check out Swimrun Cote D'azur. We learned about this part of France from our friends Laurene and Irina, A.K.A., The Swimrun Mermaids, and they convinced us that it's an amazing location for a Swimrun. (I foresee planning a double Swimrun vacation in the South of France with ÖTILLÖ Cannes one weekend and this race the following.)Finally, it's never too early to start planning for 2022 and Bauer Swimrun recently opened registration for their May 1st event in ​​Småland, Sweden.That's it for this week. Be sure to tip us off if there's any news that you would like for us to share on the show.UpdatesProgramming alert: If you're racing or thinking about racing Swimrun NC in November, make sure to check out our course preview episode that will drop next week.Speaking about course previews, if you're racing Ödyssey Swimrun Austin (it's on the same day as Swimrun NC) make sure to check out our course preview episode to get you super stoked...and ready for race day. Team Run For TacosChatting with Stirling and Lolo about their Swimrun journey was so great! They shared their origin story and how one video changed the course of the endurance lives of two long-time best friends and got them to the start line of Ödyssey Swimrun Orcas Island. Their story is what Swimrun is all about and we can't wait to see them again at another race.You can follow the adventures of Team Run For Tacos on Instagram.That's it for this week's show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a five-star review. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, and on YouTube. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback and/or suggestions. Finally, you can support our efforts on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.Thanks for listening and see you out there!-  Chip and Chris

Jenna Nichols speaks with Durham County DA, Satana Deberry about how she has started to change Durham County's prosecution of crime. DA Deberry began to focus on shifting resources to more violent crimes, reducing pretrial incarceration except when necessary, and using diversion programs. 

At 2:40 a.m. on December 9, 2001, Michael Peterson, an author and former mayoral candidate, contacted Durham County 9-1-1 services to summon help for his wife, Kathleen. Peterson claimed that Kathleen, who appeared to have fallen on a narrow, back staircase, was still breathing. After disconnecting, he called 9-1-1 back and reported that his wife was no longer breathing. Kathleen's injuries, the copious amounts of blood on the staircase and the inconsistent statements from Peterson led police to suspect that her death was no accident. Peterson's 2003 conviction for first degree murder was vacated in 2011 after a prosecution expert was accused of malfeasance in several cases, including Peterson's. Join Lisa O'Brien and Michael Carnahan and special guest Michelle D. on Tuesday, April 13, 2021, at 8:00 p.m. Central for Clear and Convincing, Episode 5, State of North Carolina v. Michael Iver Peterson. We'll talk about the case against Peterson, the documentary “The Staircase” and the information the filmmakers left out. We are a live show and, as always, calls are welcome at (347) 989-1171.

Nida Allam, Durham County Commissioner"No one can tell you to wait your turn. No one can tell you that you can't do it." - Nida AllamPlease consider supporting us on Patreon and help make this series sustainableHere's an article about the study I mentioned about North Carolina no longer qualifying as a functional democracy.The study's author, Andrew Reynolds, a professor at UNC – Chapel Hill, taking a victory lap two years later:Check out our Website! – localselectionpodcast.comWe now have fabulous merch! If you want everyone to know you think Local Representation is Sexy then you owe it to yourself to wear it on a t-shirt! (or mug or notebook or stickers etc)Follow Nida on the socials!Twitter: @nidaallamInstagram: @nidaallamFollow US for more local democracy info around the country (and pictures!):Twitter: @LocalSelectionInstagram: @localselectionpodcastFollow our host for his v feisty political thoughts and/or videos of him eating pastries and doing chores:Instagram: @bhastertTwitter: @bhastert

Leadership is often thought of as how we present ourselves in the workplace, and how we give direction and inspiration to our colleagues and peers. Today's guest on Empowering Leadership is well versed in that world of leadership, but also has redefined leadership as a personal and spiritual endeavor as well.  In today's episode, host Doug McVadon talks to Durham (NC) County Commission Chair Brenda Howerton about the many ways in which she has embodied leadership for herself and those around her. Long before her career in politics, Howerton was a mother looking after two young boys. Both her sons were tragically killed by gun violence within a year of each other, one shot by police. Responding to this devastating loss, Brenda sought elective office as a way to change things. She won, and has now been re-elected three times.  Doug and Brenda talk about Brenda's experience with loss and how she not only recovered, but also went on to start a career in politics. They also discuss how the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd has reframed the conversation about racism in workplaces and beyond.

Activist Skip Gibbs was in the midst of leading a protest in Durham this summer when he felt that something wasn't right. In the crowd, which had gathered to demand that the city council redirect the police department budget into social services, he saw mostly white faces.

Jesse Hamilton McCoy II is the James Scott Farrin Lecturing Fellow at Duke Law and supervising attorney for the Duke Law Civil Justice Clinic. Jesse also runs the Durham County eviction diversion program in partnership with Legal Aid of North Carolina and the Durham County Department of Social Services. In this episode, Jesse discusses the impact of various state and federal eviction moratoria on his clients and what needs to be done in order to prevent evicting millions of Americans in the midst of a pandemic that is only getting worse.

Outdoor seating options expand for Raleigh restaurants. Durham County leaders begin new outreach to address coronavirus safety in minority communities. State School Superintendent Mark Johnson discusses plans to return to class this August. These stories originally aired Thursday, June 11, 2020. For complete coverage, go to http://www.wral.com/coronavirus

For our first episode, you'll hear from Darryl Bradshaw. Bradshaw teaches in Durham County and is a part of the non-profit Profound Gentlemen – an organization that engages current and aspiring male educators of color. He shares about his journey from finance to the classroom, his dream for education in North Carolina, and why self care is critical for teachers and something he is still learning.

On this show, we discuss the impact the Coronavirus pandemic is having on the representation of indigent defendants with Dawn Baxton, Chief Public Defender of Durham County.

As a production manager, David Barlow got his break into writing by a very unusual method… pitching jokes on set! Since then, he has created two series, including the long running Seeing Things, and has over 30 years experience writing in LA, Vancouver, and Toronto. Most recently, David Barlow was a co-executive producer and writer on the Showcase series King. Previously, he was a producer-writer on the CBC series The Border – twice nominated for the Best Dramatic Series Gemini. He has co-created two television series – Nothing Good Too for a Cowboy (with Charles Lazer), and Seeing Things (with Louis del Grande). His series credits as a story editor and/or writer include Durham County, Blue Murder, Cold Squad, and North of 60. Barlow may be the only producer to receive Gemini nominations for both Best Dramatic Series (E.N.G.) and Best Sports Program in the same year. The documentary was ‘Chasing the Dream,' produced with Peter Raymont and William Thomas. Barlow has received two Gemini Awards for Best Comedy Series (‘Seeing Things'), a Gemini for Best Writing in a Dramatic Series (Max Glick), the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television's Margaret Collier Award for his body of work as a screenwriter, and the WGC's Writer's Block Award for service to Canadian screenwriters. He is also a faculty member of the Advanced Television and Film and Media Arts programs at Sheridan College, Oakville and has conducted professional screenwriting workshops across Canada, in Singapore, and in Dublin. David has lots of great tips on how to break in… you don't want to miss this one! Buy Gray's book for only $4.99! Look for it on Amazon – How To Break In To TV Writing: Insider Interviews. Didn't get your questions asked? Make sure you follow Gray on Twitter (@GrayJones) so you can get the scoop on who is being interviewed and how to get your questions in. Also check out our TV Writer Twitter Database to find Twitter addresses for over 1,200 TV writers. Find our previous episodes and other resources at www.tvwriterpodcast.com or on Gray's YouTube channel. First published October 15, 2012.