Our 120th Real Farmer Care recipient is Rachel Whittaker of Sagare’s Seed @sagares_seed in West Charlotte, NC.
Rachel writes, “As the founder of Sagare’s Seed, I am in the process of creating an urban micro farm with the main focus to help regulate positive birth outcomes through nutrition by providing fresh locally grown produce to pregnant mothers and infants who live within the boundaries of food deserts, better known as food apartheids. Farming is a spiritual practice for me, so I knew when I began farming in late 2019 it needed to be centered around a deeper purpose than just profit. I’ve been a birth doula for five years and when I began to farm I noticed a disturbing coincidence that I also observed during my early years as a doula - the availability of support and access to healthy food wasn’t equally granted to everyone, just like the support and access to proper maternal care. This is when I began to focus my farming practice around infant mortality while noticing the connection between the lack of healthy food and pregnancy complications. We deliver fresh veggie boxes through a CSA-like model. This way women are not hindered by lack of access to transportation. My vision is to genuinely feed as many mothers and babies as we can creating a great foundation in terms of health and nutrition for children that can follow them the rest of their lives. My biggest obstacle with farming is the lack of funding and resources that are available to me as a young black female farmer. I know that my ancestors genetically passed down this agricultural knowledge to me but because of the system that enslaved and suppressed them they weren’t able to pass down resources. That’s something that continues to impact farmers of color today and acts as a hindrance to success in this industry. I would love to see us continuing to be represented and recognized knowing that our stories and our people are worthy to be honored and fed through love.”
Support Rachel’s vital work via Venmo @ Rachel-Whittaker-5