Tranquility Farm sells products year-round at the China Grove Farmers’ Market and the Winecoff School Road Farmers’ Market in Concord, North Carolina. Allen values farmers’ markets because they provide connection to the community.

“It wasn’t a formal prayer,” Banner says, “but I made a connection with the earth. I’ve been growing food ever since.”

In a grassroots response, Joyner helped to establish the Conetoe Family Life Center in 2007.

Jason Kampwerth interacts with the food system on a local, regional, and national scale in his role at Foster-Caviness, a food distribution company based in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Baldwin Family Farms contributes to the local food economy by providing jobs, managing natural resources, and stewarding farmland.

“North Carolina has a culinary history that needs to be brought forward,” Moore says.

“One of the things that excited me early on in this work was that you can talk to almost anybody and connect local food systems to almost any issue,” Guth says.

“Just like you might use a local farm, people come to us for their seafood. We have relationships down at the coast and are almost like a bridge.”