Farming and feeding community with accessible staple foods
Fresher Together is Chicago chef and farmer Fresh Roberson’s (she/they) dynamic approach to feeding community. Note that the phrase is feeding community, and not the inverse. “Community feeding” can imply a top-down delivery of nourishment from an us-them perspective. This couldn’t be farther from Fresh’s approach to edible activism, which comes from a belief in the importance of collaboration.
“We always talk about this African proverb. ‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.’ Alone, I can only sustain and do so much. If we want to change the food system, it's really hard for one person, or one entity to do that,” they said.
Fresher Together has been operating since 2019, striving to make nutritious food accessible to all. Think of this enterprise as a loom, pulling together various people, organizations, and businesses to make a fabric of farming and feeding. This means urban gardening and farming, plus gathering food from area farms for food boxes and meals. Fresh provides weekly meals for various non-profits and programs that are working to increase food access for the homeless, street youth, and seniors on Chicago’s Southside. Fresh and Danie Roberson are partners in life and work, and in addition to coordinating efforts in the city, now have a 5-acre farm in Iroquois County, an hour and a half south of the city. There, they recently set up a water system for irrigation and a pack station, and discovered a pecan tree on the land. Finding this tree was nearly magical for Fresh. Here’s why.
Raised in eastern North Carolina, Fresh moved to the Chicago area for college. “My grandparents were sharecroppers and grew corn, tobacco, cotton, and peanuts as their main crops, and everything that they needed to eat. My mom and her siblings ran away from the farm when they could because it was such hard work,” Fresh said, noting she still grew up nearby, and surrounded by farms. People came to town to sell greens from the back of pickup trucks, and Fresh gleaned things like sweet potatoes when farmers were done harvesting.
One day while away at college in Chicago, Fresh wanted to make a pecan pie, but quickly discovered that little bags of pecans were almost $10 at the grocery store, and she needed multiple bags. Not being able to get something that was readily available back home was a revelation.
“Even though I grew up poor and food insecure, we had access,” she said of pecans. Their aunt’s pecan tree dropped tons of pecans. And their grandfather would do side work for his boss, including picking up pecans. Being deprived of a basic food made an impact and started a shift inside her thoughts. Finding a pecan tree on their land more than 20 years later felt special, symbolic, and right.
Fresh told this story with a sense of wonder, and if you’ve met them, you know that this is not unusual. They speak from a place of abundance and curiosity that is contagious and inviting. These aspects of their personality feel native and have been bolstered by finding outlets to explore her passions about food and farming. Initially, Fresh set out to study engineering, but afterwards pivoted to culinary school following an eye-opening period WWOOFing on an heirloom vegetable farm. The tastes of supposedly familiar foods turned upside down and delicious, setting them on a path of growing things, and cooking. In 2006, Fresh went to Kendall College for their culinary program. Hearing about the innovative cafeterias and restaurant setups in high-tech sent her across the country with Google and Facebook. For a time, they worked at both companies, because Facebook ran its food programs around the clock. Fresh wanted to see how these places could get fresh, delicious food to workers, and carry that information back to Chicago; the inquiry was based on wanting to understand how to improve food in less glamorous food environments, like schools.
Fresh has long wanted to integrate these interests, in gardening and cooking, and helping her community. One key catalyst for merging those paths was Soul Fire Farm, a BIPOC-led farming education center in upstate New York. Fresh heard about the organization’s BIPOC immersion program, and attended in 2018. The experience gave her room to plan how to create a container that would hold and grow her ideas for farming and cooking. From this, Fresher Together emerged, to create opportunities for healing, economic development, training and retreat for communities of color, elders, queer folx, and youth. Having the space to actively dream onsite during a one-week immersion, and to initiate plans through continuing offsite group support was significant. Fresh remains connected to Soul Fire, working as a facilitator for them every year.
Grains came on Fresh’s radar through Chicago Bread Club (CBC) founder Shulamis Rouzaud, who established the group to share the art and knowledge of bread. With a background in nutrition, Shulamis knew that regular meetups about regional grains would help people incorporate these nutrient-dense staples into their lives. A couple of years into the Club’s existence, Shulamis opened up the work to promote and expand the racial equity of the regional grain economy, and invited Fresh to join the board. During the pandemic, Fresh became the director and used CBC and Fresher Together as a combined platform to aggregate and distribute grains, flour, cornmeal, and dry beans to the community. For a season, this also meant setting up a grain stand at farmers markets. Simultaneously, Fresh was coordinating AGC’s Neighbor Loaves program in Chicago. After a hiatus, CBC’s public meetings have begun again.
Identifying the necessity for staple crops like beans and grains within her work has felt like finding a missing piece of the puzzle. Yes to delicious vegetables, but staples are where the bulk of calories come from, and improving the quality of staples is equally important. That’s why Fresh values the connections they’ve made with AGC. She found out about the Stone Barns Centers Regenerative Farming Fellowship she participated in in 2020 through AGC in 2020, where they met fellow participant and AGC member Jeff Hake of Funk’s Grove Heritage Fruits & Grains, a peer business. Fresh and Danie both went through the Midwest GRIT program, deepening this and other links within AGC.
“As a Black queer person, accessing grain farming information isn’t simple. AGC has been a great network for learning and development,” Fresh said. Working with colleagues and fellow AGC members Molly Breslin of Breslin Farms, Andy Hazzard of Hazzard Free Farms, and Halee and John Wepking of Meadowlark Organics has been helpful, and being a part of AGC’s Farmer Collaboration Working Group has been great for peer learning and networking.
The skills and sense of purpose that Fresher Together brings to our network are considerable, and we are grateful for the opportunity to work with this longtime member. And watch for more about Fresh’s work with Molly Breslin and Community Grain Shares in an upcoming installment of the Grain Chain Connections video series!
