Healing divisions between neighbors and the land by growing food together in Cedar Grove, NC.
Anathoth’s work began in 2004 when Cedar Grove community member and farmer, Scnobia Taylor, generously leased five acres of her land as a hope-filled response to the murder of a local and beloved store owner named Bill King. Envisioning that the land could become a permanent community gathering place, just as Bill King had been creating at his store, Scnobia offered to lease those five acres long-term, at no cost, to Cedar Grove United Methodist Church. In response to her gift, church members organized a listening group and decided to use the Taylor’s land as a community garden. Over the years, Anathoth has become its own nonprofit and grew to include a satellite farm site, but the original gift of the garden land, and its vision, are at the heart of our work.
We take our name, Anathoth, from a Biblical passage where the prophet Jeremiah summons the Israelites to “plant gardens” and “seek the peace of the city” in response to violence (Jeremiah 29).
We envision engaging people of faith with root causes of violence, poverty, and malnutrition in rural communities by working collaboratively to create a more just, sustainable, and equitable food system.
We do this by:
- Growing and distributing sustainably-raised vegetables through a sliding-scale Community Supported Agriculture program (CSA) called HarvestShare. We harvest fruits and vegetables for 200 families each week, 8 months out of the year. HarvestShare’s vision is for everyone to pitch in what they have and to receive what they need — and for everyone to enjoy the abundance of the harvest.
- Employing local high school students, including some who are completing community restitution through Volunteers for Youth, through the Open Hands paid summer internship.
- Fostering community by facilitating workdays, potlucks, worship services, and celebrations.
In 2020, Anathoth’s work will re-focus solely on the garden and on hosting community conversations to envision how the garden space can best be used. Central to this work will be creating long-term structures and processes for community leadership.
