Courage: Strength of mind to carry on in spite of danger or difficulty.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been wondering out loud where courage currently lives — in myself, in others, in our representatives, in our community. I know it exists all around us and shows up in every day lived experiences, but due to the over-consumption of news these days, I haven’t felt as confident in our ability to muster up the courage that is necessary for this moment. But then… yesterday happened.

Yesterday was the launch of our 2025 Good Community Food fellowship class at Jones Valley Teaching Farm. This is our 4th year and it was the biggest turnout yet. To be a fellow, you have to submit an application demonstrating your desire to learn how to grow food with us on our downtown farm throughout every season and then take that knowledge and grow food in your community. Everyone is assigned their own community garden bed to maintain the entire year, required to come to monthly workshops, and be willing to talk about the hard and joyful parts of our food system. The entire program is run by an Advisory Board of past fellows and is a true example of what being IN community with people from different lived experiences looks like in real time.

So as I pulled up to the farm yesterday, I saw 40+ individuals who got up on a Saturday morning to commit to all of the things listed above (and more). Each participant introduced themselves and talked about their common desire: to be self-sufficient, to be nourished by food they can trust, to reconnect to the land and grow food like their grandparents and ancestors did, and to learn.

I had to leave mid-morning because a graduate of our program (and Advisory Board member) was hosting her own seed swap at a church a few miles down the road where she manages a community garden and urban farm on the church’s property. When I showed up, I saw graduates of our fellowship program and other members of our Advisory Board there to support her. It was a beautiful thing to witness and a reminder that the work doesn’t belong to one organization or even one person — it belongs to all of us.

As I made my way back to the Center for Food Education, I was thinking about the class of fellows that were just getting started, the 160+ alumni who are spread out across our communities and state doing this work together, the Advisory Board that holds us accountable to our community and its needs, the USDA grant that seeded this idea and is now in question for so many other communities seeking to make these kind of connections and work happen in their states, the gratitude I have for our staff who show up to answer questions from our fellows and connect their kids to the work, the fact that the Center for Food Education exists, the importance of pouring IN communities instead of extracting FROM communities, and the many donors and community partners that make this work happen.

Later that day, we celebrated another one of our fellows who died unexpectedly at the end of last year. She was a believer in community work — in the work of Good Community Food — and she was part of us in so many ways. To celebrate her memory, her family (personal, work, and JVTF) came to the Center to plant a blackberry bush in her honor. This blackberry bush will grow on the perimeter of our farm and its fruit will be available to anyone passing by. All of this happened after the first day of our new fellowship class and that felt perfect.

And as all of this was happening, we had staff in Selma doing teacher trainings, staff watering and caring for all of our sites across Birmingham City Schools, interns and staff representing our work on radio shows, and so much more.

After reflecting on all of this — I am reminded that courage shows up in different ways. Sometimes courage looks like getting out of bed and putting one foot in front of the other. Sometimes courage looks like putting in the work — by choosing to be IN community with people who don’t believe or look like you. Sometimes courage looks like growing food and sharing that food with others. Sometimes courage looks like hope instead of despair. Sometimes courage looks like marching and protesting. Sometimes courage looks like kindness and love.

I read Krista Tippet’s On Being newsletter yesterday and was moved by this passage:
“I find myself pondering my long-ago conversation with Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen, which remains one of my most treasured. She told me the ancient story, as her Hasidic grandfather had told it to her, behind the Jewish ethical imperative to “repair the world.” In the beginning of creation, the light of the universe was shattered into a million million pieces, which lodged as shards inside everything and everyone. Our calling, as human beings, is to look for the light from where we stand, to call it out, to gather it up — and in so doing, to help repair the world.”

She also offered these 6 grounding virtues to hold onto right now and I can say that yesterday’s events at the farm were grounded in all of them.

Wherever you are in this moment, I hope you are surrounded by courage and most of all, love.