THE NOURISHING EFFECT

CHAPTER 2
started with community gardens on church properties. The foods grown there are distributed
through a pantry run by the council, and they are available to the entire community. “It has
made a difference,” says Rev. Head. “People tell me they feel better, and I can see it myself.”
The black church is the key stakeholder when it comes to matters of community health and
building trust and bridges between the African American community and the health profession,
particularly in rural communities. It is not uncommon, for example, for clergy in Macon
County to take calls from families asking for help because they have run out of food. When
someone in the family is sick, it may require a minister to persuade the person to see a doctor
given the history of racial discrimination
in health care which, in great
part, explains why some African
American communities are wary of
doctors. 68 This kind of leadership
by African American churches can
help the community to overcome
the history of racial discrimination
in health care.
“The past isn’t dead and buried.
todd working on
In fact, it isn’t even past,” said
candidate Barack Obama, in a 2008
speech about race relations. 69 The
ACA, better known as Obamacare,
will have only limited success in
places like Macon County without
support from the church leaders.
The church will lead the community
building as it always has, because
the church has the trust of local residents
that other structures often do
not. This may be true in other parts
of the country as well, but it is especially
true in the rural Black Belt.
Rev. K. G. Jones,
pastor at the Bethel
Missionary Baptist
Church in Tuskegee,
Alabama tends to the
community garden
on the grounds of the
church.
Wylin Wilson
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