"PICK A FRUIT. FEED A CHILD. PLANT A SEED. FEED A NATION"

I first became aware of the land loss issue in Black America when prompted to research economic solutions for the African American community while at Morehouse College. The assignment was given to me by Dr. Wiliam Sheftal, then Director of the Business Department at Morehouse College and instructor of the class Urban Economics and Public Policy.

Little did I know, 20 years later, I would consider part of my life's quest, is to prove my hypothesis from this assignment given to me in college. But how would I define proof? Does proof mean a community once lower income or highly unemployed actually becomes a normal income community? Well, before we go there, what was the hypothesis? In short, my hypothesis then and has been, we can feed ourselves into independence. To elaborate, the amount of land African American's possess in America (around 6 million acres) and the demand for healthy food within our community, if pulled together could create jobs while supplying the food needs within our communities.

The answer to the other question is yes. If the community does not become a normal functioning community, we have failed.

Until now, we have failed by our standards. Many have talked about some of our accomplishments (see press) but as far as we are concerned we are no where near sustainability.

Yes, it's true we started the first farmers market at a school site in Oakland (which was also supplied with food from African American farmers) and now over 20 schools have farmers market. And yes, it's true, The West Oakland Food Collaborative, which I co-directed started a cooperative grocery store in West Oakland called the Soul Food Cooperative (now named Mandela's Food Cooperative). But, have I seen the community of West Oakland truly benefit from these food security type of projects. The answer is no.

In comparison to many other projects in these neighborhoods, I would say they have been somewhat successful. However, one of the missing links to accomplishing more for many of these programs relates to the dysfunction of many of the other typical organizations within the community they should partner with, to best serve the overall community.

With these thoughts in mind, I wrote the Four Steps of Hotep and constructed five main websites to illustrate what I call, "building healthy economics." in short, building Healthy Economics is based on my personal experience of teaching in "low income" communities and witnessing the influence the high school has throughout the community.

Building Healthy Economics is largely based on a few steps I am recommending to create a foundation within a community before starting a farmers market or community garden. If you already have a farmers market or school garden, don't stop and retreat to these recommendations, just involve the people you are about to meet in your program.

The five websites (mobetterfood.com, friendsofschool.org, intergenerationalenterprise.com, 1stsaturdays.com and healthyeconomics.org) are our daily attempts of building the Healthy Economics Model globally.


If you have any questions, comments, feel free to reach out to me.

in peace,

Your servant,

David N. Roach
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