Local grassroots organization aims to tackle issues in communities of color

On Thursday afternoons, members of Black Sovereign Nation break into teams with brown paper bags full of fruits and vegetables in hand. They go door-to-door distributing the fresh, organic produce to predominantly low-income minority neighborhoods around Austin where people lack access to healthy, affordable foods.

“Food insecurity is severe in black and brown and poor communities,” said Njera Keith, the founder of Black Sovereign Nation. “And of course, poor and black and brown overlap, especially in this country.”

Eighteen percent of people living in and around the city are food insecure, or unsure of where their next meal is coming from, according to a report from Austin’s Sustainability Office. The report said awareness, availability, affordability and a lack of transportation are barriers to healthy food access in Austin. But Black Sovereign Nation’s food distribution program hopes to break down those barriers.

The program, Farming for Black Freedom, began on a 1.8 acre farm in east Austin almost two years ago and has grown to feed 100 families in surrounding neighborhoods including Springdale Hills, Colony Park and Craigwood. In addition to door-to-door distribution, Keith said volunteers offer to plant gardens in the backyards and educate community members about food and its connections to politics.

“Some folks don’t get it,” Keith said on confusion about how food and politics relate. “But how can you ever function any other way when you can’t feed yourself?”

Keith said door-to-door distribution is mainly focused on families that live in apartments and have no space for a garden. She said Black Sovereign Nation will attempt to partner with the apartment complex to start a community garden but finds many of the families initially do not want one because they worry about losing their government assistance.

“The residents of the neighborhoods that may have some housing assistance, you can see when you ask if they want a garden that they’re afraid that it will impact that,” Keith said. “That fear prevents them from becoming autonomous and practicing agency and self-determination.”

Farming for Black Freedom is just one program that Black Sovereign Nation has created. The organization has also created alternative programs for schools, self-defense and more.

One of the newer programs is Kuwa Kubwa, Black Sovereign Nation’s alternative to public school. Currently, Keith said volunteers for the organization go to Winn Elementary, a predominantly black and brown school where 85 percent of students are considered economically disadvantaged, according to the Austin Independent School District website. During lunchtime, the volunteers teach the students about what is going on in the world and how it affects minorities.

“They get exposed to culturally sensitive curriculum,” Keith said. “That means that they have a lesson during the day that instills the values of self-determination and agency in them, and it makes them feel good to be involved in something special when right now lunchtime for them looks a lot like just getting yelled at.”

Jarvis Kelly, a volunteer of Black Sovereign Nation, said it is a great feeling to see changes in community members and program volunteers within the organization. Kelly said he began to realize changes in himself the more he got involved with the group and the more he talked to Keith.

“Once you realize that you can practice self-determination and live your own life and you don’t have to do this conventional thing that society does, it’s completely liberating,” Kelly said. “It has completely changed my life around because I would’ve just been doing conventional, 9 to 5 things.”

Black Sovereign Nation also specifies that volunteers and leaders in the organization be people of color to promote Black Sovereign Nation’s core values of autonomy instead of seeming like charity and differentiates the program from others like it, like Meals on Wheels.

“Black Sovereign Nation is in the business of empowerment,” said Keith. “We are interested in getting our people to believe that this is possible for us, that autonomy is feasible especially within these parameters. I don’t think that having white people doing this work for our community sends that message.”

The decision to keep volunteers people of color has caused a backlash against the organization. The organization has received many messages from people outside of the programs calling the decision reverse racism, according to Keith. But she said it does not come from a place of hatred and is meant to ensure the growth of the communities that Black Sovereign Nation helps.

“It’s important for us to do for ourselves because it’s not done for us,” Keith said. “On a systemic level, we are still hungry. We are still homeless. We are still being miseducated. We are still being abused by these systems.”

As for the organization itself, Keith said she knew there was a need for Black Sovereign Nation in the community and believes it is still growing to reach new successes. “I’m in the business of inspiring belief in something, belief in ourselves,” Keith said. “And to me, that’s so magical.”