1,000 signatures reached
To: City of North Charleston Mayor, Keith Summey, and Council Members, Metanoia CEO, Bill Stanfield
Land Justice for Fresh Future Farm
Sell the land that Fresh Future Farm resides on to them with no strings attached.
Why is this important?
Fresh Future Farm's mission is to grow the quality of life our neighbors deserve. Our urban farm and grocery store has accomplished so much in six short years. Since 2014, the Farm has accomplished the following:
- 16 tons of groceries sold or distributed between 2016 and 2019
- Bi-monthly grocery deliveries, rent and utility support to the Chicora/Cherokee residents during the quarantine
- Fiscal sponsor of the Lowcountry Mutual Aid Fund
- 100% of our staff lived in the southern end of North Charleston upon hiring and earn livable wages
- 75% of our former employees pursuing their dreams
Our working-class group of Black people provide consistent support to our Chicora/Cherokee customers, and we have the financial capacity to buy the land we lease. The Farm faces barriers in obtaining a clean deed and a clear pathway to ownership. It's impossible for us to create a better reality of health, wealth, and quality of life if we are barred from embodying those realities ourselves. A failure to understand this truth is a failure to understand our entire mission.
Metanoia’s deed restrictions echo the racist restrictive covenants that used to exist in the Chicora/Cherokee community and continue to deter Black wealth today. Any action that allows a white-led organization to capitalize on land cultivated and stewarded by Black bodies is tantamount to sharecropping.
On this Independence Weekend, can you share our petition far and wide, call, email or write Metanoia CDC and the City of North Charleston Mayor and City Council members and ask for public statements that explain:
1. Why is it necessary for Metanoia to dictate how FFF operates after we buy the land?
2. How can Metanoia justify paying 110% of the Farm’s 2019 purchase price when and if we ever choose to sell 10
or 20 years from now?
3. Why can't the City of North Charleston simply subdivide and sell the land to us directly?
OUR NEED FOR LAND JUSTICE IS URGENT. We raised the money to buy the land last summer but our six-year lease ends this coming September (the actual lease lists the end date in July).
Article from Charleston City Paper: https://buff.ly/2YRQBPF
Film Trailer by Seedlight Pictures: https://rootedfilm.com/
How it will be delivered
The petition will be delivered in person.