Refugee Food Harvest at NC A&T

AGGIES HELP NEEDY FAMILIES 
MONTAGNARD LAY COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKERS BRING ALONG NEIGHBORS TO HARVEST PRODUCE. 

TOMATO HARVEST      SQUASH HARVEST     RICE HARVEST     PIGEON PEAS, BEANS

WARREN WILLIAMS HAS BEEN delivering fresh produce donated by great businesses such as Goat Lady Dairy and other local farms to an apartment complex with refugee and immigrant families, giving away great looking peppers, callaloo, tomatoes, eggplant, all kinds of greens and fresh, organic vegetables. The organization he's put together, Food Insecurity and Nutritional Educational Services, has also harvested food and gotten contributions from the Guilford County Sheriff's Department Prison Farm and from many of the community gardens of Guilford County. He's also regularly supplemented Meals on Wheels food deliveries with fresh produce.

Rice Harvest, December 1, 2011

After a couple of Saturdays of showing up and distributing food at the complex,  he called to say North Carolina Agriculture and Technical State University had produce ready to harvest. Could any of the refugee families assist gathering it?  We knew some of the families from ESOL classes we taught at Montagnard Dega Association.

Picking okra.

A few phone calls and visits to explain the plan and off we went. We did a couple of excursions to the NC A+T farm off of McConnell Road, once to gather tomatoes, okra, and corn and a second time for butternut squash. While we were out there the Montagnard women also gathered pigweed leaves. The Aggies were very friendly and happy to see the veggies put to good use.

 

Squash headed for Betsy’s ESOL students.

Warren estimated our two trips amounted to over 2000 pounds. The Montagnards brought home plenty to share with extended family and Latino neighbors. Betsy brought some to her Bhutanese ESOL students. A lot more was distributed by Warren to Greensboro city neighborhoods with kids who attend Title 1 schools. Here fresh, healthy food can be scarce. The economic downturn has left families with little money to buy food after rent was paid. The high quality food we gathered reached hundreds.

Effects of the economic downturn: Recent stats show Greensboro ranks fourth in the nation in food hardship. The News-Record reports that over 91,000 residents of Guilford County, 19% of the population, are now on food stamps. This is a big increase of more than 12,000 since last year. If all eligible refugees could be signed up, the total number of residents on food stamps would be even higher. Interviews with refugee families show food scarcity is far more prevalent than previously thought. If economic recovery is destined to take 4, 5, 6 or 7 more years as some experts are suggesting, then food insecurity will become a permanent problem with long-lasting social effects. Twenty-three percent of kids in North Carolina live in poverty. The overall economy has been bad for middle class Americans and worse for the working class poor. Refugees have an especially bad time because they live in cultural isolation, far off the radar screen of American agencies and authorities.

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Postscript: Our big butternut squash harvest was distributed to Montagnard families on the east side of Greensboro who will share with extended family and friends. For the poorest, it gives them a chance to “give back” to friends and families who've assisted them with food and other support while they've struggled. Food Not Bombs took on a lot of squash as part of their food collection that regularly feeds the city’s homeless and needy. Through Montagnard Dega Association we distributed squash to about 30 Southeast Asian refugee families living in the city's northeast.

 Another bountiful harvest: A few hundred pounds of green peppers.

Young green pepper leaves were also harvested.

Post-Postscript: In late October I got another call from Warren, green peppers and some tomatoes were ready for picking. While the ladies and Warren collected a few hundred pounds of handsome veggies, I was holding a few of the freshly picked peppers up to faculty and researchers from NCAT and UNCG, saying the issues of building long term relations and trust with refugee and immigrant communities in order to do social research would not be difficult if the region's institutions could organize their outreach efforts. Our region has the collective expertise and resources to be a leader in refugee and immigrant relations, if only we could align and maximize our efforts.

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Related stories:
Refugee Fusion Cooking at CDI: our work with foodies, techies, and refugee populations
Our food collaboration with UNCSA
Food and Diet: A cultural approach to teaching

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Rice Harvest 

Three Montagnards came out to demonstrate rice harvesting.

Arot's dad works at Goat Lady Dairy. Professor Idassi shares some plant knowledge.

 A good food conversation between Khin and Patty.

 The yield for the small harvest was about 20 pounds.

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Butternut Squash Harvest

The Aggies had already piled up the squash by the time we arrived. 

We sorted the good from the bad while practicing a little bit of English, too. Some refugees are preliterate — they can't read or write their native language — which makes learning to read and write English a far more difficult task. When you factor in the pressures to obtain employment, it is easy to understand how some refugee and immigrant communities can remain “off the radar screen” for decades. Fathers go off to work but often have little opportunity to practice English in plants that employ many refugees and immigrants. Moms might work, too, or stay at home, taking care of children and grandchildren, unable to get to English classes and rarely going out to interact with native born English speakers.

We quickly ran out of boxes.

Many refugees are resourceful farmers who rarely get the 

chance to use their skills after they arrive in the US.

A typical Montagnard farm was about 7 acres.

In Vietnam, farmers raised a very large variety of vegetables 

and fruits to feed themselves and cash crops such as coffee.

Families also foraged in forests for wild plants and mushrooms.

Pigweed is in the amaranthus family. The leaves are edible.

We filled a couple of cars and the back of a truck with butternut squash.

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Tomato, Corn and Okra Harvest

These women also inspected a small wet rice demonstration project.

Montagnards are experienced growing both wet and dry rice crops.

Although farm work is long and hard, many refugees who feel 

isolated and disconnected from American life enjoy the chance

to use their hands and work in the soil.

Picking cherry tomatoes. These kids would like to attend college
but don't have the information or parents’ encouragement.

The traditional Montagnard diet is heavy on a very large variety of fruits

and vegetables, rice, and small amounts of protein. Some villages were so

far off the beaten path that standard staples of Vietnamese and Montagnard

cooking like MSG were unknown.

Tomatoes, like many native American vegetables, made their 

way to Europe after 1492 and eventually to Southeast Asia.

More than just refugees, more than just farmers. Two of the five main tribes of Montagnards are represented here. One woman is an expert traditional weaver. Two assist as lay health workers for their community. Two are adept survivalists having fled to the jungle and lived there for years. Many survived bombardments and military raids on their villages during the Vietnam War. Among this group six languages are spoken.

Kubler and the Refugee Experience

The survival of the native languages is only an apparent exception to the rule of symbolic extinction.— George Kubler

A poncho from Peru, circa 900 AD

George Kubler's Colonial Extinction of the Motifs of Pre-Columbian Art  (1961) theorizes the relationship between an overwhelmingly dominant culture as it extinguishes a weaker one. Perhaps his model can be used to understand the current situation of refugees and explain the real challenges faced by those who attempt to build, preserve and promote their communities while redirecting the power of those in the dominant culture towards reciprocal acculturation (sharing, mutual respect) and away from benign neglect, coercion, threats or force.

Kubler catalogs the responses of the weak as they salvage whatever they can of their past life while living under the constant pressure and demands of a powerful new culture. Of the five he lists, four should be avoided because they lead to the elimination of the weak by the strong.

“Convergence”, or the convergence of interests between the dominant and weak, is a matter of appearances like the trick of perspective that implies railroad tracks meet in the distance. Those in power are never threatened with face to face encounters with the weak. For the many Montagnard congregations here in the Piedmont, Christianity is an example of convergence, the appearance of shared values between themselves and mainstream churches. Both sides have reasons to maintain the illusion of a common mission but American faith-based organizations and mainstream churches have an especially big stake. They have been in the forefront of refugee resettlement in Greensboro and have recently been subjected to sharp criticism which eventually resulted in one agency quitting the region. A real encounter with all cultural obstacles removed and the playing field leveled would assign blame and reveal the current system for what it is — a mess. So what do Montagnard churches get out this? Surprisingly, they get the freedom to be left alone to tend to their people as they see fit.

Kubler uses the term “explants” to mean the brief continuation of traditional habits or activities (also non-threatening) that eventually whither under the dominant culture. Some refugees believe in the power of amulets and one was amazed that their power could work here in America, protecting its wearer from a hail of bullets during a forced house entry. But it’s unlikely the children of this refugee will share her belief. The remarkable stories of many Montagnards, especially women, are probably destined to go unnoticed and unrecorded however rich their oral culture may be, because the transition from a preliterate society to a collection of detribalized literates (to borrow from McCluhan) is consistent with  funded refugee resettlement practices. What will live on? Probably the selective stories of combat and political struggle as described by Montagnard men who fought alongside Americans and recorded by Special Forces vets who have an interest in the shaping and retelling of these tales. (Notice that the illustration at the end of this entry depicting a Montagnard crossbow breaks with this narrative, suggesting some Montagnards were attacking American forces.)

“Transplants” represent isolated pieces from the weaker culture transplanted into the “soil” of the dominant culture. In the Montagnard community, this literally means growing kabocha squash, bitter melon or water spinach in Greensboro backyards or in buckets and boxes arranged to catch sunlight in the city's rundown apartment complexes. None of these vegetables are in the normal American diet and refugees’ little garden plots are rarely considered a threat to American norms. If local mainstream residents ever discover the healthy benefits of eating a more diversified, locally grown supply of food (that is, if it ever becomes “hip” in Greensboro to eat Thai eggplant, squash tendrils, etc.) then transplanted habits might “take” more firmly in Piedmont dirt. Today the reality is different. Chronic diseases caused by poor diet and lack of exercise plague the Montagnard population, whose health stats more and more resemble mainstream Americans’.

“Fragments” are distantly remembered forms and ideas that might be traced and retraced by survivors who have forgotten their symbolic meaning. Music and the arts can fall into this category. Refugee kids might mouth the words but not understand the context of songs. Weavers might create patterns but forget their origins in a world that has vanished. By Kubler's definition Art, which we tend to associate with reinvention and renewal, instead becomes the signpost of a downward spiral, pointing to the death of a culture. We're reminded of a textile expert who told us traditional weavers in Southeast Asia are dying out as traditional forms and symbols become industrialized, commercialized and sold us tourist items. Here in the Piedmont we see mostly old women, master weavers, with no pupils to inspire. Dock Rmah and Y Suk Bukrong are both skilled traditional musicians who are uncertain who will follow them. Maybe young artists like the rapper Mondega can spark a turnaround by initiating a dialog between generations.

Only the fifth response Kubler cites, “juxaposition”, offers the slim possibility of an intact survival of old ways. Reciprocal acculturation “of which there are very few examples in the history of Christianity” means a policy of listening to the needs and interests of refugee communities and working with them to create joint solutions, even while power disparities remain starkly drawn. A recent suggestion to locate a refugee welcome center at a popular international shopping complex was an example of accommodation in the spirit of juxtaposition. Its quick rejection by refugee resettlement specialists suggests that power, not collaboration or cooperation, continue to underly and guide most decision making about refugees in the Piedmont.

LEARNING FROM KUBLER: WHENEVER REFUGEES SUCCEED IN 
ALTERING AMERICAN BEHAVIOR, THEY HAVE THE CHANCE TO 
PRESERVE IMPORTANT PARTS OF THEIR CULTURE.

Agriculturist to agriculturist: An American farmer 
and ESOL teacher works alongside his students at 
a community garden.

Refugee farmers learn about “lasagna gardening”...

... And quickly adopt their skills.

This team started a new community garden in a 
single morning.

International sustainability: Refugee farmers 

attended a Carolina Farm Stewardship Association 

conference on best practices and organic techniques.

Woman to woman: A university researcher is 
shown various food products by refugee women 
at their local ethnic store.

Artist to artist: Montagnard artist shares his portfolio 
on an iPod with a Canadian performance artist.

Artist to artists: A traditional Montagnard musician 

demonstrates before American student artists and musicians.

Youth to youth: University art students Skype with 

rapper Mondega (right), voted MTV Iggy Artist of 

the Week in December 2010.

An Amerasian learns how to tell her life story

 through digital media.

While video documenting a traditional recipe to 

students, a Montagnard woman connects her farm, 

her escape into the jungle, her relationship to 

her mother and the importance of food in her life. 

Electronic media used by refugees from oral societies to 

record their trip to UNCSA. McCluhan would approve.

Craftswomen meet: Two master weavers meet with 

an Australian expert and North Carolina fabric artists.

A Montagnard mom shares her spinning technique.

Communicating by doing. A master weaver from 

Vietnam with only rudimentary English skill

shows women weavers from Bhutan how to transfer 

the warp to the loom. A shared passion to continue 

their craft brought these women together.

Public health grad students interview a community health worker.


Lay health workers help a university
researcher to conduct interviews.

A lay health worker who never received formal
schooling in her country discusses emergency 
planning with her community.

Multilingualism versus ESOL. The celebration of 
the sounds of languages from oral societies. Many 
Montagnards speak 3, 4, 5 or 6 languages.

Translation of Census 2010 paid by a grant from the 
Southern Coalition for Social Justice.

The opening of the largest Montagnard-owned 
store attracted hundreds of neighbors including 
African-Americans, Latinos, and Asians to share 
food and music.

Kitchen to kitchen: A collaboration between refugee 
and American chefs to produce a new dish reflecting 
each chef's food traditions.

An American chef, immigrant chef, and Bhutanese

refugee mom create a collaborative dish.

Refugee and American chefs share the stage.

 
Iraq meets America: A group effort

 Food as a medium for communication. 
The interviewer is a blogger and media 
specialist. The respondent is a refugee
who rarely has the opportunity to share 
her culture with mainstream Americans.

Public presentation of collaborative dishes in Winston-Salem.

Kubler goes on to explain which bits and pieces are likely to survive cultural cataclysm. In the example of the destruction by the Spaniards of native American culture, he dashes hopes for finding evidence of surviving old customs — so fast, powerful and complete was the overthrow of traditional life. As we consider today how modernity and consumerism have swiftly crushed traditional peoples, Kubler the forensic investigator details the process of destruction and where to look for remains. Original religious beliefs are first to collapse, followed by the arts, then symbolic knowledge such as language. Crafts are rarely viewed by the dominant culture to be a threat and so will persist for a longer period of time. Local agricultural knowledge may be too useful to entirely disappear. Applied to Montagnard culture, we see Kubler's model at work. Christianity replaced traditional religion after decades of war and dislocation and by the late 1960s seems to have been firmly in place, well before refugees began to arrive in the US. Today few women know how to weave and only some recall how to play traditional instruments. The pressures to learn English quickly upon their arrival here in the US cause many parents to worry their children will forget their tribal language. As they punch the clock at the start of their shift at the poultry plant, they may recall their lives as agriculturalists, skilled foragers and farmers with some remaining knowledge about raising plants and caring for animals.

Then they will be Americans. Then they will be just like us. By current standards, this is success.

Culture raffle today. “Apparently there is nothing that cannot happen.” — Mark Twain

The antidote to Kubler’s devastating assessment of Spanish power in the New World is the plea by anthropologist Wade Davis to regard traditional people not as failed attempts to be like us, but rather to see them as equals faced with the same profound questions about what it means to be human. McCluhan specifically identifies artists as specialists able to deal with and respond to collapse, change, and revolutionary technologies. And it is they who most easily connect to the refugee experience because they are attuned to the fundamental cultural struggle they're engaged in. For these reasons, we have supported direct exchanges between refugee and mainstream creatives and artists. To reconsider the presence of thousands of refugees who now call Greensboro or Guilford County their home in this light would be to reconsider the policies and practices that treat them as social problems. It would make us question the agencies that carry out these policies under the banner of faith (or limited budgets) and ask if there are not better models for community building and dialog?

Southeast Asian Bob becomes American Bob, courtesy of Face of the Future