Story by Corinne Kocher
Photos by Bailey Garrot
Shared Plates
Walk around downtown Athens, and you might spot a community development plan that's not just sitting on a shelf, but is actually being referenced in a meeting between community members, business owners, or activists.
"It's not unique for a community to have a plan written down," says Erin Barger, project manager for Envision Athens. "What's more unique is for it to actually be in use.”
Envision Athens is a public-private partnership focused on "leveraging grassroots activism and institutional capacity together to formulate a 20-year strategy for Athens- Clarke County’s community and economic development," according to Erin.
Envision Athens is composed of 103 priority actions, organized into 14 domains "informed by people who live in the community". Finishing up year one of the 20-year plan Erin says the community is focusing on "solutions need to actually be relevant, affordable, and of interest.”
In the agriculture domain, the current focus remains creating a sustainable and consistent venue for fresh food within the east side of Athens.
"People, at times, tend to oversimplify the barriers people have to eating fresh food," says Erin. Envision's approach works to grow the prosperity of the community while supporting the prosperity of the farmers who produce fresh food.
Envision Athens is currently working with five strategies within the agriculture domain, including the Farm Rx program at the Athens Farmers Market and collaborating to create a farmers market in Winterville (part of Clarke county). Envision is also working to address the ($20.5 million) underutilization of SNAP and WIC benefits, helping people move from eligible to enrolled quickly, and partnering with the Northeast Georgia Food Bank to increase fresh food access through their distribution channels.
Finally, Envision is partnering with the Athens Career Community Academy for multiple initiatives, including creating mobile food vehicle that would deliver food where it is needed while creating a learning environment for career academy students. Emmanuel Stone, Program Coordinator and Community Chef & Culinary Arts Coordinator at the academy, meets monthly with the "Abundance" team working in the agriculture domain.
"Members of our community from various local agencies and organizations who care about our community come together to connect and further this work," says Emmanuel. "People who attend Envision Athens meetings are working actively to bring positive changes to the place we call home.”
What has enabled such an ambitious plan in the Athens community? Erin has a quick answer, saying, "at some point, the community has acknowledged that the way we tried it before has not served us adequately - so we decided to do something different if we want to actually see different results."
"Athens is difficult to put into words - there is scrappiness, resilience, creativity, and innovation that is really unique," adds Erin. With progress reports, work plans, and meeting calendars open to the public, Envision Athens is harnessing the power of transparency to create committed community development.
"A lot of communities experience barriers in convincing people to buy into the process and engage - but we have active work groups in various domains that have been meeting for over a year now," says Erin. Citing a recent move to larger meeting spaces, she adds, "and people continue to come to the table.”
Corinne Kocher and Bailey Garrot are the writer-photographer team behind Shared Plates, a blog exploring food in the world and how it gets to the table. Read all of their work at www.shared-plates.com and follow them on Instagram @sharedplatesatl.