By Caroline Croland
Urban Planner. Ph.D. Activist. Deidre Grim brings a passion for long-lasting, systemic change to her role as Nutrition Program Director for Healthy Savannah and the YMCA of Coastal Georgia.
Deidre Grim, Nutrition Program Director for Healthy Savannah and the YMCA of Coastal Georgia.
“Deidre is passionate about centering a community’s lived experience to influence and inform systems change. Her unique combination of skills and training allows her to see the interconnected nature of personal health and food systems,” says Suzanne Girdner, Community Outreach Manager at Georgia Organics.
Healthy Savannah is a Savannah, GA based nonprofit focused on “making a healthy choice the easy choice for people living in Savannah and Chatham County.” They aim to accomplish this by building community infrastructure that enables citizens to have equitable access to healthy, affordable food, and activity-friendly routes.
Healthy Savannah is dedicated to approaching food justice through a racial justice lens, highlighting the intersections between food accessibility and racial justice, and taking a community-centered approach to food access.
“I just want all to always understand the value of creating relationships with people and meeting them where they are. Relationship building has made me very successful in my work. It's been a humbling experience because it has taught me that we work alongside people, and we need to leave our preconceived notions and titles at the door,” says Grim.
In November of 2018, Healthy Savannah, in partnership with the YMCA of Coastal Georgia, was awarded a five-year, $3.4 million collaborative grant to undertake a REACH (Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health) project from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The aim of Savannah and Chatham County’s REACH project, Healthy Opportunities Powering Equity or H.O.P.E., is to reduce health disparities among African Americans in seven low-wealth zip codes across Chatham County through long-term solutions.
Through this grant, they have been able to increase healthy food access by adding a second location of Fresh Express, a produce distribution program, doubling the size of the program, and expanding its reach in providing low-income families within the community with fresh produce. The grant has also allowed them to create more stops within their partnership with the Forsyth Farmer’s Markets.
“I think if I had to quantify just our impact locally within the year and a half that I've been working, I would say we've impacted at nearly 10,000 people,” says Grim.
Deidre sat down with us over Zoom to talk about her life, her work, and her passion for equitable food systems.
Tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, and your role with Healthy Savannah.
I am a mother four and a very community-focused person. After high school, I went to college and earned a bachelor's in biology. While in undergrad, I got pregnant and felt like I need to switch paths but didn’t know what that looked like. My husband and I got married and I decided against pursuing medicine. I didn't know what I was going to do. It wasn't until I started working with a nonprofit that provided low-income housing that I found my passion—helping people.
I've always been a people person. I grew up in a household that was full of activism, civil rights, and advocacy. I kept asking myself what I was going to do. Oddly enough, I found my answer through a commercial. The ad mentioned a city planner, and I started Googling. One thing led to another, and I ended up in the middle of Southern California and getting my doctorate in urban planning, public policy, and design. I decided this was one of the best ways to help all people especially those disadvantaged while leaving a solid foundation for the next generation to build upon. At the end of the day, helping people is my heart, while ensuring that there's equity, with a focus on inclusion and diversity.
Could you describe the types of services Healthy Savannah offers and what kind of impact you've personally seen within the community?
Healthy Savannah is an organization where we seek to make the healthier option the easier option. One of the main social determinants of health is access to knowledge. If a client doesn't necessarily know what healthier options they have, we will see more chronic illnesses. This is especially prevalent in low wealth communities. So, Healthy Savannah seeks to push for change through the policy, systems, and environmental change perspective. We work in the areas of physical activity, nutrition, and community clinical linkages to provide the resources to the community that helps them become healthier and live more sustainable lives.
Through my particular strategy, we look at food access, particularly access to healthier foods. We’ve seen that low-wealth communities are more susceptible to have healthy food priority areas, originally termed “food deserts.” As a planner, we use the terminology “healthy food priority areas” because the desert can seem like an anomaly when we know this is a systemic issue, and it must be addressed it as such.
Additionally, we are working on a photovoice project with Georgia Southern to identify the barriers that African American mothers are experiencing when needing to breastfeed. We also work in the faith-based organization under food service guidelines, to help these organizations provide healthier foods for their congregants as well as emphasize the need to be more physically active.
Can you give us some more insight into the Nutrition program that you oversee? What areas do you focus on most in your work?
My main focus is on changes to the food system and the barriers that keep people from having consistent access to nutritious foods. We want to make those changes at a policy level because often after program funding is gone, the community is left by the wayside and we do not want that. We want to guarantee that this work will continue even after funding has subsided. It starts with making those genuine connections in the community, whether it be with local leaders, elected officials, organizations, and residents. The average citizen is our focal point because we want to guarantee that we are hearing what it is that they feel that they need and how to best assist them.
The truth is, one in three people in West Savannah (the area of Savannah with the highest poverty) lives below the poverty line. Food insecurity is costing Savannah over $27 million in healthcare costs alone. That's exponential with a population of around 150,000. We need to ensure that we are lowering those healthcare costs.
We can do that by increasing access to healthy foods, access to a truly livable wage, and access to the information and resources that the community needs. The social determinants of health and research teach that if you eat healthier, are more physically active, and have equitable access to education, knowledge, and resources, the trajectory of a person’s life changes. It is our heart, our mission, to ensure that those who are most vulnerable have those services and knowledge more readily available.
What inspires you about this work? Why is the integration of racial equity work so important when it comes to talking about health access?
I grew up in a house that was committed to civil rights and equality. Fast forward 30 years, we see that it wasn't equality that we needed. We needed equity because each community has different resources and barriers.
I belong to the school of thought that if you give people the tools they need to succeed, they will use them. Therefore, I can't just say, "Okay, here's the healthier option, use it." I'll give an example. I can't just give some kohlrabi to someone if they're used to eating pork and beans in a can all their lives, I have to help them understand the reasons why it's a little bit better to eat than the can of pork and beans. From there I need to educate them on how to prepare it while making it their own and adding their spin. As an African American person, our ancestors ate healthy because they ate off the land. But was different when we came here because we didn't have the same resources and food supply that we were used to.
And so we had to make it our own. We did what was comforting because we were in a bondage situation. Food has the ability to take you to a place that helps you forget about what's going on around you.
With that said, it's also about changing our relationship with food and changing the perspective of what you eat. I’ll tell anybody, I grew up on collard greens, grits, watermelon, and fried chicken. And so instead of collard greens with bacon fat, I use chicken broth and Mrs. Dash. Instead of fried chicken in the deep fryer, I prepare air fried chicken. And with macaroni and cheese, I use either brown rice pasta or whole wheat noodles. And that's how we incorporate that spin. Sometimes people may not understand it, but it's just giving your spin on food. And I think as long as it comes from the heart, food is always going to be good.
Can you talk a bit about your experience in being a member of Georgia Organics’ Georgia Food Oasis communities? How has been a member of Georgia Food Oasis impacted your organization?
We have been impacted dramatically. The conference was awesome this year. I love that you had the farmer at the forefront of the conference, especially the black farmer, giving them the information to access funding that was integral and pertinent.
Because that is something that historically we did not have equal and definitely not equitable access to. It has impacted my work because I am very cognizant and conscious of how to partner more with farmers.
Georgia Food Oasis has also provided a true sense of community, and as a planner, I am always looking for that. It's a truly collaborative effort because we reach out to each other and say, "Hey, I need some help. Do you know how I can get this done? Or do you know who does this?" And if I may not know someone off the top of my head but I have to do is reach out to Suzanne and she can connect us with someone. So just the relationships, the webinars, the real genuineness of the organization is what's been very impactful and invaluable for me.
Be sure to check out Deidre on an upcoming panel for Good Food for Thought- Pandemic Response in GFO Communities: Rome, Savannah, and Walton County highlight partnerships that helped connect families to fresh local food during COVID-19 on September 22 at 11 a.m. Click here to register!
Caroline Croland is the Fundraising Coordinator at Georgia Organics. To learn more about Georgia Organics, visit www.georgiaorganics.org and follow us on Instagram @GeorgiaOrganics, Twitter @GeorgiaOrganics, and at www.Facebook.com/GeorgiaOrganics.