Developing Cultural Context and Recognizing the Civic Professional: A Study of Home Gardening and Food Security in Rural Appalachia

Supplementing safety net programs, local food production initiatives are beginning to gain traction as proposed methods of addressing issues of food security and agricultural literacy. In an effort to foster self-sufficient food procurement in Grayson County, Virginia, a low-income rural region of Appalachia, container gardens were gifted to clients of a mobile food pantry through a grant-funded program. The significance of container food production was investigated by recognizing the participants’ unique lived experiences as factors leading to their individual program outcomes and by creating space for them to offer community-specific suggestions for program improvement. A deeper understanding of the local economy and current food landscape was gained by compiling a historical social narrative through field observations and ethnographic research. This developed the cultural context for organizing and grounding phenomenological interviews that documented the varied perspectives of program participation. Though a significant contribution to the original goal of increased food security was not seen, these simple and accessible container food gardens fostered a sense of pride, wellbeing, and self-sufficiency among resource-limited, and often physically challenged, participants. By recognizing these individuals as experts within their own community and partners in the construction of knowledge, noteworthy insights are explored in the paper to offer viable options for increasing both food security and quality of life for this and other rural areas of the United States