“Gathering Around the Table: Food and Developing of a Sense of Community among Africans Americans in Southern Appalachia”

This paper will explore the role that cuisine has played in the development of community among African Americans in Southern Appalachia. Gathering around the Sunday dinner table has been a long tradition within African American families and communities. Through this tradition African Americans have worked to build a sense of shared values and familial solidarity. As many African American communities have suffered increasing social and economic marginalization in recent years, the effort to restore a sense of stability has, in part, been centered on traditions surrounding food. As historian Frederick Douglass Opie has noted, for African Americans “food was a way of surviving with dignity in a very oppressive situation.” In one of Asheville’s oldest African American communities, local residents are working to renew a sense of common community values through the development of a community garden. While this concept has a long tradition, the efforts of African American community leaders in the south Asheville community of Shiloh have combined this concept with programs such as storytelling to cultivate an appreciation of the community’s history and cultural heritage. Working in partnership with the owners of Tupelo Honey Café, a locally owned and operated restaurant that emphasizes Southern cuisine in its menu offerings, Shiloh leaders have developed a community garden and pavilion where residents gather to promote community ideas and programs. The development and success of this and similar programs can tell us much about role that food has played in the development and strengthening of African American communities