When it comes to John Brown, tending to the land on his little farm in Dallas County, Alabama, “is just like me nurturing or taking care of my mother and my father, if they would have lived to be of old age.”
On the same plot of property that his father bought almost 80 years ago, Brown grows vegetables. Brown remarked, “My dad taught me the value of the land.”
“When I look at the dirt and when I smell it, it’s like I’m a part of my dad or my mother because it’s like they’re still here,” he stated.
Although managing his land continues to be a labor-intensive task, Brown claims that some of the tension has been alleviated by his involvement with a group of Black small farmers in a collaboration with the Edmundite Missions. The priests’ long-standing commitment to promoting justice in Alabama is carried out via the Black Farmers Initiative, which was established by the Edmundite Missions in collaboration with the Deep South Food Alliance.
Soon after their arrival in 1937, the Edmundite priests started a project that would later become the Edmundite Missions: delivering sandwiches from their home’s back door to combat hunger in the Selma area.
Currently, the Edmundite Missions feed around 29,500 meals a month at its Bosco nutrition center, a dining hall located in the most impoverished area of Selma. Additionally, on weekends, they serve 150 rural customers at their free food market and homebound seniors and elementary school students. Additionally, they have broadened their anti-poverty efforts to encompass youth education initiatives, a senior center, and community social work services.
