Eight local food, farming experts and continuers of family legacies join “Food Security” students to educate on food access and education in the county.
The Power + Place Collaborative is partnering with Professor Jacob Rutz’s Environmental Science class Food Security, focusing on how farming and food systems in both rural and urban Alamance County impacts its citizens.
The Collaborative is welcoming eight new storytellers who have a significant part in providing access and education to food in the county, for this semester’s “Food & Food Pathways” series.
Assistant Teaching Professor of Environmental Science Jacob Rutz first got connected with the Power+Place Collaborative when he and professor Ryan Kirk were seeking a way to continue race equity work within food systems after they started a partnership with storyteller LaShauna Austria last year. Rutz knew the Collaborative would be the perfect place to continue that work.
“All of these stories are a window into the lived reality of different dimensions of how the food system does and does not work,” Rutz said. “Their unique, complex and messy realities give students the opportunity to look beyond a linear or uncritical theoretical framework into how the food system comes to be in people’s lives.”
Some of the storytellers this spring have kept family legacies alive through their work in the food and agricultural industry within Alamance County, which includes Austria and her son Malik Walker. Living on their family farm in Saxapahaw, the duo focuses on the historic and systematic changes of the food system in the county, raising awareness to move from charity to justice.
“LaShauna Austria is a powerhouse in the food scene in Alamance County,” Rutz said. “I have worked with her the past five years to advance a more equitable food system in Alamance county as well as support the growth of her farm, Kindred Seedlings Farm, with Elon course connections. It was fun to engage her son, Malik, in the project as well. He has his own unique story that I think should be shared.”
The Power+Place Collaborative is a partnership between Elon University’s Center for Design Thinking, the African American Cultural Arts & History Museum, Burlington Parks & Recreation, Walter Williams High School and Alamance Public Libraries. Since 2018, they have collected and preserved oral histories and cocreated digital stories with residents from diverse communities across Alamance County.
Throughout the years, the Power+Place Collaborative has looked for ways to help students and community members understand the underlying systems that impact their community every day, focusing on the stories that may not always be shared in mainstream media. Following design thinking principles of examining wicked problems, human-centred needs and action-oriented thinking, students dive deeper into the community and work through collaboration.
“Engaging with the community is hard work, but necessary, that builds so many more social skills beyond what I can teach about content in the classroom,” Rutz said. “Engaging with real people and real stories brings both the theory to life and critically examines the nuanced and chaotic realities that make up anyone’s life.”
Further engaging with food and civic leadership, the Power+Place Collaborative is partnering with the Alamance Public Libraries for a book club luncheon on “The American Queen” by Vanessa Miller.
Miller will join the Alamance County community to discuss the true story of Loella and William Montogomery, two freed slaves who became the self-proclaimed king and queen of the Kingdom of Happy Land nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western NC. Anyone is invited to join April 15 from 12 – 2 p.m. Community members, Walter Williams High School Civic Literacy class, and the Elon University Food Security students will engage in conversations on community engagement with previous and current storytellers, taking into account the perspectives shared in the book.
The Power+Place Spring 2026 “Food & Food Pathways” film screening will be held May 2, 2026 at Persnickety’s Books in downtown Burlington. Register online to join.