Working Towards Creating Environmentally Safe Food – An Interview with Jaylen Cates
Jaylen Cates, MSW, is a Community Mobilizer at Carolina Farm Stewardship Association (CFSA). Jaylen is a 2012 UNC School of Social Work graduate with a specialization in community management and policy practice. Jaylen spoke with Dr. Marie Weil, Professor Emeritus, this past summer to share her journey and experience as a macro social worker. Highlights from that conversation are shared below.
Journey to Macro Practice
Growing up, Jaylen shared that her family was “into food.” Her father was a chef and worked at one of the first vegetarian restaurants in the Triangle area. Jaylen grew up around gardens and cooking. Before her path led to UNC, Jaylen worked at Volunteers for Youth, where she ran the Juvenile Community Service and Restitution Program for three years. There, she managed community work sites for youth in the juvenile court and community service program. Many of the worksites were community gardens throughout Orange County. Jaylen worked alongside the youth there and came to realize that they did not really understand what fresh food was or where it came from. This experience led her to ask questions about the food system, consider how food and poverty are interconnected, and explore the role policy and systems play.
Carolina Farm Stewardship Association
Founded in 1978 by farmers in Chatham County, CFSA is one of the longest-standing agricultural organizations in the southeast. At that time, pesticides and chemicals were used regularly, and the local farmers did not want to participate in those practices. CFSA was founded to educate farmers, connect them, and foster a community of care for organic farmers. The Association serves all of North and South Carolina and currently has three teams – farm services, education, and policy. The policy team of five employees works to understand how state and federal-level policies affect systems and how they can support members in creating policies that better serve communities. Farm stewardship, according to Jaylen, means “supporting agricultural systems and farmers who are growing food that is healthy for people and the planet.” CSFA works towards creating a food system that is fair, environmentally friendly, balanced, safer and equitable for the world.
Internship at CFSA
Jaylen first learned about CFSA at a macro placement lunch. At lunch, she was looking for a food-focused internship. While there, she heard Fred Broadwell, the supervisor at CFSA at the time, speak about CFSA. She met with Fred Broadwell after lunch and stated, “our forces aligned,” which led to the internship and later, her job.
During the internship, Jaylen had a few different roles, including helping organize a conference that hosts around 1,000 people every year. She also worked on a survey of policies and county-level food system investments across South Carolina that assessed the state’s progress in advancing sustainable farming and food systems.
As the internship was winding down, a grant opened up to conduct a Farm Bill Barn Storm Tour across North and South Carolina to educate people about the farm bill and to organize events to support action. While her internship responsibilities were very task-oriented and set by her supervisor, when she began working full-time, she became the driver of the direction her work took. Her year of experience built the foundation of trust needed to earn her supervisor’s confidence in her ability to do this work and led to a 30-hour-per-week position focused on farm bill advocacy. After being employed part-time for about a year, her work expanded as the organization identified new grant opportunities around food systems assessments, agricultural policy, and advocacy.
Current Work
Currently, Jaylen wears two hats as a Community Mobilizer. Ninety percent of her time is spent on a team called Community Food Strategies. It is an inter-agency team uniquely supporting the development of food policy councils around North Carolina. CFSA is just one of six partner organizations bringing together cross-sector voices to deepen dialogue around food and support the network of food councils across the state. On that team, Jaylen directs facilitation and resource development that aims to support the network of 36 councils in North Carolina. The team works on networking to connect food policy councils across the state, enabling them to learn from one another’s best practices. Jaylen also specifically works on the policy side, helping food councils understand how they can engage in policy on a local level and collaboratively at the state and federal levels. Another 10% of Jaylen’s time is dedicated to CSFA’s Policy Team, which advocates on behalf of CFSA farmer members.
Through both her work on the CFSA and on the Community Food Strategies team, Jaylen engages in direct community organizing. She works directly with food policy councils to support them in strategically planning for their work and enhancing their community’s participation in creating food systems change. Advocacy requires a thoughtful plan and an understanding of decision-making, rules, and entities, and CFSA’s Policy Team does direct organizing and lobbying on behalf of their farmer members
Jaylen also engages in writing and resource development, including blogging about food systems for the larger public and developing toolkits to support food policy councils and food advocates in their work. Written communication skills are also important for developing guides and resources for food councils. Jaylen led the development of an online Strategic Advocacy Toolkit that features modules on how to build relationships with food system decision-makers and lawmakers. Although consistent and reliable, the Internet is still not readily available to everyone in rural areas; they hope it can be a helpful resource to some. In this work, Jaylen shared that some of the best skills she has developed include group facilitation and public speaking. She shared that these skills have helped her in all aspects of her work. Other skills she has developed on the job include consent-based decision making, graphic design, lectures and presentations, event planning, policy analysis, and network development.
Experience at the School of Social Work
When thinking about her experience at SSW, Jaylen shared that her internship at CSFA was invaluable, above and beyond anything else. Additionally, Jaylen’s policy classes opened her eyes to how policy affects people and helped her move beyond her general knowledge of policy.
Jaylen educated other students about CSFA and the topic of food policy. Many people didn’t understand how working with farmers equated to macro social work. Jaylen loved the opportunity to share her work with classmates because she, too, was figuring out how it related to social work, and as she learned, both she and her classmates saw how important creating an equitable food system is to the social work field.
Long Term Goals
Dr. Weil asked Jaylen about her long-term goals related to her work at CFSA. Her ultimate goal in her work with Community Food Strategies is to support the network of food councils in North Carolinato be self-sustaining and the project to have a life of its own – beyond their new 4-year grant. Ideally, Jaylen and her colleagues “hope to work our way out of a job” by supporting the network of food policy councils to be self-sustaining and to be successful in their work, both locally and in collaboration with other food system stakeholders around the state.
On the CFSA Policy Team, Jaylen has worked hard to make personal connections with lawmakers and staff at the state and federal level. Jaylen feels that their membership is an important presence – farmers care deeply about food policy and, with a vision toward the “long game,” will always be at the offices of lawmakers, bringing forward their perspectives. This work will be ongoing, and success will eb and flow with state and national political trends, but Jaylen is excited to support farmers, farm workers, and food advocates in collaboratively creating a more equitable food system through policy change.
