FoodChain
Chats on the Porch and Fish in the Basement ?!
by Donna Hecker
Take a couple of visionaries and a derelict hulk of a factory, add a burning desire to make the world a better place, toss in a stick of dynamite in the form of a passion for food and making connections and you get ~ fish in the basement?
Well not quite….but when Ouita Michel and Becca Self were sitting on Holly Hill Inn’s front porch over a decade ago, trying to improve their little corner of the world, they kept coming back to the one unbreakable link between them. A love for food and people, and a hunger to share that love with as many people as possible, in the most meaningful way possible.
Becca was working with Seedleaf at the time and Ouita was developing her Windy Corner concept. Both were pondering lots of what ifs. Could they raise awareness about local food and create paths for better access to it? Could Windy Corner include a farmers market? How could Lexington be surrounded by farmland, yet grow so little local food? What could be done about food deserts? Could they address social injustices? Have a positive economic impact?
Then beer happened. Becca’s husband Ben Self and his founding partners decided to establish a craft brewery in an old Rainbo bread factory in the middle of downtown Lexington, and the links started forming as West Sixth Brewery was developed.
The building was huge, with much more space than the brewery needed. What if Becca and Ouita distilled their ideas and applied them to an urban setting? And so began the germination of FoodChain and Smithtown Seafood, rooted together from the start.
With help from Kentucky State University’s award-winning aquaculture program, an indoor farm started to take shape. It was a simple, yet brilliant, design. Brewing by-product was fed into large fish tanks, and wastewater from the tanks was recycled through a series of hydroponic beds, in which lettuces and herbs were grown. The filtered water was then returned to the tanks of tilapia, and when the fish reached a certain size, they were harvested for sale at Smithtown.
As Becca describes it, Smithtown was FoodChain’s link to the outside world; a way to connect people living in an urban environment with fresh seafood and greens, and a dependable outlet for FoodChain’s harvest. She has a vivid memory of the very first fish being harvested and cooked on the line at Smithtown and seeing all their dreams come to light.
Becca believes that as FoodChain celebrates ten years, it has stayed true to its creed of creative problem-solving. She says they might not know all the answers or all the outcomes, but things are still worth trying. “Except maybe our original idea; we thought we’d put the farm in the basement. Fish in the basement, horrible idea. Repulsive. I can’t imagine how catastrophic that might have been.”
On a more serious note, for issues like obesity, hunger and the Covid-19 pandemic, Becca says “there are solutions to be had and they don’t always require $18 billion, and (they) can be done on a one-to-one scale. In the face of some really daunting challenges, let’s make a meal and eat together.” To sum it all up, “we’ve got a building and local growers and expertise and folks who need jobs and folks who are looking for workers. Let’s link all these things together in a chain.”
And linked they are. To date, FoodChain has served 450,000 locally sourced meals, invested $1.2 million in the local economy, provided 41,172 hours of educational instruction, harvested 10,308 pounds of produce and 2,782 pounds of fish, spent $55,000 with area farmers, and processed 63,527 pounds of local produce.
When the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted school nutrition and other feeding programs in 2020, FoodChain didn’t blink. Its team partnered with VisitLex, Keeneland and the Murry Family Foundation to create Nourish Lexington. And Nourish Lexington picked up the ball and ran it to the finish line, preparing and delivering packaged meals throughout the community.
FoodChain’s 10th anniversary coincides with new leadership. Becca is stepping down as executive director and Chaquenta Neal is taking over. Chaquenta feels as though Becca is handing over her baby but Becca prefers to think of it as an Olympic torch-lighting relay; she’s only one runner and Chaquenta is now on her way to the podium.
Chaquenta grew up in Pine Bluff, Arkansas and moved to Lexington to study agriculture at the University of Kentucky. She chose Lexington because of its size and resources, and because she didn’t want to “be a hermit in my house.” Pine Bluff was starting to fade away and Chaquenta craved a community that matched her big personality and desire to make a difference.
Her grandmother Ruthie Brown lived in the small town of Elaine, Ark. and food insecurity was a big thing, with the nearest grocery about 30 minutes away. Chaquenta, who didn’t know about food deserts at the time, just thought it was normal to “get your greens out of the yard.”
“The yard” being a community garden Ruthie had planted on some extra land she owned, to support her love of feeding people. Even now, Ruthie makes pots of greens and flash-freezes them for Chaquenta to ferry home across state lines.
Between her grandmother’s garden on one side of her family and rodeo cowboys on the other, Chaquenta always felt agriculture had a space for her, and was shocked to find out that her friends had no idea where food came from. So she’s especially excited about FoodChain’s educational component.
As a big advocate of education, Chaquenta says it’s the center of everything and “once you educate youth, they encourage their parents to make change. All of that plants the seed early and then it becomes a generational thing. The start to a wonderful and plentiful harvest.”
Chaquenta continues, “But there’s also the fact that we provide meals, and folks who live in cities assume that food deserts are only in rural areas, which is not true. FoodChain connects food and people who need it, and it’s a magical combination.”
Becca and Chaquenta are both grateful they grew up with positive food experiences but concede that a lot of people haven’t had that luxury. Still, their shared love of food and feeding others fuels their optimism for the future of FoodChain. Together they stand firm in their conviction that food is one of the few things on the planet that connects people and that there’s no better way to bring everyone together.
For Chaquenta, the leadership change at FoodChain is a new journey ~ “getting to work with amazing people who have a passion and so much positive energy, while doing what I love.” For Becca, it’s “incredibly thrilling” and “bittersweet only in a very selfish way because I’ll miss everyone.”
For the rest of us, FoodChain and Becca Self and Chaquenta Neal are proof that no matter how dire circumstances are, and how big the problems faced, they can only be solved one meal at a time. And you can help their mission become a reality by donating to FoodChain at www.bggives.org/foodchain.
Updated September 2023 — Chaquenta Neal has rejoined the University of Kentucky staff and Leandra Forman and Kristin Hughes now share FoodChain’s top role as co-executive directors. Leandra first joined FoodChain in 2017 as farm manager before serving in other leadership positions. As co-executive director, she focuses on FoodChain’s wide-ranging operations. Kristin, whose passion is education, focuses on outreach and education throughout the Lexington community.
If you can’t feed a hundred people, then just feed one. Mother Teresa
© 2021, Holly Hill Inn/Ilex Summit, LLC and its affiliates, All Rights Reserved
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