Spotlight on the Black Church Food Security Network
How the Black Church Food Security Network (BCFSN) is Building Inside and Out
The Black Church Food Security Network began with a realization Reverend Dr. Heber Brown III couldn’t ignore. As a pastor, he was counseling congregants who were getting sick, and visiting people in the hospital. And, noticing a pattern: many of the health issues were tied to long‑term lack of access to healthy food. He was also looking at the land around Black churches–open grassy areas, unused lots, trees–and asking a question: how do we connect the two?
That question sparked what has now become a galvanized network of more than 60 Black churches in Baltimore and over 300 nationwide. BCFSN helps congregations reclaim the land they already have to grow edible gardens, connect directly with Black farmers, and address food apartheid in communities where grocery stores are scarce and fast food is abundant. Their work now includes food justice and environmental sustainability tours, agricultural education, and curricula that reconnect Black communities to land, farming, and the long arc of self‑determination. It is reclamation–and reparations–rooted in what people already possess.
This year, we worked with BCFSN to map their full annual cycle–month by month–across four dimensions: the programs they run, the network‑building they lead, the organizational infrastructure they need, and the leadership rhythms that support it.
Together, we created a Gantt chart that aligned their priorities with the realities of the Zone 7 growing season, community demand and farmer distribution cycles, and the desire to increase bandwidth internally and externally. It gave the team a shared view of the year: what’s coming, and what can be leveraged to build capacity within the team and within the community.
BCFSN’s work is a reminder that food justice and sovereignty is achieved one step at a time- one relationship, one action item, one season, one community at a time.
Learn More About BCFSN
Visit BCFSN’s website, watch their story on the BCFSN YouTube, sign-up to volunteer at a garden day, or sign up for their newsletter.