Sustaining Way

As we celebrate the triumph of freedom and equality on Juneteenth, we're taking a moment to reflect and recharge.

Instead of our usual Friday garden hours, we invite you to join the vibrant celebrations across the Upstate, listed by The Greenville News: https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/entertainment/2026/06/18/juneteenth-2026-events-in-upstate-sc-include-music-fireworks-cookout/90588579007/.

Let's also honor the spirit of progress by supporting Black-owned businesses, the pillars of our community.

Explore these incredible resources to discover new favorites:

🌟 https://offthegridgreenville.org/guides/local-black-owned-restaurants/

🌟 https://www.experiencespartanburg.com/blog/post/celebrate-black-history/

🌟 https://www.adoredonnie.com/blog/80-black-owned-businesses-to-support-in-greenville-south-carolina.

Together, we can forge a path toward a more just and equitable tomorrow.

‘Tis that time of year where we’re sweating through our layers in the garden!

We’ve adjusted weekly drop-in volunteer garden hours at Annie’s House so we aren’t working during the hottest part of the day.

Give us a ❤️ on this post if you’ve volunteered with us before!

Find more volunteer details in 🔗Link in Bio.

We've updated our drop-in garden volunteer hours at Annie's House for the summer!

Join us each Tuesday from 3:30-5 p.m. or Friday from 9 to 11 a.m., or the third Saturday of each month from 9 to 11 a.m.

Find details about volunteering at http://www.sustaininway.org/volunteer-here or email [email protected].

We also love hosting groups!

Food security doesn’t mean food exists somewhere in town. It means food reaches the people who need it, where they live, where they raised their families, where they call home.
Today, fresh collards, kale, and cabbage moved from baskets into the hands of our neighbors including our seniors and community members living with mobility and physical challenges. For many of them, “just go to the store” was never a real option. When the nearest bus stop is blocks away, when the route runs once an hour, when a walker or a cane is part of the journey, carrying bags of groceries home isn’t an errand, it’s an obstacle course. That’s not a personal failing. That’s a failure of access. And it’s one we can do something about.

So we bring the table to the neighborhood. We set it up where folks can walk, roll, or ride to it. We hand greens directly to the elders who taught this community how to cook them in the first place. And in between the boxes and baskets, something else gets exchanged: laughter, catching up, babies meeting their elders, neighbors being neighbors.

This is what food access looks like when it honors dignity: no long bus rides, no heavy bags carried on aching joints, no one left out because of how far they can walk.

To every volunteer who lifted a box, every elder who came through the line, and every neighbor who told a friend , thank you. You are the harvest.

We’ll be back. Same table. Same love. 💚

The cycle of health inequity begins before birth and we have the power to interrupt it.

A health coach recently shared something that stopped me in my tracks: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) increase the risk of gestational diabetes by 29%. Twenty-nine percent.

That means the stress, trauma, and limited resources that too many mothers in our community carry don’t just affect them — they cross the placenta. They shape the metabolic health of the next generation before that child ever takes a first breath.

💚 Meet Erin Smith.

Erin is Sustaining Way’s Community Engagement AmeriCorps VISTA and the beautiful little one she’s holding is Baby Eliza. What you’re seeing in that image isn’t just a sweet moment. It’s a picture of what intentional community work looks like up close. Erin is actively working in collaboration with our partners at Birth Matters to reduce the prevalence of gestational diabetes in our community, meeting mothers where they are, building trust, and connecting families to the resources they deserve.

And that second photo? That’s the energy. That’s what partnership looks like, two women showing up with purpose, joy, and a “Dope Black Doula” shirt that says everything that needs to be said.

This is exactly what Sustaining Way’s Four Securities framework is built for. Food security. Energy security. Community stability. Civic participation. These aren’t abstract policy goals, they are the conditions that determine whether a mother has what she needs to carry a healthy pregnancy, and whether a child enters the world with a fighting chance.

When we distribute fresh produce through our Community Food Access Program, we’re reducing gestational risk. When we build community stability, we’re interrupting the ACE-to-diabetes pipeline. When we partner with birth workers who look like the communities they serve, we are doing maternal and infant health work in the most direct way possible.

This is our model:

Healthy Homes.
Healthy Families.
Healthy Communities.

Want to connect with our partners at Birth Matters?

Amber Pendergraph, Birth Matters
[email protected]

Because the health of our babies starts with the security, support, and dignity of their mothers.

Sustaining Way | Spartanburg, SC

NICHOLTOWN FIELD PRACTICUM: MAKING HISTORY IN GREENVILLE

This weekend, Sustaining Way and SC BEACON came together for something truly groundbreaking with a two-day Field Practicum in the historic Nicholtown neighborhood of Greenville, SC.

What made this moment historic? This practicum brought together the collaborative power of South Carolina’s two flagship universities , Clemson University and the University of South Carolina in a shared commitment to community resilience, environmental justice, and disaster preparedness. This is what cross-institutional partnership looks like when it’s grounded in love for community.

Over Friday and Saturday (June 5–6), practitioners, researchers, and community advocates dove deep into Participatory Disaster Risk Assessment (PDRA), conducting vulnerability assessments, hazard mapping, capacity analysis, and action planning, all rooted in the real lived experience of Nicholtown residents. The data tells a sobering story: over 4,200 residents face high vulnerability to extreme weather events, with 784 individuals living with mobility disabilities. This community deserves and demands — our attention.

We are especially proud to share that four Sustaining Way Board Members were present and active participants in this historic convening. Their presence reflects not just governance, but genuine commitment to the work on the ground.

This practicum is Part One of a larger journey. The work continues.

Connected to the Clemson University/NSF CHIRRP grant initiative, catalyzed by Hurricane Helene.

We have some spots still left! Steward Fellows is a paid summer internship for rising 9-12 graders.

Visit https://sustainingway.org/form/steward-fellows-2026/ to submit an application ASAP!

SUSTAINING WAY
TEAM SPOTLIGHT!!

VIDEOGRAPHER & COMMUNITY IMPACT FILMMAKER
Khalil Gamble
Spartanburg Native · Sustaining Way Collaborator

🎓Howard University
MFA — Film & Media, Class of 2026 (May 8, 2026)
🏅Wofford College Honors Graduate, Class is 2020
🏈Byrnes High School, Class of 2016
Linebacker · Top 10% of Class

Spartanburg Native
Rooted in the Upstate. Based in DC
Khalil Gamble is a Spartanburg-born filmmaker whose lens finds justice where others find landscape telling the stories of communities building food sovereignty, resilience, and power on their own terms.

WORK WITH SUSTAINING WAY
⭐ FEATURED PROJECT
New Washington Heights Documentary: USCAN colloboration with Sustaining Way
Khalil served as principal director and producer of a landmark collaborative film project uniting the United States Climate Action Network (USCAN), Sustaining Way, and the historic Greenville New Washington Heights community. The project captured a community at the intersection of environmental justice, cultural heritage, and climate resilience told through the voices of the people who live it.
🌱 COMMUNITY VOICES
Backyard Garden Community Testimonials
Produced and filmed testimonials from Sustaining Way's growing backyard garden network, capturing community members' stories of food sovereignty, soil stewardship, and neighborhood transformation in their own words.
📱 DIGITAL STRATEGY
Social Media Content & Support
Provided production support and creative direction for Sustaining Way's planned social media projects, helping translate on the ground impact into compelling digital storytelling.
🤝 CURRENT ENGAGEMENT
Environmental Justice Consulting
Khalil is currently consulting with Sustaining Way on emerging environmental justice film and media projects, bringing his MFA training and movement storytelling instincts to bear on work that illuminates the Four Securities framework across food sovereignty, energy security, community resilience, and political stability.

THE FOUR SECURITIES FRAMEWORK
Khalil's film work gives visual and narrative life to the interconnected pillars that fuel Sustaining Way's work which Executive Director Michael Brown shares with stakeholders, partners, and communities across the region.

EDUCATION & BACKGROUND

🎓Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Howard University — Washington, DC
Film & Media Arts · The Mecca · Standing on the shoulders of giants in the HBCU tradition of excellence and service.
Graduated May 2, 2026

🏅Bachelor of Arts Honors Graduate
Wofford College — Spartanburg, SC
Academic honors distinction from one of South Carolina's premier liberal arts institutions right in his hometown.
Undergraduate

🏈Graduate — Top 10% of Class · Linebacker
James F. Byrnes High School — Duncan, SC
A standout on the field and in the classroom finishing in the top 10% of his graduating class while playing varsity football for the Rebels. The same discipline carried him from the Upstate to the Mecca!!!





BLESSINGS in all you do!!!!

Follow Khalil on Instagram: and
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