Sfa White Paper Thrive.Pdf

How one academically grounded nonprofit impacts economies, changes lives, and drives progress in the changing American South. SEPTEMBER 2018 Thrive Table of Contents Foreword I. We Are One II. Measuring Impact On a warm day in July of 1999, three dozen chefs, cooks, writers, and academics met in Birmingham, Alabama, to found a nonprofit that would document, study, and explore the diverse food cultures of the changing American South. III. Super Spreaders That night they dined on rabbit pilau at Highlands Bar and Grill, the restaurant owned by Frank and IV. What is Southern? Pardis Stitt that helped kindle the American regional food renaissance. V. It’s Complicated Since that first gathering two decades ago, the Southern Foodways Alliance has become a powerful force at the intersection of food, culture, history, and fellowship. When SFA showcases VI. Academic Cachet a cook, farmer, or artisan, media coverage often spikes significantly. Many members credit the support and collective wisdom of the SFA for thriving careers and businesses. VII. The Tonight Show Members are drawn to the spiritual sanctuary of SFA events, where they feel both nurtured and Starring Johnny Carson challenged. Many say that SFA media and programming has driven seismic shifts in their thinking about identity and their relationship to the region. VIII. Where To? SFA boldly explores the complex and often treacherous history of the South, delving into slavery, poverty, hunger, and the oppression of women, minorities, immigrants, and LGBTQ people. SFA dives into these loaded subjects with academic rigor, solemnity, joy, and a relentless drive to cultivate a better future while chronicling a tragic past. This work was independently commissioned, researched, and written. Financial support for research came from Brook and Pam Smith of Louisville, Kentucky, who wanted to document the unique DNA of the Southern Foodways Alliance and the ways the organization creates value and impacts lives across the South and beyond. The SFA community generously shared their stories and insights through more than 50 hours of interviews. Thanks to Kristie Abney, Rosalind Bentley, Scott Blackwell, Ashley Christensen, Theresa Chu, Mark Essig, Marcie Cohen Ferris, Asha Gomez, Will Harris, Meherwan Irani, Sam Jones, Ann Marshall, Nancie McDermott, Angie Mosier, Justin Nystrom, Julian Rankin, Ashanté Reese, Rodney Scott, Pardis Stitt, and Sean Wilson for sharing. SFA leadership was also gracious with interviews and data, and for that I thank John T. Edge, Melissa Hall, Mary Beth Lasseter, and the rest of the folks who keep SFA running. Any errors, omissions and oversights are solely mine. Mary Jane Credeur Decatur, GA September 2018 4 THRIVE I A WHITE PAPER ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE SOUTHERN FOODWAYS ALLIANCE THRIVE I A WHITE PAPER ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE SOUTHERN FOODWAYS ALLIANCE 5 I. ‘We Are One’ Since elementary school, “Someone shook my hand and “Instead of guessing how many “For me to be compared to people who are at 5-star resorts, Rodney Scott has worked in the said ‘Thank you for the work you hogs we need on a Wednesday, family business, feeding logs of do,’” Scott said, recalling the I can check the system and it places like Blackberry Farm, I just can’t believe it,” Scott said. hardwood into burn barrels to New York City event. “And I was tells me,” Scott said. “It shows “I always thought we were divided. But some of those chefs make coals over which whole like ‘Wow, they respect it.’” me how many pounds of meat hogs roast for 12 hours or more. come off the hog, how much red were looking at me like, ‘Wow, you stayed up all night and Other media outlets began to pepper we’re going through, cooked this beast and put it on a plate.’” For years, people have been take notice, and Scott started how many pots of sauce we use driving from all over South receiving invitations to cook at per week. It takes the mental That win helped Scott realize that there is Media mentions of Rodney Scott jumped Carolina to the rural town of events all over the South. By pressure off me. Waste is down. just as much merit in his kind of cooking as nearly threefold in the first eight months of Hemingway for a plate from then, sales at Scott’s were up And profits are a lot higher.” that of any fine dining chef. 2018 compared to the same period a year Scott’s Bar-B-Que, set in a by more than 50% since Edge earlier, Factiva data show. cinderblock building painted wrote the article in The New York Fellow pitmaster Jones, who “We are all the same. We are one. I’m white and trimmed in robin’s Times, Scott said. recently branched out from his starting to accept that a little bit more,” Scott credits SFA for giving him time and egg blue. family’s Ayden, North Carolina- Scott says, referencing a smooth R&B track space to nurture his relationships with Pihakis, When the restaurant’s pithouse based restaurant Skylight Inn to by Frankie Beverly & Maze called “We Are Jones, and dozens of other restaurant leaders In 2009, John T. Edge, the burned in 2013, a group of SFA open Sam Jones BBQ, had this One.” He often cranks that track when he’s and writers across the nation. Without them, director of the Southern friends including Nick Pihakis of to say: Brace for the one-star tending the pits. he says he probably wouldn’t have had the Foodways Alliance, wrote a Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q and Sam reviews on Yelp. courage and the means to go out on his own. column about Scott’s Bar-B-Que Jones of Skylight Inn BBQ (they Days after the James Beard win, Scott for The New York Times. In it, call themselves the “Fatback Sooner or later it will happen, announced plans to open a second location he praised the “ever-elusive Collective”) rallied and helped Jones warned. Maybe someone in Birmingham, Alabama, in partnership with authenticity” of their slow- him devise a plan to rebuild. was cranky that day or just being Pihakis, a longtime SFA supporter who sold smoked whole hog barbecue. Scott visited several cities mean spirited. Ignore those Jim ‘N Nick’s to Atlanta private equity firm across the South and cooked people. And if something was Roark Capital Group in 2017. The article ran on Wednesday, whole hogs to raise money, and legitimately wrong, make it right. June 10, when Scott’s was closed. his journey was chronicled by No matter what, don’t let it drag They only cooked on Thursday, NPR, Charleston’s The Post and you down, Jones said. Friday, and Saturday back then. Courier, The Local Palate and When the restaurant opened for others. It was profound advice to Scott, Rodney Scott Media Coverage its usual hours that week, sales who was still finding his footing jumped at least 20% and maybe Articles mentioning Rodney as a sole proprietor after a 2018 PROJECTION 201 more – Scott doesn’t remember Scott rose tenfold from just five lifetime under the umbrella of a for sure because the restaurant in 2011 to 69 in 2017, according family-run enterprise that offered 2017 48 didn’t use a point-of-sale system to Factiva, the Dow Jones data both protection and constraints. at the time. service that scours thousands It also spoke to an undercurrent 2016 59 of print and digital media of doubt about striking out on “That changed our entire lives. publications. his own and getting comfortable 2015 26 The piece ran in the morning and with the pressure and scrutiny 2014 the phone line was busy all day In 2017, Scott opened his own that comes with the spotlight: Am 28 long. It just rang and rang,” place in Charleston, South I good enough? 2013 40 Scott said. Carolina: Rodney Scott’s BBQ. The advice and wisdom freely In May of 2018, Scott became the 2012 15 Shortly after the Times piece, the given from close friends in SFA first African-American to win a SFA produced a short film “Cut/ was clutch, he says. James Beard Foundation Award 2011 5 Chop/Cook” by Joe York—a for Best Chef Southeast, and only 2010 2 nod to the cutting and chopping Pihakis invested in the enterprise, the second barbecue pitmaster of wood followed by all-night and also convinced Scott to start ever to win a chef award. 2009 1 cooking of the hogs. The film was using a point-of-sale system by shown during the 2010 Big Apple Square to track data on top- 2008 1 Barbecue Block Party in New York selling items and supplies, and City, at which Scott cooked the also integrate with bookkeeping 2007 2 food he knew best. and accounting systems. BAR CHARTS THROUGHOUT INCLUDE FULL-YEAR 2018 PROJECTIONS BASED ON FACTIVA FIGURES YEAR-TO-DATE THROUGH 8/27/2018. 6 THRIVE I A WHITE PAPER ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE SOUTHERN FOODWAYS ALLIANCE THRIVE I A WHITE PAPER ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE SOUTHERN FOODWAYS ALLIANCE 7 II. Measuring Impact Scott’s ascendency is an example of the rising Often they join fellow SFA members at food SFA has created intense loyalty to the might not be fond of footnotes. Even meals influence of the SFA, which is now a major and wine festivals or SFA events, and they organization, which impacts its financial are planned so that they are contextually player at the nexus of history, culture, and drop in for visits with SFA friends when they success and stability.

Load more