Today we’d like to introduce you to Yolanda Scarborough.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I am a mother of six, married to James Scarborough for 31 years. I was a very poor child. It seems like poverty would be a part of my whole life. My mother was my everything. She lived with a disease called sickle cell anemia my entire life. She did her best to raise her five children as a single mom. Besides God and the church, a constant in my life was the dinner table. Our Dinner Table only had five chairs, and there were five kids, so my mother didn’t have a seat. Dinner was never fancy, but most times it was flavorful. Sometimes it was not. Sometimes it was what she could scrounge up. She often struggled between buying fruits and vegetables versus meals. At our dinner table, we laughed, cried, and enjoyed our family. Camp Dinner Table was a program that was in my head for many years. It entered into my heart in 2020. I planned to have the first iteration of it in 2025. But along came the pandemic. I had shared my idea with a funder and a colleague; during the pandemic, they said we need this program. So, 4 years ahead of time, our program was birthed. The first iteration was virtual. Students and their parents or guardian joined me one to two times a week. The program was five weeks, and the families received groceries and a family manual. They paid zero dollars due to a grant from Community Connections. The students cooked, and as a community of myself, my team, the students, and family, we connected through our social and emotional curriculum, which helped our families express themselves better with their family members, their classmates, and ultimately their community. The 5 tenets of learning are self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, family relationships, and responsible decision-making (casel). The program was born. We have won awards been acknowledged by the White House, and we are just getting started. We are in DPSCD schools as well as in our community, wherever we are called.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Finances! We are a community-based organization that received much funding through pandemic dollars, now it is time to be sustainable without those funds, and that has become a challenge
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
We believe there is not enough happening in food and Family Education surrounding Equity, equality, and advocacy. This is the next move for Camp Dinner Table. We are really tired of there not being seats at the table for all people, so we feel it is our job to build more tables!
Tables that are diverse, equitable, and full of resources for all.
We are going to do our part through community outreach more education services as it relates to food and access in our community.
Healthy food does not have to mean unattainable. Nor does it mean our food can’t be delicious.
Every community deserves good food knowledge. We plan to help spread the word!
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
Shoot, just speaking out and being heard without my words seen as the soap box speech of an angry black woman is taking a risk. Not to be controversial, but being black, speaking out, being female, and speaking out is risky.
Not asking for a place at any table, but making my own is being risky.
Believing that certain communities have a right to healthy food access and disturbing the status quo is being risky.
I love what I do with and for community but make no mistake about it: this is not easy work.
I had a job, a career, making a good amount of money.
I let it all to pursue food Justice on my terms. Camp Dinner Table sounds like an innocent name, but our mission is anything but innocent; it is determined.
Determined to spread the knowledge of good food for all, with a giant dose of Social and Emotional Learning.
Community and Food issues are a part of our daily existence here in Detroit.
It should be easy, right? But it’s not poverty; systematic racism and lack of education have made my “job” hard and very risky.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.camp-dinner-table.com/
- Instagram: @campdinnertable
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/campdinnertable
