According to horticulturist John Negus, you can spread a handful of cornmeal around the base of a rose bush in spring to protect the plant from black spot disease, a fungal condition that reduces the plants vigor.
The same kind of surrounding protection can be found in Sylva, N.C. at Cornbread & Roses, or CBR. Founded by a small group of queer and queer-allied individuals, CBR’s main goal is to provide a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community in Jackson County – a place where everyone feels accepted and understood. As CBR’s website states, “In Appalachia, we’ve always helped our neighbors in need. We think sharing cornbread is the best way to foster awareness, education and love.”
Jackson County is one of the 27 counties in western North Carolina that suffered major devastation from Hurricane Helene with more than 11 inches of rain fall during the storm. The main river there rose to over 17 feet and wind gusts rose to 60 miles per hour in certain areas. Despite escaping the worst of the storm, many residents were unable to leave their homes, and the area continued to run low on food and fuel for weeks. Thousands in the county were without power, water and telephone or internet services in the days and weeks that followed.
Residents of North Carolina, including people at organizations like CBR, have pitched in to help their fellow neighbors in the western territories. While the work is continuing, the impact made by those in and outside North Carolina has been tremendous.
The tasks at hand have been conducting search-and-rescue operations for missing people in the Appalachian area, clearing up roads that were not completely washed away in order to get rural towns connected with the rest of the area again, and dropping off and distributing food and supplies among the hardest hit victims of the storm. Each step of progress is a step toward providing more hope for a better tomorrow for those affected.
Most of the assistance in western North Carolina has been physical. The public can verify that the needs to sustain life have been tackled. We see the donations of food, water, batteries, etc. We can visually see the homes being rebuilt, roads being worked on, and power and other utilities start to work again.
However, there is another hardship that is not so visible. The mental impact from the traumatic experiences exposed by the hurricane’s devastation.
Our mentality, the very peace of mind that keeps us all going, is just as essential as the rest of our bodily needs. For the multitude of those affected by the storm, trauma suffered from family and friends missing or lives being lost, the monumental loss can be overwhelming. Those type of wounds can go unnoticed for some time, only to fester and fundamentally change a person for the worse. When there is a need to decompress, reevaluate outside the normal means of close personal contacts, or tackle certain traits like anxiety and depression, avenues like CBR is one place where help can be found.
The name of the clinic, Cornbread & Roses, comes from a speech made by American women’s suffrage activist Helen Todd, which is attributed to the poem Bread and Roses by James Oppenheim. The specific line in the speech Todd attributed to her inspiration, “bread for all, and roses too,” spoke to providing fair wages and dignified conditions, during a textile strike in Lawrence, Mass. It lasted from January to March 1912 and is at the core of Todd’s other inspiration for the phrase.
Says Kassie McAlpin, a youth therapist and community and clinical educator who works as a part of CBR: “We use cornbread because we’re in the south, so it’s kind of a general messaging that everybody deserves to have their basic needs met and everything they need to live.”
McAlpin has made it her mission to work with the staff at CBR. She wants to see the clinic succeed through the multiple programs it boasts, including monthly group meets for parents and caregivers of LGBTQ+ youth, a support group for transgender and gender-expansive youth and community movie nights. That will provide community members and clients alike a fun span of time to relax.
“I’m the youth therapist here, so all of my clients are queer and trans youth. And, you know, the kind of shifting legislative landscape in North Carolina has been a roller coaster over the past couple years. We try to do things in a way that is the most productive and protective for these clients who are part of a very marginalized population, and hold some very marginalized identities, right now.”
Along with concerns that have followed the devastating storm, CBR has expanded their community counseling focus to address the specific gaps faced by marginalized people living in areas impacted by Helene. Additions include providing sliding-scale therapy and queer-focused support groups, education and events.
Another vital initiative that CBR boasts since the storm is its food bank, headed by Claire Leipold (she/they), the bank’s director of operations. Starting at the clinic in June after meeting CBR’s executive director Jen Harr, Leipold has made the food bank’s success her priority.
The food bank is one major initiative that combats the degradation of mental health that western North Carolina residents have been dealing with. When the hurricane hit, the need for perishable products became a major driving force for those giving aid.
McAlpin and company would tend to the internal mental wounds during counseling sessions, while Leipold combated the outer, surface issues through food distribution. It makes sense that having access to daily necessities from the clinic would be included in the healing process. What good is talk therapy if you’re so hungry you can’t think clearly?
One of the main reasons CBR has been so helpful: Very few questions are asked of those who come to the food bank. “It’s set up like a little grocery store, and people walk through and take whatever they need and however much of it they need, while keeping in mind the people behind them,” explained Leipold. “So, we don’t put limits on anything. It’s just kind of self-regulated. We try to be as trauma informed as possible.” It’s clear this organization is always thinking about the mental health of their clients.
Many people have gained so much from the expansion of CBR’s programing.
Atsej Cooper, a representative of the LGBT+ Cherokee organization Unequolada, said that CBR “has been incredible with food distribution and so much more. It is incredible to see the outpouring of love, labor and solidarity in our mountains from every valley and holler during these awful times.”
Additional content created by QNotes Staff
BRANDON ASK JIM: POTENTIAL CALLOUT: As CBR’s website states, “In Appalachia, we’ve always helped our neighbors in need. We think sharing cornbread is the best way to foster awareness, education and love.”