Emma Pickard (Student - Rhodes College) interviewing Evleen Farmer (Founder- Thistle and Bee), and Eli Cloud (Executive Director - Thistle and Bee)
Transcript
Emma: This podcast is part of the Rhodes College Just Food Series, which addresses food inequality through discussion of production, access, distribution and consumption in Memphis and beyond. In this semester long project, students and community members have come together to promote empowerment through awareness and equity. My name is Emma Pickard and I am hosting this episode, “Healing through Food Production.”In this segment, I will be speaking with Eyleen Farmer and Eli Cloud, the founder and executive director of Thistle and Bee.
Food justice initiatives have emerged in response to food insecurity and economic pressure that make access to healthy and affordable foods challenging for some people. While various definitions of food justice exist, the fundamental principle is that our food system should should not exploit any people, land, or animals. After speaking with Eyleen and Eli, I came to realize that Thistle and Bee is not your typical food justice nonprofit. I discovered that Thistle and Bee actually uses the process of food production as a vehicle for healing. Although Thistle and Bee makes excellent honey and granola, their primary goal is not related to the actual products that they sell. The organization exists to provide survivors of sex trafficing and prostitution opportunities to thrive through their involvement in Thistle and Bee’s social enterprise. In this episode, I will discuss Thistle and Bee’s work and I will explain how the concept of intersectionality is helpful in understanding the experiences of survivors.
Eyleen [00:00:01] My name is Eyleen Farmer and I am the founder of Thistle and Bee Enterprises Inc. A nonprofit organization that exists to help women who have survived prostitution and trafficking thrive. Yes, the mission grows out of an awareness of how women, even in this enlightened age that we're in, are still second class citizens. And a lot of the areas of our of our culture, we still live in a world where women's bodies are commodified and often exploited. And so I'm responding to that observation and out of a deep desire to make the world a more just and livable place. And in particular, in our own world, to make Memphis, Tennessee, a city in which everyone can thrive, not just the people who have had the education and the financial support and all of the advantages that some of us have. But not all of us have that. So I am a person of faith. I'm an Episcopal priest. And I felt a deep call to do this work to serve women who are probably at the just about the farthest margin you can imagine.
Emma: Can you tell me about the inspiration behind your organization’s name?
Eyleen [00:03:36] Yes. Yes, I will name this. Thistle and Bee tells you a lot about who we are. So I want to I want to say just a word about this also. Also, because those two things are are paired in in the in our understanding of who we are as an organization. So a thistle is a toxic weed that grows wild. It grows in vacant lots and abandoned properties. It grows and untended fields and places like that. And it's toxic. People and farmers and people like that don't want them because they're prickly, but they produce this beautiful flower that brings beauty into the world. And by the way, bees love the soils. So the thistle is the metaphor for the human condition that every human, you and me and every one has both capacities, the capacity to bring pain into the world and the capacity to bring beauty and healing into the world. So the thistle is kind of the starting place for all of us. And the bee is this fascinating creature that lives in community. So all of the work bees are female, they work in community. And the way that a beehive functions industry, by which I mean productive busyness. So they're industrious, they're cooperative. They work as a team. They have individual jobs. And so the beehive is the metaphor for the community that we are trying to create. The women that we serve in most cases don't have very much experience living in community, knowing how to cooperate with others, knowing how to put others ahead of self, being able to depend on your sisters. So this idea of women caring for women and the bees or our teachers, the bees show us how to do that. Not to mention that bees are incredibly important to any kind of ecosystem. You want to talk about. And so there's this really in a way it's kind of tragic, but it's it's beautifully synchronicities to that that the bees are in jeopardy and women who have been exploited, their lives are in jeopardy and they can help each other. Our women can care for bees and women and bees can help us know how to bring healing to women who are very vulnerable. So it's a you know, it's kind of a circular of of giving back. Learning from caring for each other. So. So when we talk about bees and we talk about the souls. That's really a window into who we are as an organization.
Emma: Eli, can you tell me about some of the services that you provide survivors?
Eli [00:13:33] My name is Eli Cloud, I am the executive director for thistle and bee. We have a two year residential program with wrap around support services, trauma, informed therapy, medical, dental, you name it. We're setting up classes for the women to take cooking classes today. I mean, we continue to find community partners and resources for our women so that we're kind of filling in some of the holes that they experienced in their life previous to coming to us. And then the employment in our social enterprise begins after a six month period of work on self. And so the social enterprise is a wonderful way for women to learn how to work as a team and to really explore it. They're drawn to, you know, they start out on the production team and we can see where they gravitate and where their skills lie and then really kind of build confidence for them so that they can they can take that and do something with it. It's you know, it's really a beautiful thing to watch, to watch the women kind of discover the skills and talents that they have and to feel a lot of pride and sense of accomplishment by producing something that they can see.
Emma: Can you explain for our listeners what a social enterprise is?
Eyleen [00:11:16] It is a business with a cause, like a business for a cause. I like to use the term justice enterprise. And the distinction that's really important to make is that the mission of our business is to employ women. It's not really to make granola or make soap or even to harvest honey. So we don't hire women to work in the social enterprise. We have a social enterprise to hire the women, and that's a very significant difference.
Emma: You seem very innovative in the ways that you provide survivors with opportunities, and I think it’s also important to mention that sex trafficking and prostituion is much more common than many of us realize. Can you tell me about how you create awareness around these issues?
Eli [00:16:53] The problem of sex trafficking and prostitution is at an unprecedented high. It will overtake illegal drug activity in terms of revenue generated in the very near future. So a lot of people in Memphis are not aware of that problem because if it doesn't affect you. How would you find out? They don't really talk about on the news. Young girls who are rescued from a trafficking situation because they don't really want to exploit the young girls. So we don't hear a lot of the things that are happening on the news. One of the things that thistle and bee is doing is we're able to create more awareness around the issue because of the social enterprise aspect. So we're not just working with the survivors in a secluded place where people are unaware of what's going on. The social enterprise is a wonderful mouthpiece for the program. And and we have to prepare because the city currently there's not enough beds for survivors. If if they wanted to leave and there's a lot of work that goes deep that needs to be done to recover from that kind of sustained trauma. And so what I would say is that thistle and bee and organizations who are working with this population in Memphis are working on developing a scalable model because this is not going to go away. We're gonna have to prepare for the future. And what the future looks like in terms of survivors is there is going to be a lot more that we need to be able to offer some sort of solution and recovery option to.
Emma: How have you seen your work impact the Memphis community?
Eyleen [00:21:18] I would say that we we are too young. We don't have the data yet to be able to demonstrate what the impact is. We opened our first residence just in May of this year. Prior to that, we were employing women in a workforce preparedness program. But we didn't have the the housing component in place. So ask us again in about 18 months when we begin to graduate. The women who have come through the residential program. But but our hope is that or our belief. It's more than a hope. It's a it's really an assure. It is that we can produce similar results to other programs such as this or farms based in Nashville. They started in nineteen ninety seven, so they have almost 23 years of data and can demonstrate that the effectiveness of the program. And right now, according to their latest annual report, 75 percent of the women who complete the two year residential program are independent, employed and sober. After 5 years. So that's a much higher percentage than a 28 day program. So the other thing is that when women learn to take care of themselves, that means that they are they are unplugging from a lot of the entitlement programs which they've depended on for much of their life. We know that it costs twenty eight thousand dollars a year to incarcerate a person in the state of Tennessee for one year. So we can care, provide all of the services that someone needs for less than that with the help of many of our community partners. So and at the same time, they as they are employed taking care of themselves, raising their own families, then they're contributing to the tax base in the city. They are no longer require requiring food stamps and other entitlement programs. So the cost savings to the public once you look at the bigger picture is significant. But we don't have any numbers yet. Well, and I would say, too, that the women that are in our program are the seeds of change.
Emma: The structure of Thistle and Bee seems really unique in the sense that you go beyond just meeting the basic needs of survivors. Through employment in the social enterprise, survivors are provided with opportunities to cultivate their skills and talents in a way that creates lasting change.
Eli [00:24:04] So this is, you know, two of the women that have come through our doors, their mothers were their first trafficker. And so it's you know, it's not uncommon for this to be considered a normal occupation and in families. So what they're learning, they're taking back to their to their family, to their community, to their children. And they're breaking this cycle that has gone on. And also with addiction, you know, addiction tends to be something that runs in families. And when you are living a clean and sober life. And it's a it's attractive to people who don't know how to do it. And so, you know, there's it's kind of like the same thing with a or in a you know, the 12 step work is to go back and give what you've been given to somebody else and help somebody else recover. So that's kind of what our program model looks like to the women who come through our program, you know, will feel a compulsion to help the next woman who's still on the street. And they are compelled to tell their stories because they want people to know that if I did it, you can do it.
Emma: The women that Thistle and Bee serves, in most cases, don't have very much experience living in community, knowing how to cooperate with others, or knowing how to depend on their sisters. Throughout the healing process, Thistle and Bee works on cultivating these skills so that they can bring them back home and help others thrive. Like Eli mentioned, a sober and clean life is attractive to those who do not know how to do it. So when Thistle and Bee helps one survivor heal, they also help the survivors’ communities, families, and friends heal too. A lot of this healing seems to be related to the physical work of food production. Do you see your organization engaging in food justice work?
Eli [00:29:00] I would say in terms of providing at equitable access to nutritional food, it's not necessarily our platform because the products that we sell in our social enterprise are priced to support the mission of the women. And, you know, again, I'm creating these products, allows us to provide employment for the women. And so I think that the social enterprise of this will be is more of a vehicle for healing than it is creating access. But we are also providing access to these nutritious foods that we're producing to the women who are working in our program and certainly exposure.
Eli [00:35:14] Well, and we have volunteers that can come and work with the production and really sort of beautiful to have the women who are the women who are volunteering in the social enterprise, sitting down and talking to the survivors as they work in tandem to complete a task. And it's a great way for our volunteers to really develop the relationship with survivors, because a big part of what we're doing is building a supportive community for the women. And so, you know, that's something that just last Friday, we had a few different volunteers there. And it was just really beautiful to watch those relationships. And it's fun. I mean, it is. We're having fun.
Emma: I think that’s really beautiful. Eyleen, can you tell me about what happens when a survivor first enters the program?
Eyleen [00:38:19] When women enter the program, our first priority is to give them the space to heal and rest. And that's what happens in the first six months. And to really assess where they are and what they need. So for the first six months of the program, their days are taken up with various kinds of therapies, doctors appointments, their their daily schedule is pretty complex and it's not necessarily the same for each one of them. So, for example, now we have two women who have been in the residence for over six months and they're now able to work in this social enterprise. But their schedule looks different because they're not going to therapy three days a week. Our women do trauma informed, intensive outpatient therapies, which is provided by one of our community partners. Dental, vision and medical care is another big part. And then there are some therapeutic but less intense components of our programing. So, for example, our women have memberships at the croc set or they go to yoga class on Sunday on Saturday mornings. Some of them like to go to church. And so on Sundays we try to find volunteers who can take them where they need to go. So it's there. There's not a schedule that I can give you and say this is what it's like for a woman who's been in the program for six months. She may work in a social enterprise two days a week from nine to two or three. So that's only about 10 hours a week. And in that part. They also attend a twelve step meeting every day. Usually that happens after work. We have a night manager who takes them, takes the women to 12 step meetings and grocery shopping and other errands like that. So their days are full and they need to be full.
Emma: How can the Memphis community support Thistle and Bee?
Eli [00:45:34] No. I think I think also for the Memphis community to understand that the work that we do is very deep and it must be to effect an actual change. We're not trying to make poverty more comfortable. We're trying to address the systems that have created this situation of poverty and sexual exploitation and all of the things that result from that sort of lack of power that our women have experienced in their life. And that work takes money. It takes funding.
Emma: I think that it’s important to take a step back and to recognize how these situations of poverty and sexual exploitation interact. While poverty and sexual exploitation may seem somewhat unrelated, evidence shows that poverty increases people’s vulnerabilities to sexual exploitation, sexual violence, sex trafficing and prostitution. Perpetrators of sexual violence often exploit people who are caught in a vulnerable situation created by poverty. Sex trafficing and sexual exploitation can jeopardize a woman’s economic wellbeing and health which can lead to homelessness, unemployment, interrupted education, and mental health issues. Oftentimes, victims of sex trafficing, prostitution, sexual exploitation and violence live at the intersection of multiple sources of inequality. The sociological concept of intersectionality is helpful in understanding how multiple forms of inequality and disadvantage can sometimes compound themselves and create obstacles for some people.
Black legal scholar, Kimberlé Crenshaw, coined the term “intersectionality” in her 1989 essay, “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics. In her work she asks us to consider an analogy to traffic in an intersection. Crenshaw wrote “Discrimination, like traffic through an intersection, may flow in one direction, and it may flow in another. If an accident happens in an intersection, it can be caused by cars traveling from any number of directions and, sometimes, from all of them. Similarly, if a Black woman is harmed because she is in an intersection, her injury could result from sex discrimination or race discrimination. . . . But it is not always easy to reconstruct an accident.”
People are discriminated against in ways that often don’t fit within the legal categories of “racism” or “sexism” -- but as a combination of both racism and sexism. Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality recognizes that each identity marker, like race, class, and gender, informs the others and creates a complex convergence of oppression. From an intersectional standpoint, inequalities are not suffered separately but rather as a single, synthesized experience. For example, Thistle and Bee serves women who have survived sex trafficing and prositution. But they aren’t just women. And they aren’t just survivors. Many of them are female survivors of color who have experienced poverty, addiction, abuse and more. Without intersectionality, it is more difficult to identify and meet all of the needs of survivors. Thistle and Bee has been able to address their womens’ needs by understanding the holes in their lives that still need to be filled.
Eli [00:46:11] And one of the challenges that we face is because we're limited to the number of women that can be in the residence. Our number looks superficially low to some people who would say, you know, well, I can feed a thousand homeless people for the same cost that it would take for me to get this donation. My money can do more good. But I would challenge Memphis donors to think about what can happen when you invest in an individual and in your not giving a man a
fish or teaching a man to fish. And in this case, it's a woman. And that's what we're doing. We're teaching the women to fish and support themselves. So if if an organization likes to give within kind, then, you know, I would encourage them to have a conversation with myself or Eileen. And if you are a person who just feels like volunteering, we have opportunities for volunteers and that you can reach out to our volunteer coordinator, Jessica, and then, you know, the low hanging fruit. And the easiest thing and the thing that we need the most is operating support. So write a check. We have a giving Tuesday campaign that's going on. You can donate online. You can mail us a check if you're more comfortable writing checks. And if you're considering a significant donation, let's have a conversation. Because because this has the potential to really impact the community in positive ways and I think is a is a wise way to, you know, to help the community along as we strive to eradicate some of the problems that we face and more, number two, in childhood poverty in the nation. And that's not something that the city that has the highest per capita giving should have. These two things are kind of it's strange that they exist at the same time. So let's be smart and work together.
Emma: I think you are exactly right, Eli. Thank you to Eyleen Farmer and Eli Cloud for speaking with me. I encourage the Memphis community to reach out to Thistle and Bee. You can volunteer, donate, or just check out some of their products! With the holiday season upon us, it’s the perfect time to stock up on some delicious granola, honey and more!