Planting Healthy Roots Documentary

PLANTING HEALTHY ROOTS

Planting Healthy Roots is a documentary film about the formation and implementation of the Right Choice, Fresh Start Farmers’ Market in Orangeburg, South Carolina. The Right Choice, Fresh Start Farmers’ Market, the first farmers’ market in South Carolina – and among the first in the country – to partner with a federally qualified health center (Family Health Centers Inc.), opened in Orangeburg in early June 2011. The goal of the market is to increase access to and consumption of healthy foods among people living in rural areas and increase economic opportunity for small-scale rural farmers in South Carolina.

Dr. Darcy Freedman, a researcher in the College of Social Work at the University of South Carolina who led the move to create the farmers’ market, and Dr. Heather Brandt, a researcher in the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina, teamed up with Professor Laura Kissel and two student filmmakers, Trey Murphy and Tim Jacobs, in the Media Arts Program at the University of South Carolina to produce a film documenting the formation and implementation of the market. They used personal stories, community profiles and expert interviews to showcase the market and describe the formation and implementation. The market is supported by a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Cancer Institute to the South Carolina Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network at the University of South Carolina. Freedman, Brandt, and Kissel received funding from the USC Science and Health Communication Research Group to make the documentary film about the market.

Planting Healthy Roots premiered at two community film screenings held in Orangeburg in October 2011 and on the campus of the University of South Carolina as part of a regular meeting of the Science and Health Communication Research Group in December 2011. Future screenings are planned in South Carolina and at professional meetings in 2012.

FREE DVDs of Planting Healthy Roots are available to those interested in learning more about the formation and implementation of the health center-based farmers’ market. The film may be of interest to those who use community-based participatory approaches, those who work in the area of food access, those interested in starting a farmers’ market, those partnering with federally qualified health centers on projects/programs addressing nutrition for cancer prevention, and/or those interested in coalition model filmmaking (e.g., Abrash and Whiteman) methods.

To receive a FREE DVD of the Planting Healthy Roots documentary film, please go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QRKMGW2 to complete a brief survey. Your DVD will be sent within 1-2 weeks depending on shipping time. If you receive a free DVD of the film, in March 2012, you will receive a follow-up email asking you to complete a brief assessment of the film regarding its quality and overall utility. You will also be asked about how you used the film. We hope that you will participate in the follow-up assessment if you request and receive a copy. Your feedback is valued and will be helpful in guiding future efforts.

The documentary film will be available through Youtube and other online outlets in late spring 2012.

If you have questions, please contact Dr. Freedman at darcy.freedman@sc.edu<mailto:darcy.freedman@sc.edu> or 803.777.1326 or Dr. Brandt at hbrandt@sc.edu<mailto:hbrandt@sc.edu> or 803.777.4561.

Thank you,

Darcy Freedman and Heather Brandt

University of South Carolina

Planting Healthy Roots:

A Look at the Right Choice, Fresh Start Farmers’ Market