>> The following is a presentation of KBTC Profiles.

>> Wakulima is a Swahili word that means farmers.

Wakulima USA, when we started the organization, was focused on encouraging immigrant and refugee farmers to grow crops that are culturally relevant.

We embrace growing our own crops using culturally relevant practices that our forefathers used to adopt.

Hi.

This is David Bulindah.

I am the founder and president at Wakulima USA.

Wakulima USA was founded in 2016.

We were actually welcomed by a small organization, then called Living Well Kent, and they were able to give us some space.

Then we got this space here in Horseneck from the county.

>> One of the sites that Wakulima farms is Horseneck Farm, and this is a site that has water rights, that has been in farming production for probably 100 years, and has all the components that are needed, and that most importantly, is at an affordable rate for farmers to be able to afford to farm.

>> We have about 30 farmers on our two and a half acre section here.

Culturally relevant crops are foods that are at the center of a cultural cuisine.

Being able to grow the food that they can then cook and eat from their culture is important to anyone.

I think food is the center of community and culture.

Being able to have agency over what you eat is so important, especially when these foods are not readily available at supermarkets a lot of the time.

>> We grow our own crops.

We do not use any chemicals.

We only use manure.

It's part of the protection of our health and wellness, so that we are able to know what we are growing, teach our children how to grow, and have that continuity in the kind of foods that we eat.

>> A lot of our usual and customary farming practices are not that great for the environment or for people.

And Wakulima is infusing new energy and new leadership into farming.

And a lot of our farmers locally are aging out, and Wakulima is bringing new people into farming, infusing it with, like, new energy and passion in a culturally relevant way.

And so I think it's really important to continue to support groups like Wakulima.

Some of the foods that we grow, there's one that is called African nightshade, for example, which has a great nutritional value.

There's cassava leaves that we grow.

There is a pumpkin, cowpeas.

We eat the leaves as well.

Amaranth, which is very nutritious.

Some of them actually sell to the community members.

Some are taken to local stores, farmers' markets, and other spaces like those.

Some of these foods are very hard to find in regular stores.

And if you find them, they probably have been processed.

They've been packed in these bags.

And we just find value in the foods that we grow.

>> Farming here means a lot to me.

I tell people, "Touch the soil."

The more you see the crops grow, they are like a child.

The care you are taking, you still focus, and your mind relax.

It's therapy.

I got -- some of the food that I could have missed from Kenya, I got it here.

Now, I'm watching it grow here, and I'm far away where I didn't know that I could get it.

So, we love it.

We enjoy.

>> It feels really empowering to be self-sufficient and, like, look at a piece of food and be like, "I grew this, and now I get to eat it because I put in this hard work."

And it's extremely rewarding to work with all of these farmers.

I learn something new every day, and I really just feel inspired by people's passion for farming.

At our location, it's a majority Kenyan, and then we have a Sudanese farmer and a Haitian farmer.

I think it's really beautiful how many people grow culturally relevant foods here and how, you know, a lot of our farmers are immigrants from Kenya but have come here and found a way to, like, make this land their home as well.

And to see people tend to the land here and care for it in the way that they maybe did back where they're from is really beautiful.

>> This organization does such a great job of bringing people together and really sharing resources and helping each other and making sure that everybody has what they need to thrive.

>> Whatever we go through, we go through together.

If there is -- we lack water, you know, everybody is lacking.

So what you don't have, I might have.

So we share.

We come from different environment.

That doesn't change you as a farmer.

It actually brings you together.

Because you bring this today, and I learned something from you.

I learned how you are tilling your farm.

You know, you see, that brings us together.

>> I hope that Wakulima continues to expand their program.

These are such wonderful, caring, hard-working people that want to give back to everybody, not just their own communities, but to everybody that they encounter.

What I've learned from building these connections is that these are wonderful members of society that want to do good and help as many people as they can.

[ Music ] >> Funding for this edition of KBTC Profiles provided by the KBTC Association.

>> KBTC Profiles are available at kbtc.org.