[Note: This post,
prepared originally for the NC Folklife Institute's NCFood blog, is hosted on
the institute’s website, with excerpts and a link to the website posted
here.]
More than 14,000 refugees have been resettled in North
Carolina in the past decade, according to the U.S. Office of Refugee
Resettlement. As these refugee communities grow, they are beginning to transform
food traditions of our state and expand the agricultural offerings at farmers’
markets and farm-to-home deliveries provided through community-supported
agriculture.
 |
| Open house at community farm of Karen refugees provides opportunity to observe agricultural achievements. |
Just last year more than 2,000 refugees fleeing persecution
in their homelands were resettled in North Carolina by the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security. More than 20 counties now serve as their homes, although the
majority have been resettled in the Triad
(Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and High Point region),
the Triangle (Wake, Durham, and Orange
Counties), and the Charlotte metropolitan
area.
