Sustaining Way

As we celebrate the triumph of freedom and equality on Juneteenth, we're taking a moment to reflect and recharge.

Instead of our usual Friday garden hours, we invite you to join the vibrant celebrations across the Upstate, listed by The Greenville News: https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/entertainment/2026/06/18/juneteenth-2026-events-in-upstate-sc-include-music-fireworks-cookout/90588579007/.

Let's also honor the spirit of progress by supporting Black-owned businesses, the pillars of our community.

Explore these incredible resources to discover new favorites:

🌟 https://offthegridgreenville.org/guides/local-black-owned-restaurants/

🌟 https://www.experiencespartanburg.com/blog/post/celebrate-black-history/

🌟 https://www.adoredonnie.com/blog/80-black-owned-businesses-to-support-in-greenville-south-carolina.

Together, we can forge a path toward a more just and equitable tomorrow.

The cycle of health inequity begins before birth and we have the power to interrupt it.

A health coach recently shared something that stopped me in my tracks: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) increase the risk of gestational diabetes by 29%. Twenty-nine percent.

That means the stress, trauma, and limited resources that too many mothers in our community carry don’t just affect them — they cross the placenta. They shape the metabolic health of the next generation before that child ever takes a first breath.

💚 Meet Erin Smith.

Erin is Sustaining Way’s Community Engagement AmeriCorps VISTA and the beautiful little one she’s holding is Baby Eliza. What you’re seeing in that image isn’t just a sweet moment. It’s a picture of what intentional community work looks like up close. Erin is actively working in collaboration with our partners at Birth Matters to reduce the prevalence of gestational diabetes in our community, meeting mothers where they are, building trust, and connecting families to the resources they deserve.

And that second photo? That’s the energy. That’s what partnership looks like, two women showing up with purpose, joy, and a “Dope Black Doula” shirt that says everything that needs to be said.

This is exactly what Sustaining Way’s Four Securities framework is built for. Food security. Energy security. Community stability. Civic participation. These aren’t abstract policy goals, they are the conditions that determine whether a mother has what she needs to carry a healthy pregnancy, and whether a child enters the world with a fighting chance.

When we distribute fresh produce through our Community Food Access Program, we’re reducing gestational risk. When we build community stability, we’re interrupting the ACE-to-diabetes pipeline. When we partner with birth workers who look like the communities they serve, we are doing maternal and infant health work in the most direct way possible.

This is our model:

Healthy Homes.
Healthy Families.
Healthy Communities.

Want to connect with our partners at Birth Matters?

Amber Pendergraph, Birth Matters
[email protected]

Because the health of our babies starts with the security, support, and dignity of their mothers.

Sustaining Way | Spartanburg, SC

SUSTAINING WAY
TEAM SPOTLIGHT!!

VIDEOGRAPHER & COMMUNITY IMPACT FILMMAKER
Khalil Gamble
Spartanburg Native · Sustaining Way Collaborator

🎓Howard University
MFA — Film & Media, Class of 2026 (May 8, 2026)
🏅Wofford College Honors Graduate, Class is 2020
🏈Byrnes High School, Class of 2016
Linebacker · Top 10% of Class

Spartanburg Native
Rooted in the Upstate. Based in DC
Khalil Gamble is a Spartanburg-born filmmaker whose lens finds justice where others find landscape telling the stories of communities building food sovereignty, resilience, and power on their own terms.

WORK WITH SUSTAINING WAY
⭐ FEATURED PROJECT
New Washington Heights Documentary: USCAN colloboration with Sustaining Way
Khalil served as principal director and producer of a landmark collaborative film project uniting the United States Climate Action Network (USCAN), Sustaining Way, and the historic Greenville New Washington Heights community. The project captured a community at the intersection of environmental justice, cultural heritage, and climate resilience told through the voices of the people who live it.
🌱 COMMUNITY VOICES
Backyard Garden Community Testimonials
Produced and filmed testimonials from Sustaining Way's growing backyard garden network, capturing community members' stories of food sovereignty, soil stewardship, and neighborhood transformation in their own words.
📱 DIGITAL STRATEGY
Social Media Content & Support
Provided production support and creative direction for Sustaining Way's planned social media projects, helping translate on the ground impact into compelling digital storytelling.
🤝 CURRENT ENGAGEMENT
Environmental Justice Consulting
Khalil is currently consulting with Sustaining Way on emerging environmental justice film and media projects, bringing his MFA training and movement storytelling instincts to bear on work that illuminates the Four Securities framework across food sovereignty, energy security, community resilience, and political stability.

THE FOUR SECURITIES FRAMEWORK
Khalil's film work gives visual and narrative life to the interconnected pillars that fuel Sustaining Way's work which Executive Director Michael Brown shares with stakeholders, partners, and communities across the region.

EDUCATION & BACKGROUND

🎓Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Howard University — Washington, DC
Film & Media Arts · The Mecca · Standing on the shoulders of giants in the HBCU tradition of excellence and service.
Graduated May 2, 2026

🏅Bachelor of Arts Honors Graduate
Wofford College — Spartanburg, SC
Academic honors distinction from one of South Carolina's premier liberal arts institutions right in his hometown.
Undergraduate

🏈Graduate — Top 10% of Class · Linebacker
James F. Byrnes High School — Duncan, SC
A standout on the field and in the classroom finishing in the top 10% of his graduating class while playing varsity football for the Rebels. The same discipline carried him from the Upstate to the Mecca!!!





BLESSINGS in all you do!!!!

Follow Khalil on Instagram: and
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