[Dawn Spears preparing tomato plants]
[Dawn Spears working]
Dawn Spears (interview): “So we are a small farm. It’s 6.2 acres and we focus on heritage crops, heirloom varieties. We grow tomatoes. I say we grow tomatoes first because that’s what we’re more known for.”
[Dawn Spears preparing tomato plants]
Dawn Spears (interview): “But we also grow our Narragansett flint corn which is a family to us. We grow succotash beans, which are also family. They are in crookneck squash. They are all descendants of our tribe. And I feel really, really somewhat emotional sometimes about that is like they’ve been here. They come from our ancestors, they are still here because of them. And so it’s really important that we keep growing them. And I tell, I even tell my grandchildren, you know, this is family. Your connection to who you are as a people is right here with this plant.”
[Narragansett flint corn]
[Succotash beans in jar]
[Dawn Spears holding corn, beans, and squash seeds in hand]
Cassius Spears (interview): “So when you when you have any federal funding that is pushing food or feeding people, any food producer, you know, that can support that, can benefit from that. So when they take away that program, where they’re not feeding.”
Dawn Spears (audio): “It will impact us.”
Cassius Spears (interview): “You know, then to be able to distribute the food that you’re growing as a food producer is more challenging.”
[Tree branch blooming]
[Dawn Spears and grandson working]
Sen. Jack Reed (interview): “We really want to punch through the existing obstacles for small farmers and Native American farmers. What we have in the bill is a 10 percent set aside for tribal food purchases.”
[Dawn Spears planting tomatoes with grandson]
Sen. Jack Reed (interview): “The ability to get food to people is going to be essential, and we have all of these small farmers that would, I think, expand production if they knew they had a sturdy pipeline of funding going forward. And we could get it into food pantries, we could give it into schools. But we’re facing a crisis and the whole country is of people unable to literally eat.”
[Ashawaug Farm farm stand]
Dawn Spears (interview): “This year we will be expanding our reach so I’m trying to grow more because I know I need to meet that demand. Bur, our farm stand is an honor system stand, it’s available so if someone needs food they really can go in there. I mean, I’m not in there monitoring what they’re taking and what they’re dropping in the cash bucket there. I like that, that’s what we’re doing, we’re feeding people.”
[Dawn Spears preparing tomatoes with grandson]
This script was provided by The Associated Press.