Today we’d like to introduce you to Michela Williams.
Hi Michela, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
As a child, I enjoyed staying indoors and watching TV. Going outside and exercising brought me stress. While I enjoyed playing sports for the comradery, I never stopped to think about the environment around me. I didn’t see my family or friends camping or enjoying the outdoors. My introduction to nature was horror movies and warnings about going too deep in the forest. My perspective started to change when I developed a love for animals by connecting with dogs. I remember getting my first dog and immediately getting scared but then getting excited once she licked me. Even though I built this appreciation for dogs, I was still nervous about exploring all of nature. Little did I know I would find my passion and purpose in the woods!
I grew up in Griffin, Georgia, with the dream of becoming a lawyer. My father and I watched a lot of crime shows and I remember the most powerful scenes always happened in court once the victim received justice. After high school, I attended Georgia State University. I intended to study criminal justice but was intrigued by my economics class. After learning about policy impact on the economy, I felt that I could advocate justice differently. I later changed my major to Economics and minored in Marketing. I was able to receive a scholarship to study abroad and learn about policies in different European countries. My experience helped me narrow down exactly what I wanted to do, which was work for a non-profit. I wanted to help people directly and build strong connections with communities. After college, I interned with a few amazing non-profits but was having trouble finding an internship that paid. I received an email from the Greening Youth Foundation about an internship being offered with the U.S. Forest Service.
The position title was Partnership Coordinator and the pay was exactly what I needed at the time. As I submitted my application, I was unsure about what I would be doing or who the Forest Service was. Leading up to the interview, I decided to do a little more research and was reconsidering my application. The Forest Service looked like a work environment that was not welcoming, considering that the images of the workforce did not reflect my community and most of the work looked like it was done outside. When I went in for my interview, initially, my concerns heightened as I didn’t see anyone of color. These concerns melted away quickly, however, when my soon to be supervisor began to explain that there is an obvious problem with the lack of people of color who recreate outside or work in the outdoor industry. She continued and let me know that I could play a huge role in changing this by introducing my community to new opportunities. The passion in her words was truly infectious and gave me the courage to want to take on this position to face my fears. I was later offered the position and started a new chapter in my life.
For the next two and a half years, I found myself immersed in this exciting new world. As Partnership Coordinator, I had the opportunity to work with wonderful partners who had the resources and the determination to provide underrepresented communities with opportunities to recreate and explore the forest right outside of their neighborhoods. Planning campouts and providing schools with environmental education programs became my life. Through this work, I was able to reach over 14,000 kids, secure grants, and plan two urban campouts. We also attend university career fairs to recruit for positions with the Forest Service and our partners, such as Greening Youth Foundation. This work began to go over into my personal life and changed the way I spent my free time. Hiking trails and sleeping in tents became my weekend ritual! I began to be adventurous because I was no longer being educated about the outdoors by people who feared it. My new knowledge came from working closely with land managers, communities, and non-profits that were striving for a more diverse and inclusive future.
After this internship ended, Tony Heard and I started Black Too Earth. Tony had a wilderness background and we both have a passion for supporting the black community. We decided to start hosting sight visits and volunteer days once a month at black-owned farms. Our mission is to connect black people with black environmental organizations through site visits and volunteer opportunities. We want to inspire and celebrate our community while investing in underrepresented organizations. Our activities aim to foster stewardship, community, and intentional consumption amongst our participants. We started hosting meetups in September of 2019. While we don’t have much experience in planting, we enjoy learning best practices for growing with our participants. Our future goals are to continue to connect with black-owned farms nationally and train leaders to organize more meetups.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The road to starting Black Too Earth wasn’t easy. I was trapped in the thought process of “the only way I’m going to make it in this world is to earn white capital.” This thought was ingrained in me from elementary school to my college years. Landing an internship with Greening Youth Foundation and the Forest Service helped me face my fear of the outdoors and networking, but I still wasn’t sure if I could be successful as an entrepreneur. One day I found myself breaking down because I knew I had found my passion for outdoor work, but I wasn’t sure how to create my lane. I started by hosting a small hike and inviting a few friends along with my parents. During this gathering, I asked folks if they would show up for volunteer days at Black-Owned Farms. They all enthusiastically said yes and started to give me ideas for naming a volunteer group/ business that I wanted to build! Shortly after the hike, I was introduced to Chris Lemons, Co-founder and Farmer of Gratitude Botanical Farms, and he agreed to let Tony and I host our first volunteer day with him. Our first volunteer days consisted of folks we knew personally and a few people who found us online. Having that initial support from friends and family helped us believe in ourselves and empowered us to keep pushing!
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Black Too Earth?
Black Too Earth is a non-profit 501c3 founded in 2019 by Co-Founders Michela Williams and Tony Heard. Our work is rooted in fostering lasting connections between the Black community and Black-owned farms, environmental justice organizations, and wellness-centric creatives. We accomplish our mission through curated site visits, volunteer days, and community-building events. As we continue to expand as an organization, we strive to remain a direct source of inspiration, celebration, and investment for underrepresented communities while promoting stewardship, collaboration, and intentional consumption globally.
Since 2019 we have partnered with 23 black-owned farms in and around metro Atlanta to host volunteer days. We take pride in building and maintaining authentic connection with black farmers. Our volunteer days happen once a month usually on Saturdays. A typical volunteer day with us consists of a tour of the farm followed by farm tasks like planting, seeding, tiling, laying mulch, harvesting and more! We also work on larger projects like building garden beds, greenhouses, and fences. Volunteers get a chance to learn about farm operations and assist farmers with work that usually takes a few weeks to complete by themselves. We typically have about 10-20 volunteers come out and work for two hours. Volunteers range from no farm experience to expert farmers. We welcome everybody and encourage folks with no experience to come out and learn from the experts! The amount of hands we have on volunteer days and the dedication from our participants keeps us going. We have been lucky enough to have volunteers who have been supporting us since our start. To show love, we do monthly highlights on Instagram for those volunteers who have been to five or more Black Too Earth events. We also partnered with Teva to provide them with a free pair of shoes!
Along with providing volunteers, we also fundraise monthly for projects with farmers. Projects range from $200-$300 and go towards farming operations. In the past, we’ve purchased tools, gloves, soil, greenhouses, coolers, seeds, transplants, etc. Our first year of fundraising was 2020 and we raised over $2500. Our goal this year is to raise $10,000 so that we can expand and do bigger projects with farmers.
So far, we have hosted 148 events including our annual Black Business Matter Hike, Volunteer and Camp at Sapelo Island, and Wood Ways Campout and Retreat. While our focus is providing black farmers with volunteers, we also want to celebrate black joy in the outdoors. Our camping and hiking events center around creating a safe space for black discovery and enlightenment. We have hosted our Black Businesses Matter Hike for two years in a row in partnership with Black People Who Hike. The hikes have been hosted at the beautiful Cascade Springs Nature Preserve. This is a two days event with a mission to support Black Businesses in the metro Atlanta area. Participants complete a scenic two mile hike with black business owners, afterwards the owner’s setup shop and the market begins! Our market usually lasts for two hours with vendors making between $200- $300 at the end of it. We welcome vendors who are just starting out and folks who are established! This event is an example of the intentional outdoor projects we plan to do in the future!
Our ability to build trust and stay consistent is what sets Black Too Earth apart. We aren’t afraid to say this is for our community and by our community! I want folks to know that our brand is authentic in every sense and that we will continue to be bold as we grow nationally!
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
Black Too Earth ain’t going no where! We will be consistent in supporting our farmers and volunteers in the best ways possible. We will continue to provide a community for those who feel left out and unheard of in the environmental world. Black Too Earth also works to change the perception around volunteering in the Black community. We take into account the long history of our community forced to work for free for white oppressors, and we want to give you the option to come volunteer for someone who looks like you and cares about you!
Contact Info:
- Email: blacktwoearth@gmail.com
- Website: blacktooearth.com
- Instagram: @blacktooearth
- Facebook: Facebook.com/blacktooearth
Image Credits
Cherisa Hawkins IG: @switchbackshawty Victoria Bonhomme @victoriathephotographer
