Sustaining Way

06/02/2026

We have some spots still left! Steward Fellows is a paid summer internship for rising 9-12 graders.

Visit https://sustainingway.org/form/steward-fellows-2026/ to submit an application ASAP!

05/29/2026

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
&breaks

05/28/2026

Food Sovereignty in Action — Nicholtown, SC

Today, Sustaining Way showed up for the Nicholtown community with another food distribution event and the community showed up right back.

Families, elders, children, neighbors, all coming together under the shade trees to receive fresh food, connect with one another, and remind us why this work matters.

This is what food security looks like on the ground. Not a statistic. Not a policy paper. Real people. Real food. Real community.

A special thank you to every volunteer who loaded boxes, staffed the table, and greeted every neighbor with a smile. including our former USDA LFPA (Local Food Purchase Agreement) Program volunteers who showed up today and everyone else who lent their hands today. 🙌🏾

And to the Nicholtown community: you are why we do this. Your dignity, your resilience, and your spirit fuel everything we build together.

Nicholtown | Greenville, SC
🏷️

05/27/2026

Healthy Homes Start with Healthy Air

This week, Sustaining Way’s Healthy Home Initiative team was in the field with our partners at IAQA and T.E.A.M., conducting indoor air quality assessments in homes still carrying the hidden weight of recent hurricanes and unpredictable weather.

What we’re finding is what too many Carolina families already know: storms don’t end when the rain stops. Water intrusion, damaged roofs, trapped moisture, and potential mold colonies linger behind wallpaper, above ceiling tiles, and in the corners where families live and breathe every day.

This is community resilience in practice — measuring the impacts, not just naming them. A healthy home is foundational to all Four Securities: food, energy, political stability, and social justice begin under a safe roof.

More to come as the HHV Team continues to work with our community. 🙏

05/26/2026

A dynamic gathering of diverse leaders concerned with the betterment of us all. Kudos to the ladies for your leading the way!!! Proud that our Community Health Worker VISTA Angelia Edwards was in the house and represented well.

The first-ever Call for Humanity Summit took place in Spartanburg. Participants included influential women from politically diverse backgrounds. See link below ⬇️

📸 Alex C. Hicks Jr./For the USA Today Network

05/26/2026

Let’s talk about thirst.

27,154 gallons — to water 1 acre of SC lawn for 1 week.

6× — what a family of four uses in that same week.

50%+ — wasted to runoff, wind & overwatering.

131 years — since SC has been this dry.

46 out of 46 counties in severe drought.

We cannot drink our lawns.
We cannot eat our lawns.
What are we actually growing here?

Sources: Clemson Extension • SC DHEC • EPA WaterSense • US Drought Monitor

05/26/2026

We still have a few slots left for our summer program with Abbi Burgess Nickles!

Get your interest form in ASAP!

Have questions? Shoot us a DM!

Annie's House is our flagship net-zero demonstration site in Nicholtown, Greenville, SC. Its landscape was sustainably remodeled to serve as an education

05/20/2026

Here's a great upcoming opportunity for sustainable youth education! Don't miss out!

Our summer Steward Fellows program still has some slots open. This 6-week internship covers 6 areas of sustainability with daily lessons. Complete your interest form here:

Annie's House is our flagship net-zero demonstration site in Nicholtown, Greenville, SC. Its landscape was sustainably remodeled to serve as an education

05/17/2026

The Power of Mentoring: Twenty Years of Sowing Seeds

There’s a moment in every mentor’s life when you see the harvest of seeds you planted years before. Today is one of those days for me.
For over two decades, I’ve had the privilege of pouring into young people through Sustaining Way and beyond, believing, as I always have, that the most radical investment we can make in our community is in the minds and futures of our young people. Mentoring isn’t a program. It’s a covenant.

This fall, two of my mentees, Hakeem Lipscomb and Jayquawn Edwards, will walk onto the campus of South Carolina State University, our state’s 1890 land-grant institution, as SC State 1890 Agriculture Innovation Scholars on full scholarship. Full tuition. Fees. Books. Room and board. No debt. Just opportunity.
I’ve walked with these young men since their freshman year of high school. I’ve watched them grow from boys with potential into young men with purpose. They are entering the very tradition I serve as a Trustee of the SC State 1890-affiliated Freewoods Farm Foundation, a tradition rooted in Black land, Black agricultural genius, and the unbroken legacy of our ancestors who turned freedom into food, and food into freedom.
To every parent, teacher, coach, pastor, and elder still in the field: keep planting. The harvest is real.
Hakeem and Jayquawn — Fear the Bite. Go Bulldogs. The Four Securities live in you now. 🐾

05/06/2026

Thank you to the Red Cross for your generous donation of gloves! 🌱

These will go a long way in equipping our volunteers as we head into spring gardening season—supporting hands-on work that increases food access and strengthens our community. We’re grateful for your partnership!