By Kathy Chaffin
A Rowan County local food advocacy group helps connect farmers with people who want to buy locally grown food, thereby boosting the local economy and improving air quality by reducing the amount of fuel emissions released when transporting food longer distances.
Capri Brixey, president of the board of directors of Bread Riot, said the group also does educational outreach in the county. Started several years ago, Bread Riot reorganized a few years back and has grown considerably since receiving its nonprofit status last year.
Brixey said around 400 people have signed up to receive regular emails.
Bread Riot is named after the women-led Civil War revolt in Rowan County. Upset because local merchants were hoarding flour and food supplies while the rest of the county was starving, they rioted with axes and hatchets to collect food to feed their communities.
One of the services offered by Bread Riot is bulk meat purchases. The group negotiates with a local farmer to purchase a beef cow or hog and then sells shares to people.
Bread Riot also offers an egg subscription program with varying prices depending on the number of dozens ordered and a winter harvest program, through which people pay a deposit to receive a basket of goods from local farmers every two weeks. Brixey said this could include vegetables, bread, eggs, goat cheese, “anything that we can find locally that is available during that time.”
The cost averages about $25 a basket, she said, and the program usually runs from the end of November through the beginning of March.
Bread Riot does not offer a summer program because people can purchase locally grown produce at the local farmers’ markets, which the group promotes on its website and at some downtown Salisbury events.
Bread Riot also partners with the Center for the Environment on events, such as the March 1 local food tasting and screening of “Dirt! The Movie” followed by a panel discussion at the Center facility. 
The food tasting included: lettuce and tomatoes from Fiddlehead Farms in Faith; carrots, onions, collards and kale from Muddy Boots Farm in Mount Pleasant; popcorn from Barbee Farms in Concord; cheese from Goat Lady Dairy in Lexington, Sandy Creek Farms in Lexington and Ashe County Cheese in West Jefferson; flour from Hoffner Organic Farms in Mount Ulla; organic pizza from Fair Meadow Bakes in Mount Pleasant; berries and green peppers from Wilson Family Farm in Salisbury; eggs from Bame Farms in Salisbury; elk from Tom Dixon of Charlotte; and chicken broth from Laughing Owl Farm in Richfield.
For more information on Bread Riot — which also includes a book club which reads and discusses books relevant to its mission — log onto its website at breadriot.org.