We recently connected with Jazmon Stewart and have shared our conversation below.

Jazmon, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

Picture this, the year is 2o19, I just failed my first Intro to Entrepreneurship semester and the world is actively shutting down due to COVID-19. Oh, and I’m crying at the bar over a bowl of fries because I just failed the semester. I close my eyes and hear, “you’re on the right path, you’re just going about things the wrong way.” It’s almost as if God found me in that bar and spoke directly to me, or at least that’s what it felt like. I interpreted this whisper as; I no longer needed to pursue formal College, and instead, seek other methods of learning. I wasn’t sure of my next move, but what I did know was that I wasn’t going to give up on myself. I decided at that bar to bet on myself again and again. As many times as I need to in fact. Shortly after this I stumbled across a free Home Gardening certification course on Eventbrite. I already had some experience and a growing interest with Gardening, so I figured, why not? Little did I know, this would be the beginning of my new career journey.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Jazmon Stewart and I own and operate iThrive. iThrive is a small business laser-focused on improving the food sustainability of BIPOC communities. Many BIPOC communities are considered food deserts, meaning access to healthy food is scarce. To mitigate this issue, iThrive offers youth gardening & agriculture after-school and summer enrichment programing to local Dayton Public Schools. iThrive also offers monthly, no-cost, community workshops. At these workshops we center home gardening, agriculture and environmental justice. My work has led to one of the schools I offer programming at, to receive $2 million in grant funds to build our school a new garden. This has been monumental in my journey considering many schools are still toying around with the idea of including nature-based learning into their curriculums. My work has also led to me being declared a Food Hero by my county.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

After receiving my home gardening certification, I realized I could help mitigate the food insecurity issues plaguing my community. I decided I would try to eradicate this issue by teaching everyone how to grow food at home. In retrospect, this sounds like an incredibly enormous task for one person, but I somehow convinced myself I could do this. I figured I could teach gardening as an after-school enrichment class to students and offer free workshops to my community to anyone that wanted to learn. Problem solved, right? Wrong. After teaching hundreds of workshops and classes, and really getting to know the members and stakeholders of my community. I learned our food insecurity issues are linked to several other basic needs issues, and all of these issues are systemic. Since the issues are systematic, the sustainability solutions will certainly have to be systemic as well. This type of change requires a change in policy. I knew I needed more education to appropriately advocate for the community I served. I wanted my company to be more impactful, so I decided to further study Social Work to better learn how to create the change I want to see. This personal pivot was necessary to further efforts.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned thus far is to show up authentically as myself. Black folks currently account for 1-2% of both the Agriculture and Environmental industry. I’m saying that to say, the spaces I enter aren’t always the most diverse and inclusive. Early in my journey I would be so nervous as to how to show up. Do I tone myself down to fit in? Will my AAVE references be misinterpreted? Will I still be seen as an expert if I wear braids to the conference? There were battles with imposter syndrome as well. Do I even belong in these rooms? Am I tricking everyone? Was it luck? I quickly learned that I wasn’t being asked to be on panels and such because I fit the typical mold. It was my innovative ideas that catapulted me into specific rooms. It was my resourcefulness and down-to-earth demeanor. It was my intelligence, my passion and I’m certain my wit and jokes may have even helped a bit. It was me ultimately me though. Me through and through. All of the parts that make you who you are will be needed to get you where you need you to go. I certainly wish I knew and believed this early on.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ithrivedayton.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/ithrivedayton
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/ithrivetv