April 2021

Mazda named

2021 BEST CAR BRAND FOR THE 6TH CONSECUTIVE YEAR

2021

MAZDA CENTRAL • SOUTH • GEORGETOWN

www.usnews.com - Nov. 17, 2020. 2021 Best Vehicle Brand Awards. The awards recognize the brands whose vehicles perform the best on an overall basis within four major categories of the U.S. News vehicle rankings: Cars, SUVs, Trucks and Luxury.

A HEIGHTENED STATE OF DRIVING Every Mazda is built to inspire, excite and most of all – bring people joy.

We invite you to experience how the Roger Beasley Mazda family and the Mazda brand are doing things differently.

The 2021 Mazda CX-3, CX-5, CX-9, Mazda6, Mazda3 Sedan & Hatchback and the CX-30 (built after September 2020) have all been named a 2021 IIHS Top Safety Pick+.

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SUPPORTING YOUR CHILD’S

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Your child deserves the best care and treatment when it comes to their mental health and wellbeing, because sometimes kid’s need support too.

UT Health Austin Pediatric Psychiatry at Dell Children’s diagnoses, treats, and manages care for children and adolescents (ages 6-17) with behavioral and mental health disorders, including anxiety disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, depression, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, and more. We provide children and families with personalized behavioral and mental health treatment plans to ensure the best possible outcomes, because what matters most to you, matters to us too.

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Dear Friends and Neighbors, I’m Ellen Troxclair, and I’d like to reintroduce myself. You may know me from my work in the community, where I was the youngest woman to ever serve on the Austin City Council. Or you might recognize me as the author of the national bestseller, Step Up! How to Advocate Like a Woman. But, did you know I’ve also been an Austin Realtor for 10 years? I understand the ins-and-outs of our city like few others, and I’d love to put that knowledge to work helping you and your family build a life here.

Throughout my career, I’ve worked on behalf of Austin’s homeowners. On City Council, I implemented the city’s first homestead exemption, lowering property taxes for all homeowners, and fought to allocate funding for parks and public safety. Now, through my work with the largest state public policy think tank, I was able to play a key role in enacting meaningful property tax reform for all Texans. I want to fight for you and your family to keep Austin beautiful, affordable, and safe.

My work as a Realtor isn’t about one time transactions - it’s about forming relationships based on trust and expertise. I’ve built a business in the community with hard work, perseverance, and a passion for my clients, and my results are proof: properties that I list sell for 8% more and 39 days faster than the average agent. I’m here to help you make the best choices for your financial future as you move up Austin’s competitive property ladder. And, whether you are looking for great schools, community, development opportunities, or rentability, I’ll empower you to make the decisions that are right for you.

The relationships I’ve nurtured in Austin, as a community advocate, philanthropist, and Realtor are a constant source of enrichment, both personally and professionally.

I’m a native Texan, a wife and mother of three, a University of Texas business graduate, and a self-starter. Whether it’s lowering your property taxes, fundraising life-changing scholarship funds, or buying or selling your home; I’m your true advocate here in Austin and look forward to working with you.

Ellen

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MEET THE 2021 NOMINEES FOR AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION’S WOMAN OF IMPACT AWARD Each nominee for the American Heart Association Woman of Impact Award exhibits passion, dedication and drive to make a difference. This year’s nominees will work with their individual teams to set a goal and raise funds that will have a direct impact on our community.

The campaign lasts a total of eight weeks. At the end of the final week, these women will be celebrated for all the work they’ve done for our mission. The woman whose network achieved the greatest impact will be named the first Austin Woman of Impact award winner.

Megan Drake

Bennett Maggio

Like so many people, heart disease

Heart disease has had a profound impact on my life. In 2008, the day before spring semester classes began my freshman year at college, my father suffered a massive heart attack and died. He was 51. Soon after my father’s death, I began to reevaluate my health and lifestyle choices hoping that, even as a young and healthy college student, I could begin my own fight against heart disease. Exercise, a thoughtful approach to nutrition and even training for a few half-marathons have since been part of my fight against the #1 killer of women: heart disease.

Heart Hospital of Austin

impacts those you love and are close to. I have a significant family history of heart conditions, including those in my immediate family. I have been exposed to heart disease not only in my personal life, but professionally as well. My career has been dedicated to serving the people and communities in which I have been a part of through laser-focused attention to high-quality care, safety, performance, excellence and organizational advancement. There are so many people who are fighting for their lives with this disease. I do this for each and every single one of them.

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These women are changemakers, dedicated to making a lasting impact on the health of our community.

Nella Rodriguez

Katie Stewart

CaLondra Yarbrough

I was born in Lima, Peru, but moved to Houston, Texas, at 7 years old. After graduating with my business management degree with the intent to empower and develop future leaders, I joined the insurance industry in 2016. Aside from coverage analyses and renewal terms negotiations, I love to salsa dance. Although my ladies salsa team is on pause, I have continued to take online classes from professional dancers all over the world. It’s a great way to de-stress, stay active and stay healthy!

I’ve always been a proponent of a healthy, active and balanced lifestyle.

I try to lead by example as one of DPR Construction’s wellness champions and as a volunteer pacer for the Austin Marathon. But when I learned that 80% of heart health issues are preventable, I knew I had to do more. Eighty percent of women could significantly reduce their risk of heart disease by learning about and acting on specific risk factors. I jumped at the opportunity to participate in the 2021 Go Red for Women Austin Woman of Impact Campaign to do my part in helping women prevent heart disease so they may live long, healthy, happy lives.

Originally from Colorado, I relocated to Austin in 2010 to escape the snow and have called Austin home ever since. I am passionate about volunteering and giving back and enjoy connecting with people and organizations to learn more about how to support the Austin community. As a Black woman it is extremely important for me to raise awareness about the effects of heart disease and to do what I can to encourage other Black women, especially the millennial generation, to prioritize our health and make choices that benefit our well-being.

Higginbotham

DPR Construction

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By 1971, plans for the first Dripping Springs Reunion, a gathering of the some of the finest names in country music, were underway.

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32

FEATURE

BINDERS OF SHEET MUSIC

BY BRIANNA CALERI

38

FEATURE

BEYOND THE STORM

Photo by Rudy Arocha.

BY CY WHITE

ATXWOMAN.COM | 11

CONTENTS | APRIL

24 22

COUNT US IN Women in Numbers

24

FROM THE DESK OF EDG Coffee founder Christie Morrow

30

SEE HER WORK Abstract-expressionist painter Jodie King

44 THE FEED

30

The Central Texas Food Bank

46

ON THE MONEY Investing with Purpose

48

I AM AUSTIN WOMAN Mariam Parker

24

ATX WOMEN TO WATCH

44

48

12 | AUSTIN WOMAN | APRIL 2021

28

DOROTHY LAWRENCE

29

CHRISTINA MARTINEZ

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Suzanne Kho

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At Texas Disposal Systems (TDS), it’s no secret we’re dedicated to sustainability and doing the right thing for our environment. And it’s only fitting that we partner with amazing organizations like Keep Texas Beautiful (KTB) who live out the same mission every day. Since April is Earth Month, we thought now would be an ideal time to focus on a true force of nature, who happens to be the woman in charge of the KTB organization.

Meet Suzanne Kho, KTB’s Executive Director, and dear friend of TDS...

Suzanne loves the outdoors. On any given weekend you can find her birding or hiking with friends. In fact, several years ago, Kho and four friends created a women’s hiking and camping group. They affectionately call it “HikeCampHike.” They have camped in most of the parks within three hours of Austin and every summer they take a week-long backpacking trip off the grid. “So far we’ve been to California, Idaho, Wyoming, Washington, Colorado and we’ve even done a hut-to-hut trip in the Alps,” says Kho. Even though she has trekked all over the world, her favorite place to go birding is closer to home. Kho has been known to take Friday mornings

off work during Earth Month to watch the spring migration from Austin’s local parks.

Giving back to the parks she loves so much is important to Kho. This year, she will be participating in Keep Austin Beautiful Day on Saturday, April 10, to help pick up litter and beautify our parks. “It’s my favorite way to spring clean.” Keep Austin Beautiful is one of nearly 300 community affiliates of KTB. The core of KTB’s mission is to inspire and empower people to beautify their communities. “I love that this is something everyone can be part of every day through simple actions like properly disposing of waste, recycling, picking up litter and planting flowers and trees,” she says.

Kho is proud of developing lasting relationships with Texas-based companies including TDS, who has been a long-time partner of KTB and its mission. The partnership is a win-win and enables KTB and TDS to advance their mutual goals of reducing waste, enhancing recycling and beautifying communities. Over the years, a TDS representative has served on the board to help guide KTB; and TDS has provided operating support, sponsorships, targeted grant opportunities for KTB affiliates around the state, and hosted fundraisers at their Exotic Game Ranch and Pavilion.

As an Austin resident for 18 years, Kho has worked at some of the most notable nonprofits in the city. “I’ve spent my entire career in the nonprofit sector and it is always rewarding to support mission-driven organizations that are working to make the world a better place,” says Kho. This year, Kho was selected to serve on the board of Keep America Beautiful (KAB).

Kho is “proud to represent our nearly 300 local affiliates who are making a difference across the state of Texas.” And TDS is privileged to provide noticeably different, noticeably better services to our Texas communities as we continue to do our part in Keeping Texas Beautiful!

For more inspiration on ways you can celebrate Earth Day (April 22) and Earth Month, visit ktb.org/earthday and texasdisposal.com.

CONTRIBUTORS This month, we asked our contributors: What ways have you found to help the community?

A PUBLICATION OF AW MEDIA INC.

VOLUME 20, ISSUE 8

BRIANNA CALERI Writer, “Binders of Sheet Music,” Page 32

DAWN WESTON

• She accidentally became a photographer.

Publisher

• She has 42 species of house plant.

• She built her own guitar.

NIKI JONES

Creative Director

“I offer editing help so even non-writers can amplify their voices in confident, engaging ways.”

CY WHITE

Managing Editor DARBY KENDALL

MONICA GODINEZ

Copy Editor

Writer, “Women in Numbers,” Page 22

PARKE BALLANTINE

• She’s gone swimming with sea turtles.

Director of Events and Branding Strategy

• She is emergency response team certified.

• She has six dogs back home.

OLIVIA HUNTLEY, KATY MABEE

Account Executives

“I’ve helped the community through raising awareness and helping educate others about important issues.”

ANNE COX

Operations and Production Coordinator CONTRIBUTORS

Editorial: Brianna Caleri, Madelyn Geyer, Monica Godinez, Jenny Hoff, Allie Justis, Christie Morrow, Mariam Parker, Cy White Art: Rudy Arocha, Bethany Brewster, Amy Danneker, Amy Fletcher, Chelsea Laine Francis, Laura Hajar, Jessica Wetterer INTERNS

Paige Cissel, Madelyn Geyer, Monica Godinez, Allie Justis, Janelle Marquez, Chloe Young

AW MEDIA INC.

ALLIE JUSTIS Writer, “The Feed,” Page 44 • She’s played over 100 hours of Stardew Valley.

•S he recently found that she loves Ethiopian food.

•S he’s now the maid of honor in her sister’s wedding.

“In my spare time, I like to go out and walk dogs at the local animal shelter.”

CY WHITE

MELINDA GARVEY

KIP GARVEY

Writer, “Beyond the Storm,” Page 38

Co-founder/Co-owner

CEO/Co-owner

•S he publishes a list of her 100 favorite albums every year.

SAMANTHA STEVENS

Co-founder

ASHLEY GOOLSBY

CFO

Austin Woman is a free monthly publication of AW Media Inc. and is available at locations throughout Austin and in Lakeway, Cedar Park, Round Rock and Pflugerville.

All rights reserved.

To offer feedback, email feedback@awmediainc.com.

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No part of the magazine may be reprinted or duplicated without permission.

Visit us online at atxwoman.com.

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•S he recorded a three-song demo when she was 13.

•O ne of her good friends is the guitarist from a Korean band called No Brain.

“Every month I donate goods to a charity that I have a strong connection to.”

FROM THE EDITOR

What a year 2021 has turned out to be so far! Never mind the utter chaos in the world, Texas is still trying to recover from, without a doubt, one of the most surprising and downright devastating weather events in its history. Winter Storm Uri wreaked havoc on the Lone Star State. Austin still feels the sting of the ice storm’s fury. People continue to grapple with water outages, electricity issues and, perhaps most frightening, food shortages.

But if we’re being honest, none of this is new. While Uri certainly was completely unexpected, what it did more than anything is expose the cracks (hell, the deep craters) in some of the most basic systems. At the end of the day, this storm didn’t cause the food and water inequities in the community; it only brought such things to public attention because it affected more than those who’ve very rarely had their voices heard. Food insecurity isn’t a new issue brought by the loss of farmers’ crops or the inaccessibility of icy roads. It’s a plight that Austin’s economically disenfranchised have had to deal with for decades.

However, here’s where the sunlight comes in. Despite so many systems failing our neighbors, Austin’s citizens showed that their hearts are bigger than any problem. Yes, there is still food insecurity. Yes, there are still people dealing with shoddy electricity and less than safe water. But, dear reader, one thing that will always be true about this city is that in times of desperation, her people are at the ready. As is often the case, women showed out in ways that highlighted just how powerful we are when we put our minds to it. Our cover woman, Mela Sarajane Dailey, has always opened her heart and mind to the artists of Austin with her nonprofit efforts. Farmhouse Delivery battled through the storm’s aftereffects and helped both farms and their neighbors in need. Organizations like the Central Texas Food Bank provided resources for those who were most affected. Throughout this issue, you will see the unwavering spirit of women who fearlessly got the job done without question.

What does this prove? That when it matters, when our neighbors are in need, we’re ready. No storm or neglect from the powers that be will ever stop us when we let love lead.

Publication of Austin Woman would not be possible without the support of our monthly advertisers and sponsors, who believe in the impact we are making in the Austin community. The following businesses have stepped up their support of our efforts beyond traditional advertising and we are proud to recognize them as our partners. The team at Austin Woman is grateful for these businesses that have shown their commitment to the advancement of women in Austin and hopes you, as readers, recognize their efforts and support these businesses and all our regular advertisers.

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Check us out at atxwoman.com.

Feminism, Fantasy & Showing Young Adults Their Worth Tracy Wolff continues to combine feminism and fantasy when the latest from her young adult series Crave, Covet, hits shelves all over Austin.

Valerie Plaza: More Than a Facial With Golden Hour Skincare & Bodywork, aesthetician Valerie Plaza creates an experience that clears the skin and heals the soul.

Happy International Women’s Day! On March 8, we gave all women their roses in abundance and offered ways to support the women around us.

Don’t forget to visit and subscribe to the Austin Woman YouTube channel!

FOLLOW US

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WIN THIS! $50 at Farmhouse Delivery Farmhouse Delivery is one of the best online services for fresh, farm-raised food, dairy and other artisanal goods from farms and other food-focused creators all over Texas. They were also integral in giving aid to those in need after the devastation of Winter Storm Uri. For April’s Win This, Farmhouse Delivery is giving away a $50 credit on their website. Enter to win by following us @austinwoman on IG. We’ll choose a winner at the end of the month.

18 | AUSTIN WOMAN | APRIL 2021

FOLLOW US

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Tracy Wolff photo courtesy of Tracy Wolff. Valerie Plaza photo by Amy Danneker. Farmhouse Delivery photo courtesy of Farmhouse Delivery.

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WORK FULL-TIME: LEARN AT NIGHT! At Huston-Tillotson University, the Adult Degree Program (ADP) reflects the urgent demands of the changing times by providing the practical, relevant knowledge needed for success in today’s global economy. While highly focused and accelerated, courses are offered in a format designed specifically for working adults. In order to accommodate students’ busy schedules, classes are offered once a week. Programs available through the ADP include Associate of Arts in Liberal Arts and Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration, Criminal Justice, Education, or Psychology.

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ADP Admission Application Deadline for May Start Date: April 23, 2021 APPLY NOW at htdegrees.com/apply 900 CHICON STREET, AUSTIN, TX 78702 | 512.505.3000 | htu.edu

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Sponsorships available. Inquire to sales@awmediainc.com or 512.328.2421.

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Spring is here, and it’s time to celebrate the amazing women in Austin! We are the movers and shakers, dreamers and doers, builders and breakers. It’s been a wild year, and we are ready to praise, amplify and shine a light on the women who inspired and led us through the chaos. Join us for a night to remember: • Garden party chic attire and decor • Tables of two, four, six and ten • VIP gift bags and premium seating • Physically distanced with wellness checks and sanitizing stations

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COUNT US IN

EDUCATION FOR CHANGE, EDUCATION FOR ALL

Educated women are fundamental resources for their community.

BY MONICA GODINEZ ILLUSTRATIONS BY JESSICA WETTERER

36.6% In 2019, 36.6% of women in the U.S. had completed four or more years of higher education.

20,000 Creative Action, an Austin-based program focused on developing important life skills, has served more than 20,000 Austin students.

86% In 2019, 86% of women ages 18 through 24 years old held a high school diploma or the equivalent of a diploma.

13,000 Texas students petitioned the Texas State Board of Education to implement an anti-racist curriculum; said petition has acquired more than 13,000 signatures.

22 | AUSTIN WOMAN | APRIL 2021

15,000 The Girls Empowerment Network has impacted the lives of more than 15,000 students by increasing self-efficiency in the classroom.

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FROM THE DESK OF

IT’S WORTH DOING RIGHT

Aided by her faith, Christie Morrow, founder of EDG Coffee, turned a dream into a reality.

BY MADELYN GEYER

C

hristie Morrow woke up one morning after a vivid dream. “I was on top of a mountain overlooking a coffee farm,” she reflects. “Two weeks later, I met a group of missionaries [who] are headquartered in Dripping Springs. They told me about what they’re doing in Nicaragua, taking care of the farmers and growing the economy. A few months later, I went to Nicaragua and…we looked at a million-dollar farm and a half-milliondollar farm. We went to the half-million-dollar farm and I got on top of that mountain. That was exactly my dream.”

Soon after, she sold every possession, purchased that farm, restored it and founded EDG Coffee. “There’s a sense of freedom that comes. You almost come alive after you let go of [worldly possessions],” she says. It wasn’t how Morrow had ever launched a business before, but she knew there was a larger purpose—and a higher power—at work. She’s now EDG’s VP of sales, promoting the ethical specialty-grade coffee at farmer’s markets and events. Morrow’s spiritual journey of “letting go and dying to myself” changed her life irrevocably. She shares five core values that both impact her life and serve as the foundation of EDG Coffee.

PRAYER This all started from prayers and from a dream that I believe God gave me.

The confirmation of meeting the missionaries two weeks later, and then I go visit the farm in Nicaragua—the numbers and everything just lined up.

I know prayer is the most important thing to do first in my faith. God has shown me that by listening—listening to that dream—I can move forward.

That’s a huge leap of faith. But I’m going to tell you joy and peace has come over, and my purpose in life is so full.

EXCELLENCE I’ve always had a motto: If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right.

There’s a stigma about ministries having a coffee farm and how they produce mediocre coffee. When I got into the specialty world, I learned that there’s a difference between coffee that isn’t cleaned properly and ethically sourced and what specialty coffee is. Getting involved with the specialty coffee association and understanding that it has a lot to do with taking care of the producers, the farmers, the ones who never get paid enough. With that specialty term, you have to go through a process of cleaning the coffee with dedication and excellence to make it a specialty grade. I told the ministry [when] I bought this, “If I’m going to be involved in this in any way, it needs to be excellent.”

ETHICAL I always felt that before I even got into this business, I wanted to take care of the underserved. The ethical aspect is part of my spiritual journey as well. Most people don’t know where their coffee’s coming from. It may have gone through five, six, seven hands before it reaches you. We are quality controlled on the farm side, where we plant the seeds, engage with the farmers and pay them 48% more than national minimum wage. We want to ensure quality, and we want to prevent corruption for the farmers and their families. We have just brought in teachers so the children that go on the farm with their parents while they’re harvesting have education, food and housing as opposed to being unsafe at home.

SUSTAINABILITY We grow banana trees and raise chickens and goats on the farm so we’re able to feed the farmers as they’re living and working on the land.

We always compost everything we don’t use. We are trying to practice regenerative farming practices as well. We have a mountain that has a waterfall, and we take that water and fill up what is called a pila and then pipe that water down to where we are. We use organic supplies. We recycle as well, and we teach the farmers how to have those practices so they can have a cleaner land there in Nicaragua. We all love the land, and this sustainability is helping for the future and for their children.

For most of my life I was usually either a co-founder or an independent company owner. After that dream, I got to know the missionaries and watch how they live together on the grounds and work with the farmers.

I learned that it’s good to work together because you can help each other. With teamwork, you really have to have a good attitude because the hardest part is working with other people sometimes. It’s not necessarily what you’re doing or the production part. My life has totally changed from working in a transactional-communication way into more of a transitional-communication way with the team.

24 | AUSTIN WOMAN | APRIL 2021

Photo by Amy Fletcher.

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orothy Lawrence is the owner/founder of Dorothy Butler Law Firm, a boutique all-woman law firm in Dripping Springs, Texas. Born and raised in Louisiana, Lawrence practices across state lines but has made a name for herself in Texas. With both a Juris Doctorate and master’s degree in tax law, she focuses on all legal and fiscal aspects: bankruptcy, debtor defense and tax law. Since 2016, the Super Lawyers Association has honored Lawrence as a Rising Star— an honor bestowed upon fewer than 2.5% of lawyers. In the span of only nine years, a firm she started on her dining room table has grown into a multi-office cross-discipline force. The firm has four other attorneys who focus on most other areas of law including family law, business transactions, real estate and personal injury. When not lawyering, she is a professional musician who performs with Broadway Across America and legends like Bernadette Peters. dorothybutlerlawfirm.com

28 | AUSTIN WOMAN | APRIL 2021 28 SPECIAL PROMOTION | ATXWOMAN.COM

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hristina Martinez is the CEO of Planoly, the industry-leading social-marketing platform trusted by millions of users to visually plan, schedule and measure performance across Instagram and Pinterest. She is passionate about empowering individuals and businesses to find avenues of growth by simplifying social marketing. A New Jersey native and California transplant, Martinez recently made the move to Austin to lead the Planoly team and for an opportunity to partake in the city’s BBQ, breakfast tacos and gorgeous weather. At Planoly, Martinez has one thing on her mind: growth, in all aspects of the company. Martinez focuses on what Planoly is truly excellent at: 1) helping people tell their stories, and 2) helping people grow their businesses. In this way, she hopes to continue building her community both within Planoly and in her new home of Austin. planoly.com

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SEE HER WORK

RETURNING TO WHO I AM

Abstract-expressionist painter Jodie King finds herself in the healing power of art.

BY MADELYN GEYER

30 | AUSTIN WOMAN | APRIL 2021

children under the age of eighteen. I lost myself in that world. I ended up needing to leave that marriage for a number of reasons, but the moral of the story is I left a man and a family that I loved to protect my two daughters. All of a sudden, I was 50 years old and alone with the exception of my daughters and my sister.” Painting never completely vanished, but it was barely a whisper compared to the shout of parenting and constantly putting others before herself. “I gave and gave in the hopes that I would receive” she admits. “But you can’t give from that place. [Painting] helped me return to who I am, to my voice.”

King encourages her students to put their mental health first, empower themselves and find their joy again. “We can’t give from an empty cup,” she insists. “The social good has to start with our own mental health. If we can tap into our own creativity and experience, and then share that experience with other people, we can heal ourselves. I can teach this to others; then they help themselves. That to me is the best good that I can offer people as an artist, instructor and champion.”

Healing comes in all forms. One 70-year-old woman felt so inspired after King’s class, she went out and did what she always wanted to do: get a tattoo. “It was a profound act of liberation.” King beams. Another woman, now selling her own paintings successfully, contributes what she learned in the class to “sharing her story of what she’s been through and telling that in her paintings. She’s a lighthouse now for other people.”

Acknowledging the pain our younger selves felt sets us free. King gets choked up as she reflects on what her younger self would think. Coming from a troubled, chaotic childhood, King says painting helped her feel seen. “This is really the first time that I feel like little Jodie and big Jodie are both on the same page. She’s free. She would say, ‘I’ve been waiting. Thanks for finding us.’”

Photo by Bethany Brewster.

J

odie King chooses Zoom over a phone call, sitting in a luminous studio surrounded by her work, wearing thick black frames and a shirt cheekily stained with paint. She and her abstract-expressionist paintings are one in the same: effervescent, brutally honest and free.

Most New Year’s resolutions don’t make it past Jan. 10. King beat those odds. At 35 years old, sitting with an artist friend at a ranch, she expressed a desire to paint…despite having never attended art school or even painted before. He encouraged her without hesitation, and she began painting. “I think [the desire to paint] was because I had young kids at home at the time,” King says. “I had two children, and they were just real demanding. I needed something to remember [that] I am a whole person just by myself.”

King’s professional art career arrived rather accidentally on a Christmas home tour of her 1914 bungalow. “I was trying to clean up, so I started hanging some of the paintings. That’s when people started coming in and wanting to know who the artist was.” King was shocked but ended up selling paintings that day, which then spurred her to sell more at a local store.

Becoming a professional painter felt like an insidious invasion of imposter syndrome; every success is an accident and you’re not actually good at what you do.

The self-taught King had the emotional currency to make resonant art but needed a more thorough knowledge of values, composition and cohesive colors. She purchased art books and became a student of the decidedly unromantic-yet-empowering process. “Listen,” she begins, “you can turn yourself inside out and paint, and it just looks like a mess. To have the skills to make the mess palatable and something that you would be proud to hang on your walls, that’s going to a whole different level.”

King emanates the warmth and bold straightforwardness of a feisty friend who gives honesty and encouragement freely. “It’s that honesty [that] resonates with people, and that honesty allows other people to feel the same and to honor their own story,” she says. To experience liberation, one must first be chained. Preaching the healing power of art is now King’s mission as she understands the wandering pain of losing her identity.

“I got married in 2008 and moved to Houston,” King remembers. “It was an environment that I really didn’t fit in, but I tried to fit in. I was newly married in a new town, with no friends except my husband. I was raising five

“” The social good has to start

Photos courtesy of Jodie King Media.

with our own mental health.

ATXWOMAN.COM | 31

BINDERS OF SHEET MUSIC Singer, CEO and nonprofit founder Mela Sarajane Dailey keeps expanding her circles.

BY BRIANNA CALERI, PHOTOS BY RUDY AROCHA HAIR BY JAMES BRYANT, MAKEUP BY BRITTANY CRAIG, STYLED BY NATHAN IDAIS SHOT ON LOCATION AT FAIRMONT AUSTIN

32 | AUSTIN WOMAN | APRIL 2021

T

hings felt almost normal in Isabel Welland’s backyard one Tuesday in early February. The retired advertising manager hosted a hybrid in-person and video conference between Austin Artists Project (AAP), the nonprofit born from her initial donation, and its production partners for an upcoming Broadway revue. Singer and AAP Executive Director Mela Sarajane Dailey sat several feet away, bent over a folding table and pouring charisma into two iPads. The director of the upcoming show and AAP’s grant coordinator and curriculum consultant, Kevin Little, was across from her. It was surely one of very few meetings around the city, and even the country, in which some of its participants could see each other from tip to toe. (There was some excited discourse about leather shoes.)

Austin was starting to warm up after a lonely winter. But that weekend it started getting icy, and then it snowed.

Texas was hit with its worst storm in 88 years, and in a spectacularly high-profile failure of resource management, more than 4 million Texans lost power. Luckily, Dailey had just organized some grocery donations for five families in an AAP program, in anticipation of a fairly regular long weekend.

Her own water went out for nearly a week. Neighbors stopped by to help search for a broken pipe in the yard, and Dailey’s family stayed clean through the hospitality of friends. Just two hours after getting water back, Dailey was at another house for another hybrid meeting, beaming at the all-woman AAP board in a robin’s-egg blue jumpsuit that says anything but “I just experienced a nesting doll of crises.”

Says Dailey, “We’re so used to pivoting that it doesn’t even feel [like it].”

Sing Out! A Pride Musical Revue, the show under development by AAP, was scheduled to premiere at Lincoln Center in New York City, during NYC Pride 2020. The pandemic pushed those plans back a year, and a new idea emerged. The Lincoln Center show will still go on, but Austin will see the true first performance in the parking lot of the nonprofit Ground Floor Theatre on Springdale Road. The space will be arranged to accommodate social-distancing guidelines, with a stage and two 25-foot LED screens.

The show is all about the cast, who will deliver personal stories and perform songs reflecting their experience in the LGBTQIA2+* community. Half the performers are Black, half are from Austin and some are Grammy and Tony nominees and winners. Rocky Lane, the board chair of the Transgender Education Network of Texas, will emcee. This all lines up with AAP’s mission to increase equity in the arts and ensures that diverse performers are hired for meaningful work during an especially competitive time for finding gigs.

“This isn’t just any old work,” says Dailey, who reveals she is bisexual and will be performing in the cast. “It’s work that you

want to do, and it advances your career.”

In fact, the show started because of one genius casting decision. At the 2019 Tony Awards, Dailey sat next to nominee Beth Malone of Fun Home, the first Broadway show to feature a lesbian lead. They shared a table with the producers of The Prom, one of whom voiced a wish to see Malone in a concert during Pride. Dailey’s gears started turning. She invented Sing Out! as a fundraiser for AAP and Ground Floor Theatre, adding in other LGBTQIA2+ organizations as things progress. The team kept expanding.

Dailey ran into Hollywood director Matt Earl Beesley at a Tesla charger. After a friendly conversation between strangers, Beesley agreed to recruit a seven-camera film crew for the Austin premiere. Another connection came via Blackfeather Vintage Works, a shop that resides in the same shopping center as Ground Floor Theater. The collector for the shop, Greg Wooldridge and his wife, Lynne Dobson, committed to sponsor the film crew, a film director, an editor and a costume designer. Clear Lake Choir Director Courtney Neva is also coming on board to lead the Sing Out! youth choir, while an adult choir is under development.

At the backyard meeting, Dailey shared another piece of good news: She’d been in touch with the executive director of the Civic Music Association (CMA) of Des Moines. The 95-year-old institution approached her to inquire about performances to broadcast, and she brought them up to date with Sing Out! She even asked if they would cover the associated costs. They agreed, and when the stream goes live, members will pay what they can. All of CMA’s proceeds will go to LGBTQIA2+ organizations. The show joins a long roster of featured greats such as Sergei Rachmaninoff, Chick Corea, Esperanza Spalding, Philip Glass and Béla Fleck. It’s the company’s first-ever Broadway offering.

Hearing the events that unfolded after just one passing remark at the Tony’s, AAP board member Patricia Hayes Workman laughs. “They said that to the wrong person.”

When Dailey was young, her parents saw she was not just talented in music, but driven to be a performer. Her mother, an art teacher with a piano performance degree and a master’s in special education, pushed piano lessons, which Dailey hungrily accepted. When she wanted to join the choir instead, they made a bet: If she won an upcoming singing competition, she could follow through. She won.

Fostering a singing talent in Jacksonville, Texas, was not a simple task, so Dailey branched out. Not expecting anything but the experience, she traveled with her mother’s class to Dallas to audition at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. Again, she “won.” This is the word she uses for a successful audition. Winning.

2 stands for “Two-Spirit,” a North American Indigenous term defining a person who inhabits a third gender beyond the male/female binary.

*

ATXWOMAN.COM | 33

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34 | AUSTIN WOMAN | APRIL 2021

the sparkling cityscape. Guests can enjoy an array of amenities, such as five restaurants and bar offerings, a seasonally heated pool on the seventh-floor terrace, the top-rated Fairmont Spa Austin and a state-of-the-art fitness center. Fairmont Austin celebrates the city’s “Live Music Capital of the World” title through regular performances and engages guests with a variety of cultural and culinary programs throughout the year. fairmontaustin.com

“”

I don’t fit into anybody else’s definition of who I’m supposed to be.

In Dallas, Dailey felt underestimated. Being new in a bigger city was intimidating for a 15-year-old whose sole introduction was talent.

Where Jacksonville lacked opportunity, the performing arts school more than made up for it. Professional groups auditioned seemingly tireless students to go on tour, and even though Dailey knew nothing about jazz, she knew it was the most promising program. (So too, apparently, did her classmate and piano accompanist Norah Jones.)

Within her very first week, Dailey won an audition as a backup singer for a country artist, kicking off a nationwide tour. Tutors helped her keep up with schoolwork, and more jobs popped up on the road. She started sending money home to the family that moved to support her.

“That was that kind of underdog feeling that never left throughout my entire education,” recalls Dailey. “Always feeling like I’ve got to work twice as hard as everybody else just to keep up.”

While Dailey’s blond hair, femininity and Southern accent are charming in most environments, they also made her an easy target for academic bias. Even among entertainers, sopranos are discredited and painted as delusional and annoying. The intimidation of catching up to students with more sophisticated music experience propelled her through auditions and scholarships, but she sensed an air of disbelief when she’d raise her hand to identify herself as the recipient.

Maintaining the presence of mind necessary to keep up also meant noticing others around her who were even less included. She felt the pressure with the privilege.

Later, at the University of Texas, she performed across genres, frustrated to be singing historically Black music, like spirituals, without Black singers involved. She also noticed music internships were all unpaid and so involved that students couldn’t possibly hold down a second job simultaneously. One segment of the pipeline from student to working performer could make or break a career, and many artists were being cut out simply because they couldn’t afford to work for free. Wanting to offer paid internships for marginalized students, Dailey conceived of the Austin Artists Project.

“I’ve lived in a place where I know exactly what it feels like to be underestimated and to be left out of the conversation,” says Dailey.

“And I know what it is to have privilege. I feel a great responsibility to use it wisely.”

Explaining the goal of Sing Out! via Zoom call to a potential partner outside the music scene, Dailey laughs and promises there will be no “Broadway shame.” Meaning, she doesn’t expect everyone to come to a show or even a conversation with all the same references. Especially as a classical musician, mostly singing with the Grammy-winning choral ensemble Conspirare, she sees the prevalence of musical elitism and knows how othering it can feel. Her goal is to deepen connections through the arts and to celebrate the things we like without worrying about how to maintain a place at the table.

One of AAP’s recurring programs closing that gap is the membership-based Broadway Brunch. Hosted at members’ houses, the goal is to get donors and young artists face-to-face so the work of the nonprofit isn’t so abstract and more direct relationships can grow. After the pandemic made large gatherings impractical, brunch transitioned from a social singalong to a livestreamed concert set with a new $500 grant for each performer.

Dailey explains warmly, “It’s such a natural thing when you get to know someone and you remember which audition they’re up for. It becomes a community.”

Donors can also sponsor pay-it-forward lessons within AAP’s Greg Easley-Bryant Young Artists Program, named after the late Austin choreographer. A $50 donation pays for a lesson from an AAP grant recipient or qualified expert to a high school or college student, who then teaches a lesson to a middle school or elementary student. AAP is also in talks with the aerial arts group Blue Lapis Light about providing weekly lessons to a group of students based in one apartment complex with limited transportation resources. At one meeting, the board discussed hiring a background-checked bus driver who can commit long term. Dailey hoped out loud she could strike a deal with donors

ATXWOMAN.COM | 35

to feed the kids on the way home, offsetting some food insecurity arising while students aren’t getting school lunches.

Throughout the talks around funding each initiative, there’s a strong idea of making donors aware of who they’re supporting and how. It’s a very personal process of trying to connect whole resources to whole people, instead of pooling donations and distributing them ad hoc. There’s endless talk of underwriting that Dailey applies to her own life, maybe without realizing it.

AAP is Dailey’s central project during the pandemic, when her schedule is less full—though not empty—of performances and travel. Just as AAP artists have sponsors, Dailey has Merick Strategies, her own for-profit consulting firm that she says “underwrites” her efforts in the nonprofit. Merick does a lot of what AAP does, producing large-scale shows and inventing fundraising solutions. The professional teams running both engines are very similar; to name just one, the executive assistant at Merick, Staci McIntyre, is director of operations at AAP. If Dailey can make a connection at a Tesla charger, she can make endless more as a consultant, often converting clients into friends, and then into donors.

When Senator Mitt Romney was running for president in 2012, he famously fumbled a debate question about pay equity for women. He alluded to the “binders full of women” he received from women’s advocacy groups after requesting applications for his gubernatorial cabinet. The public assumed the binders were a patronizing metaphor, but in 2017, an aide revealed 15 pounds of actual binders to the Boston Globe.

Similar binders still exist, in actuality and in spirit, maintained by groups like AAP and the National Women’s Political Caucus, who will push diverse, qualified resumes on hiring committees whenever the opportunity arises. After singing and auctioneering at a caucus fundraiser, Dailey got a call from its president, Donna Lent, inviting her onto the Presidential Task Force on the Arts and Humanities. Dailey was to review applications and make recommendations to sometimes obscure positions within the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration, many of which had been left empty over the past four years. The thousands of positions are published during every presidential transition, available online in the Plum Book.

According to the Biden-Harris administration, the goal is to make diverse appointments that will make White House staff “look like America.” In classic form, Dailey’s ideas spilled out and compounded.

Drawing from her nonprofit work, she is hoping to branch out further into the administration and find new ways of engaging with the performing arts.

“You can’t change representation if you don’t have these people being considered,” Dailey says. She reflects on the number of long-vacant positions the task force is working to fill, rather than replace. “It’s so alarming to me that our government was able to function.”

It would be easy for Dailey, with her boundless enthusiasm, to “yes, and” her life into an unrecognizable string of commitments. The pandemic cut down on some of them, but many have been a matter of careful prioritizing. As Dailey travels less, she and her husband, music director at the Austin Symphony Orchestra, Peter Bay, have never spent so much time together. Dailey gleefully announces the two “just like each other” and are gladly soaking up the leisure time. “‘Like’ is awesome,” Dailey says. “It’s a true respect. It’s a true day-in-day-out joy.”

The couple’s 13-year-old “man of few words,” by his mother’s description, is also a man of surprisingly many smiles on her Instagram page. She recently styled the teen with an at-home perm that screams in equal parts, “dedicated mom” and “quarantine project.” Like any mom, Dailey has made sacrifices. She makes sure they always come with a compromise. She’ll make lists of promises on free days and stick to them. She’ll do anything to make a basketball game. She may not be like the other parents who always show up to PTA events, but she knows her son gets it.

“I only knew he was proud of me when he asked if he could bring my Grammy to show-and-tell at school,” Dailey remembers. “He kept volunteering me for career day.”

Dailey’s commitment to family is both loud and seemingly effortless. She knows not everyone understands this. While her 15-year marriage is strong and celebrated, she knows the stereotypes: Bisexuality is conflated with promiscuity, an inability to commit to one type of people, let alone one person. In the past, Dailey’s kept quiet about her stake in the LGBTQIA2+ community, not hiding it, but not starting the conversation. When met with comments about her allyship, however, some discomfort sets in. Over time, she’s decided to sacrifice some privacy to make a bigger impact.

She knows the invalidating, inappropriate comments will keep coming, the ones that reduce her in a boardroom the way she was underestimated at school. She also knows she would have loved to see herself, the way she is now, as that kid without all the words for why she felt different. The benefits of making herself an example, leveraging both her privilege and hard-earned confidence, are worth a few bigoted jabs.

“I absolutely love everything about my life, and I don’t fit into anybody else’s definition of who I’m supposed to be. I can be authentic, and there is [no] shame about who I am.”

36 | AUSTIN WOMAN | APRIL 2021

ATXWOMAN.COM | 37

BEYOND THE STORM

The Farmhouse Delivery family has proven that not even an Arctic storm can stop them from feeding their community.

BY CY WHITE

There’s a chill in the air. Not totally unexpected on a February morning, but this feels...different. This is a biting cold, a freeze that slices through clothes, down to the bone. It’s eerily quiet. There isn’t even the phantom hum of currents, the mostly unnoticed sound of a house breathing with electricity. That’s when the realization hits: You don’t have power.

This was the scene most of Texas woke up to the day after celebrating Valentine’s Day. An unprecedented freeze clutched the Lone Star state by the throat and choked its citizens with a collective fear not felt since March of last year, when the COVID-19 virus hit pandemic levels. For weeks many were left without electricity (which meant no heat) and burst pipes (no water). The roads remained unplowed and dangerous to walk on, let alone drive upon. Then a new fear spread like a thick sheet of ice over Lake Travis: How are we going to get food?

For farmers this ubiquitous uncertainty took on a different shade altogether. Entire crops, lost. Animals in danger of freezing. With no electricity, ethical dairy producers like Richardson Farms had no means to milk cows primed for regular milking. This, of course, is a gateway for leaking and infection. Hens were not only refusing to lay eggs, they were freezing to death.

Then there was the horrific realization that Austin communities, their own neighbors and employees were left with few necessities and fewer answers. Farmhouse Delivery, an online service that delivers fresh food from their own farm as well as a multitude of farmers and artisans sourced throughout Texas, was put in an even more precarious situation. The Farmhouse story is layered. It all starts with a young woman named Stephanie Scherzer who had an interest in horticulture.

When the opportunity arose to buy her own land, she and her partner, Kim Beal, did so, and Scherzer got a flash of inspiration after eating her first farm-grown foods and experiencing farmer’s markets. “I was doing it as a hobby,” she reveals. “I love farmer’s markets, the community of people. But I just said, ‘Man, this model is so challenging, to work full time, then have to go on the weekends.’ So I thought I’d try to sell to some restaurants. I had friends over at Vespaio, and they taught me how to bundle things and just worked with me. Then I was like, ‘I really would like to feed my people and my community and let my neighbors taste this food and other producers my size. Why isn’t that out there?

Why doesn’t that exist? How do we do it cleanly?’ So it kind of started out as an idea of a CSA, but more if I could buy from other farmers and if we could bundle it together with the best thing in season, and get it to people’s doors.”

With a history of building from the ground up and incredible resiliency, Farmhouse Delivery has proven its ability to weather any 38 | AUSTIN WOMAN | APRIL 2021

storm. “That’s what’s been really hard with COVID and stuff,” Scherzer says. “Farmhouse really thrives in this crisis.” However, this was an unprecedented weather event the likes of which Texas in general, Austin in particular, could have never foreseen. “I don’t think we knew how devastating the lack of power [was going to be],” she says. “February is our coldest month, but we can have really erratic temperature changes. I think what was really hard with this storm were the days that were below freezing, when we never came out of that.”

There are layers to the complexity of navigating a freeze like this.

Yes, Austin has had its overnight frost-overs, as in February 2011, when temperatures got as low as 17 degrees. Austin isn’t a tropical island. Winter still is an eventuality that farmers have to plan for, never mind how unpredictable Austin’s weather can be throughout the year. “Farming in Texas is just so challenging because we can shift 60 degrees in a day,” she says with a rueful chuckle. “Is it spring? Is it freezing? So conservative farmers were like, ‘Hey, you shouldn’t have a lot on the ground in February.’ Farming’s gambling,” she continues. “So they’re pushing the envelope and pushing what they can and trying to get away with it.”

However, nothing on the scale of this year’s Arctic blast has occurred for over 30 years—back in December 1989, when temperatures hit a bracing 4 degrees. How does one plan for several days of freezing weather in a state that doesn’t even have basics like salt and snow shovels, let alone snow plows and winterized pipes?

Ultimately, at this point, the goal is to just survive and help as many as you can when you can. “We took in six people during the storm,” Scherzer shares. “I have a 2-year-old and a 9-year-old, a dog and two cats…a fish tank that didn’t make it.”

You can’t talk about the storm without emphasizing the very real peril of the first day after the snowfall. The aftermath that followed crippled Austin, many of its citizens without water and food several weeks after officials declared the city back to full functionality. With each passing day, Farmhouse Delivery had to readjust and adapt, in ways perhaps they never would’ve imagined. With a bevy of produce, dairy and various artisans relying on the online delivery service to get their goods to the general public, Farmhouse Delivery’s first priority was how to ensure those under their purview were taken care of. “We thought Three Sisters Farms were going to be okay, but the entire Sisters crop is gone,” Scherzer says, unable to mask the hurt and concern in her voice. “The onions, they’re not sure about. We were a week or two weeks from artichokes coming from the Valley, and he just hasn’t even responded to our call. These are larger growers. The

Photo by Laura Hajar.

Stephanie Scherzer, Carol Ann Sayle and Tracy Geyer at Boggy Creek

ATXWOMAN.COM | 39

40 | AUSTIN WOMAN | APRIL APRIL2021 2021

Photo by Laura Hajar.

Stephanie Scherzer, founder and CEO of Farmhouse Delivery

ones around us, we did have warning that it was going to be [a bad storm], and we were trying to make plans as best we could,” she continues. “We just reached out to everyone and said, ‘Look, whatever you can harvest just bring it in and we’ll find a home for it.’ Our warehouse was full because of that.”

But let’s be honest here. This was never just about the storm. After the snow actually settled, Austin’s general population took to their yards, to the streets even, to take part in one of the few “real” winters they’d ever experienced.

Many Austinites, people who’ve called Austin home for decades, revelled in the promise of snowmen and angels, snowball fights, taking a chomp of a fresh layer of powdery flakes—many for the first time in their lives. Then the next day, more snow, more ice. The temperature kept plummeting. Suddenly the electricity for many cut out, then cut out for everybody on the grid. Burst pipes, houses and apartments flooded with the literal rainfall coming from their walls and ceilings.

This wasn’t about a couple days of snow and ice. This was about trying to survive, and many people did not. As of the writing of this article, the Travis County medical examiner had processed over 80 casualties since Feb. 13. That’s just the number reported. The final count was still unknown and will likely take months to fully process. While some might not be directly related to complications with the storm, it’s fair to say that several dozen were.

“The impact emotionally of all the stress and everything,” Scherzer says. “We have close to 90 employees, and I think 75 were affected. That’s when it really flipped for me,” she reveals. “We brought everything in and said, ‘Okay, we’re not gonna come in on that Friday.’ [That] was the plan. But it was worse than we thought, nobody could drive. Just seeing the images...I had employees who had water coming out of their ceiling fans, the sides of their walls. Someone’s car exploded. Another one’s engine cracked. So just the labor and having to flip and work 16-hour days, I felt all this responsibility because we did have all this food and our community was starving.”

With cries for help whipping in the wind, local organizations like Austin Mutual Aid, Austin Street Forum, Central Texas Food Bank and DAWA Heals took up the mantle and dug in with hands and feet to help those who needed it most. There again, Farmhouse Delivery was ready to go to work. “We worked with skeleton crews around the clock with who could come in or not,” says Scherzer. “We kind of worked a nine-day stretch because we worked through the weekend to get everything from the week that we all missed and into our regular week. Then with everybody panic buying...I came in Monday and we already had sold the biggest [number of orders], even since COVID, that we’ve ever had.” Scherzer had to stop all online orders because the demand was just too great. “We literally just physically couldn’t do it,” she says. “I was packing boxes, our marketing team was packing boxes. Everybody got hands-on. Then we did flip and do some essential boxes, where we allowed people to drive through,” she continues. “We sold out of those in less than two hours. So we had two days of just pick-ups. A minority of those people weren’t even regular customers. They’d just heard from friends of friends and needed some food, so we kind of just took what we had.”

When emergency provisions became difficult to provide across the city, again organizations stepped up to the plate to fill in the gaps. Farmhouse Delivery was right there, raising money and corralling food donations in ways that could truly help their community. “Predating to the beginning of COVID, the team launched the Donate a Box program,” says Victoria Villarreal, a freelance PR consultant for Farmhouse Delivery. “As of April 1 [of last year], customers could donate a box, and it made it really easy to find those organizations. Over $84,000 has been donated to organizations throughout Texas that are chosen by the Farmhouse team.”

“I figured if we had this many people coming through, we better do something to help our community as well,” Scherzer adds. “We knew our community was hurting. I think we worked with 10 different nonprofits. Saffron Trust is one that we just started, and we’re going to be ongoing with them, which I’m really excited about. We helped a farmer in Houston that got their tractor stolen. We bought laptops for kids at American Youthworks; we bought food for Good Work Austin.”

BOGGY CREEK VIA TRACY GEYER Please share a brief description about the damages to your farm.

Like all of the other farms we’ve had great losses in the fields and even in our hoop houses and greenhouse. We lost about 50% of our crops in the fields, 25% of crops in the hoop houses and seedlings in the greenhouse.

For an entire week during the storm we were unable to open our farmstand, so we lost income there. It took an additional two weeks to assess the damages to our crops. We grow from seeds, so we had to order more to replenish our spring seedlings.

The hens all survived. Carol Ann slushed through the snow and ice numerous times daily, carrying boiling water and breaking ice so they had fresh water to drink. Due to not having electricity for five days, we had many pipes break, including two breaks in our well piping. Our field manager, Monica Sanders, walked 45 minutes each way, twice daily to check and change out propane tanks (we had to buy more), generating heat in our greenhouse to minimize fatalities.

What are your top needs to get back to work (seeds, new equipment, fixing property damage, etc.)?

Because we save money when the farm is doing well, and we are so diverse in our farmstand offerings (meat, dairy, baked goods, etc.), we are prepared to suffer losses when disaster strikes. This has gotten us through many horrible times; we know it would be foolish to think the good times will last forever.

We fortunately don’t need outside assistance other than for people to shop at our farmstand. We genuinely appreciate the support we receive from the community.

Will you be back to a “normal” sense of business? Spring? Summer?

We gradually will be back to “normal.” We are planting continuously, and as long as we keep doing that it will be a great spring!

Farmers must be able to be resilient; when we are knocked down, we get right back up! We never give up!

ATXWOMAN.COM | 41

STEELBOW FARM VIA FINEGAN FERREBOEUF How are you feeling right now? How did the freeze affect your farm? Did you lose product and if so how much?

We are feeling slightly relieved, eager to get back to work and grateful to our community for all of the support.

Going into the storm we were expecting a total crop loss in the field. In the hope of preventing that we did utilize row cover to protect most everything in the field. After the snow melted and the ice thawed, we were able to assess the damage, and we were pleasantly surprised that a lot of our crops pulled through. That said, there was a substantial amount of crop loss, around 30%.

We had to suspend sales and pause the weekly veggie box subscription. The farm has definitely taken a big hit, but we will replant and reseed and keep on growing food for our community.

What are you doing to mitigate the effects? Will you be able to replant?

In order to make up for lost income we are feverishly planting, and we are planning on upping production for the spring and summer. The good thing about growing food in Central Texas is that we have a large window for most crop production. The good thing about farming is there is always another season, another chance. We are committed to growing and feeding and changing our local food system. Winter Storm Uri has only deepened our commitment to creating resilient farms and healthy, thriving communities.

What can people do to help support your farm?

The best way to support us is to join our Veggie Box program. It will be back up and running again in early-mid March. The Veggie Box is a subscription of organic, restaurant-quality vegetables and some add-ons as well. If interested visit our website, steelbowfarm.com, or follow us on Instagram @steelbowfarm.

42 | AUSTIN WOMAN | APRIL 2021

The trauma of the unknown: Is my water running? Is it clean? Will my electricity be on tomorrow? How am I going to feed my family? The entire city of Austin was in limbo (some neighborhoods still are), wondering what their next steps should be to protect themselves.

Farmhouse Delivery took on a burden of responsibility to not just themselves, but their employees and their families. Scherzer’s first thought was about those around her. “Just talking to Dorsey (Barger of HausBar Farms), she’s like, ‘I’m still dealing with the trauma.

I’m not pushing myself to do what I can do.’ But on the restaurant side of it, the demand was really hard. The fact that it happened right at Valentine’s and everyone was expecting this push, and then it just went away. Double whammy.”

As a group with that much pressure on their shoulders, surely the Farmhouse family was deserving of some aid of their own. But when speaking on what kind of help she received, there again, Scherzer puts the focus back on the people around her. “We kind of take care of our own,” she says. “We checked in on all our employees. I can’t tell you how many landlords and apartment complex managers I spoke to in both Spanish and English, raising some absolute hell for the employees who aren’t getting the responses that they need. We’ve been cooking internally a lot, family meals and also takeout meals for people. We made huge batches of carne asada so people just didn’t have to worry about that. We’ve started carpooling, picking people up so they can come into the office. We balanced out everybody’s pay so everybody got what they would’ve gotten whether or not they could make it in. We’re really supportive of each other.”

So now what? How do we heal, recover from something like this? The weather in Austin, being as temperamental as it is, would have you believe the week of Feb. 14 didn’t even happen. One week after one of the most devastating weather events in recent history for the state, the temperature was around 75 degrees, birds were singing, skies were blue. There wasn’t a spot of moisture on the ground. It’s like the entire state’s slate was wiped clean, and we were somehow supposed to just move on. The recovery process for everyone continued well after the storm. In fact many people are still trying to pick up the pieces. “For farmers, they till the fields,” Scherzer says matter-of-factly. “You assess the loss, and you pull out what you can. And you just plant more seed and start over, essentially. Farmers are pretty resilient, and this is what they’ve committed to. So they’re gonna fight to the end.”

Through it all, Scherzer passes no blame. Sure, she’s had her moments of anger and disappointment. “This was unprecedented, even for the Midwest,” she says. “Our system failed. I think that’s the biggest emotion afterwards. I’m just angry, I’m just really pissed off that, you know, dollars over people. It’s just so clear, and it’s so wrong, and the impact has been so great on the lives of so many people. To think a four-day ice storm could bring Texas to its knees is just mind-blowing.”

But she’s determined to keep any negativity about what could’ve been done and who should take responsibility out of her circle. Frankly, that’s not what’s important. Even in the wake of the mandatory mask mandate being lifted, restaurants and public spaces being completely re-opened, it’s always about keeping her employees safe, keeping her neighbors safe, keeping her family safe. No storm, not even a pandemic, can change that for Scherzer.

“Internally we’re going to figure out how we can navigate a bit better,” she says. “Because I don’t do it perfectly. A lot of it is grit, and we’re just a very determined group. The people that work for me, I always say we’re like in Rudolph, the [Island of Misfit Toys],” she says, the comparison puffing out of her on a breathy chuckle. “We’re kind of a mixed group.

People believe in what they’re doing and that’s why they’re there. They really care about what we’re doing.”

Her passion for farming, for creating life and hope for those who find it hard to create any for themselves, is at the forefront of her mind. Her latest flare of inspiration comes from helping new farmers succeed. “There’s a new group of women farmers that are emerging that are younger that personally within Farmhouse we’re going to shine a light on,” she reveals. “It’s kind of the next generation.”

The Farmhouse Delivery family is a strong unit, built on a love of fresh food, growth and creativity. That family’s matriarch, Stephanie Scherzer, is a shining example of what it means to give willingly and from the heart. The farmers and producers around her are testament to that. “It’s been a really challenging and exciting year for me,” says Scherzer. “It’s proved all of my hard work, that regional food systems and this type of local distribution works to feed your community. When everything was breaking on a national level, our relationships and our partners stayed strong, and they could grow with us. As hard as it’s been, it’s also been really exciting because of just that hard work,” she continues. “This is real, and as crazy as the world is getting, I think more and more we need to learn how to feed our community closer.”

Photo by Laura Hajar.

Dorsey Barger and Gustavo the Goose of HausBar Farms

ATXWOMAN.COM | 43

THE FEED

BRINGING MORE THAN FOOD TO THE TABLE

Emily Mares, volunteer engagement manager at The Central Texas Food Bank, shares facts and resources for those in need.

BY ALLIE JUSTIS

The Central Texas Food Bank is literally and figuratively bringing

their best to the table in response to the crises rocking Central Texas this year.

One of many setting the bar for the fight against hunger is Emily Mares, the volunteer engagement manager at the Central Texas Food Bank. Mares provides context about the role of the food bank, as well as advice for the millions of people facing food insecurity this year.

“Our mission is to lead the fight against hunger and to feed our hungry neighbors,” says Mares. “We serve an area that is 21 counties, which is twice the size of Massachusetts, so we’re serving quite a large region.”

Mares shared a few sobering statistics about how the pandemic has massively affected the Texas community. Namely, before the pandemic the Central Texas Food Bank used to spend an average of $100,000 a month on food for its clients, but now that number has jumped to over $1 million a month in order to provide the proper resources for the community.

Although there has been a dramatic increase in need, especially after the winter storm that devastated lower income communities in Central Texas, Mares says the outpouring of support from Austinites has been extraordinary.

“We had so many people reaching out asking how they could help and how they could help get food to the people who needed it,” says Mares. “We even posted a last-minute volunteer shift during the storm. It filled up in nine minutes, which is the fastest we’ve ever seen a shift fill up. We also set personal records at Amplify Austin this year, raising more than 2.8 million meals, which was the most we’ve ever made.”

Mares emphasized that now more than ever is the perfect time for Austinites to get involved in their communities, since food insecurity is affecting so many Texas citizens.

“Prior to the pandemic, we knew that 1 in 7 adults in central Texas were facing hunger. Over the summer, that number changed to 1 in 5,” says Mares. “So 20% of adults in Texas overall are being impacted by hunger. Also before the pandemic, 1 in 5 children in central Texas were at risk of hunger, but now that number has also increased to 1 in 4. So we are definitely seeing that increase in people that are food insecure in our area.”

For Mares, working with nonprofits has always been a dream, and though her current role has quite the workload, she insists it is some of the most rewarding work she could have ever hoped for.

44 | AUSTIN WOMAN | APRIL 2021

“I hadn’t quite anticipated that taking this position with the food bank would put me in the middle of a pandemic supporting the essential service of feeding our community,” says Mares. “But I am so glad it did. I am grateful for every member of the Central Texas Food Bank team, our volunteers and our donors who make it possible to do this good work.”

HOW TO GET INVOLVED

Mares supplied various resources for how to get involved with the fight against hunger. Whether through volunteer work or donations, there are plenty of options.

To volunteer, visit centraltexasfoodbank.org, then click the orange “Volunteer” button. Select the type of volunteering you’re interested in to see the full schedule, create an account and then register for a volunteer spot. The site also has a new option to start a virtual food drive. Raising one dollar creates four free meals for the community.

“That is one of my favorite things about living in Austin,” says Mares. “There are a plethora of nonprofits no matter what speaks to your heart. There are really niche organizations that you can find and get plugged in from there. Austin is such an engaged community, and at the food bank we have just been overwhelmed by the response from the community.”

HOW TO GET HELP

On the other side of the spectrum, if you or someone you know is experiencing food insecurity, Mares has provided several different resources that will help.

“Go to centraltexasfoodbank.org and click on ‘Find Food Now.’ Once you find the distribution site nearest you, please call them to confirm their hours of operation since details are subject to change,” says Mares. “If you need help finding a food pantry or applying for SNAP or other benefits, please call our toll-free hotline: 1.855.366.3401.”

People in need can also dial 211, another free option that will connect you to a variety of resources.

“Please don’t hesitate to ask for help if you need it,” Mares insists.

“You deserve to have the food you need to survive and thrive. There are people out there who desperately want to help you and your family get the help you need, especially at the Central Texas Food Bank. That’s why we exist, to make it as easy as possible for our hungry neighbors to access the food you need.”

“”

Photo courtesy of The Central Texas Food Bank.

Prior to the pandemic, we knew that 1 in 7 adults in central Texas were facing hunger.

Over the summer, that number changed to 1 in 5.

ATXWOMAN.COM | 45

ON THE MONEY

INVESTING WITH PURPOSE

There’s no better time than the present to learn how to put your money where your heart is.

BY JENNY HOFF

Y

ou don’t have to be a multimillionaire to invest in social good. In fact, many investors today—even those contributing less than a hundred dollars a month to an investment—are becoming pickier about the companies they support. Luckily, there are several apps and funds that make it easy for you to choose to invest in companies that support your values and are still profitable.

Ellevest is a great platform that provides financial advice and helps you invest in companies that are run by women, are contributing to social causes you care about and are lower risk so you can feel better about getting a return on your investment.

With no minimum investment amount, it’s easy to get started. Ellevest also offers career and financial coaching to members, so if you’re not sure how to get started with investing, you can get help from a female financial expert.

If you care about a specific cause, there is likely a fund that supports companies promoting that cause or aiming to solve the problem. Through Reinvestment Fund, you can help restore impoverished communities in the United States; Domini Impact Investments provides funds that include companies positively impacting the world and environment; and Farmland LP is a fund that buys conventional farmland and transforms it into an organic,

“”

sustainable growth model. These aren’t charities—they are funds that will likely allow you to make money from your investment while still promoting a social good.

Perhaps you’re already investing in a mutual fund or 401(k) and you want to know more about the companies you own stock in. Look no further than the website As You Sow, which categorizes funds based on important causes, such as gender-equality funds, deforestation-free funds, weaponsfree funds and fossil fuel-free funds. You can search for a fund you invest in or a company you’re curious about to see if it’s one you want to support.

You can also look for an independent financial advisor who can help you achieve your goal of social-impact investing. You may have to do some research and interview several before you find someone you can trust to put together a portfolio for you that aligns with your values.

Make sure the advisor understands your motivations for impact investing and has a proven track record of investing in that space.

There is no guarantee with any investment what you’ll earn. Some investments lose money, some hold stable, while others can earn you a large percentage in returns each year. Of course, there are safer investments—like bonds or a global stock index fund which is highly diversified. But nothing is without risk. If you care deeply about a cause or want to make the world into a place you feel is safer and healthier, you don’t necessarily need to start a nonprofit organization or run for office. You can simply begin by investing in the companies and organizations that are working to make your vision happen.

If you’re not sure how to get started with investing, you can get help from a female financial expert.

46 | AUSTIN WOMAN | APRIL 2021

I AM AUSTIN WOMAN

LET’S JUST SEE WHAT HAPPENS

Mariam Parker stands on the shoulders of the women who helped her become the passionate organizer she is today.

was going to do with my career. So I took a job at a local bank, where I eventually met a great mentor in Sheila Bostick Lastrapes. In addition to taking me to some fabulous luncheons, she encouraged me to focus on my strengths and nudged me into facing challenges. She also made it a point to introduce me to dynamic and hardworking women—including Melinda Garvey, the founder of Austin Woman magazine.

After meeting Garvey, I would faithfully grab a copy of the magazine each month so I could read about all of the wonderful women featured while trying to find myself in their stories. One day, in the December 2010 edition, I did. I happened upon an article about a culinary consultant named Cathy Cochran-Lewis. She worked with chefs and traveled the world doing marketing and PR. Eager to combine my marketing talents with a lifelong interest in the food world, I quickly emailed her and asked if she would consider an intern. I wanted to learn from her so badly I was willing to work for free.

Though she kindly declined my offer, she did give me some invaluable advice and we stayed in touch.

A year or so went by and she reached out. She asked me if I would consider being the interim executive director of a new nonprofit that would plan food events and give grants to local food businesses. I protested. I had never run a nonprofit nor planned an event for more than 200 people. She replied, “Let’s just see what happens.” Little did I know, she was handing me my dream job.

That nonprofit turned out to be the Austin Food & Wine Alliance, which became the Texas Food & Wine Alliance in 2020. For the past 10 years, I have had an opportunity to grow in unimaginable ways. Running a nonprofit in any industry isn’t easy or glamourous, but every day, I feel grateful to give back to the community. I work with incredibly talented chefs who are passionate about making an impact; plan an annual conference for high school students interested in pursuing a culinary career and work with amazing business owners, farmers, artisans and other professionals who are innovating the way we look at and appreciate food.

I can’t imagine being able to accomplish all that without having a supportive board, an incredible team and my mentor, Cathy, to back me on some of my crazy ideas.

Through our efforts, we have hosted around 3,000 high school students and have given away over $362,500 in grants to support businesses, nonprofits and school programs.

How cool is that? I still can’t believe I get to give money away for a living.

Last year, the alliance was set to have an incredible year, with record-breaking grantgiving and an expansion across Texas. Then the pandemic happened. After spending a few days (okay, a week) curled up in a ball, eating ice cream in bed and watching Tiger King, I decided that the only way for the organization to get through this difficult time was by focusing on what we could control. Just because we couldn’t plan culinary events didn’t mean we couldn’t continue helping others.

We planned bake sales to support local bakers and pastry chefs, rolled out a relief fund to help support some of our grant recipients, helped our friends at Good Work Austin apply for grants to fund their AISD partnership and supported programs like Austin Shift Meal that feed unemployed hospitality workers. That was just the beginning. We launched an online cooking show called Alliance Academy to showcase chefs and provide them with some revenue, and curated a holiday box featuring treats from Texas chefs. All the uncertainty was scary, but I still went with Cathy’s initial words of encouragement: “Let’s just see what happens.” It has frankly gotten me pretty far.

48 | AUSTIN WOMAN | APRIL 2021

That included saying yes to continuing our expansion across the state. Some folks may think it was a crazy idea, but I know that our organization can impact Texas food when this pandemic is over. Our friends in other cities need our support as they rebuild after the pandemic. There are so many amazing makers, farmers and food businesses who could use grants to help propel them to the next level.

If you asked me at 22 years old if I imagined this for myself, I would have thought you were out of your mind, but this is a classic Austin story. Many of our careers have been shaped by who we met along the way. I owe so much to the women who opened doors for me, believed in me even in those times I was uncertain of my own capabilities. In return, I consider it my duty and passion to pay it forward. Whether it’s a young high school student interested in being a grocery buyer, an artisan who needs a nudge or an employee who has immense potential, it has been a joy to “see what happens” with a new generation.

Photo by Chelsea Laine Francis.

After graduating from the University of Texas, I was still trying to figure out what I

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