New SXSW Film Highlights Small Business Owners and the Power of Resilience

variety.com:

Natalie M. Engler When talking about small businesses surviving the pandemic, resilience is a word often used to describe how they struggled, pivoted and ultimately succeeded.

The story of Cherilyn Yazzie, co-owner of Coffee Pot Farms, showcases one example of such endurance and resilience.It takes three hours for the average Navajo Nation resident to reach a grocery store.

Across more than 27,000 square miles, there are only 13 grocery stores for the more than 150,000 Navajo citizens who live within the borders of the reservation.

As a Navajo woman struggling with these challenges herself, Yazzie saw an urgent need to address the lack of access to fresh produce and sought to bring nutritious food to the reservation and surrounding communities. “I spent 13 years on the reservation as a social worker focused on nutrition, but recommending people eat healthier doesn’t have much impact when fresh, whole foods aren’t available,” says Yazzie. “My goal with Coffee Pot Farms was to not only provide my own produce options for the community, but to also inspire others within the reservations to start farming so that future generations can live long, healthy lives and continue sharing their traditions and culture.”Though Yazzie and her husband, Mike Hester, learned to farm and grow their own food only about six years ago, Coffee Pot Farms – a one-acre farm situated within 36 acres of completely off-the-grid land in Dilkon, Arizona – now grows over 20 different crops.