Misty Gabriel Community Leader by Jess Jordan
As the sun peaked over the trees this morning, Misty Gabriel lifted her eyes from her downward facing dog and scanned her full yoga studio. The entire room breathed in unison to the sound of Gabriel’s voice, a gentle reminder to breathe in through the nose and out through the nose. Gabriel could feel her mind wandering to her impending responsibilities for the day, but she silenced it with her breath. In through the nose, out through the nose.
Gabriel finished teaching her yoga class with one final breath, leaning towards her studio with an open heart. It was only 7 AM, yet Gabriel had already impacted a room full of people.
By noon that day, Gabriel was elbows deep in research on food access in Winston-Salem. As a member of the Beta Verde team, an organization dedicated to producing local food and supporting local businesses, Gabriel works on concrete steps to expand food access in Forsyth County. The first step for Gabriel is simple: the Winston-Salem Shared Kitchen Project.
Through the Winston-Salem Shared Kitchen Project, Gabriel and the other members of Beta Verde aim to create sustainable opportunities for local businesses. In order to meet the needs of Winston, Gabriel holds community input sessions during which local businesses can share their thoughts and needs. She reviews and manages the funding in creative ways so that programs like this can be accessible for everyone in the community, regardless of their income.
On Saturday mornings, Gabriel takes a break from planning the shared kitchen space to work the Farmer Foodshare Table at Cobblestone Farmer’s Market. Here she encourages market goers to donate money or produce so that all of Winston-Salem can have access to healthier food options. Gabriel arrives at the market at 8:00 AM each Saturday to prepare for a day full of educating shoppers about food access and interacting with the farmers. Through this table, Gabriel connects people who grow food with people who need food.
Gabriel has found life to be the most meaningful when she cultivates her skills to better her community. Community, however, is a continuously changing concept for Gabriel. She and her husband have moved often for his job as a college basketball coach, which can be challenging. However, each move has brought a unique set of skills and the ability to adapt.
“Since we have moved so much, I sometimes feel myself itching for that change and that unknown,” Gabriel said. “As soon as I’m in a new place, I don’t waste any time digging in. Where are those places I want to eat? Where are those places I want to shop? How can I feel connected?”
Upon moving to Winston-Salem two years ago, Gabriel quickly found the Cobblestone Farmer’s Market as a place to shop and feel connected. She began shopping at there for local and sustainably grown food and developed a close relationship with the market’s founder, Margaret Norfleet Neff.
Food had not always been Gabriel’s top priority, however. Although long interested in food and health, she dismissed these as “hobbies.” Ten years ago, she graduated from Ohio University with a degree in design and marketing, but an unclear vision for her future. Gabriel applied her marketing skills to the business world, working for a year as a marketing coordinator in Ohio, but did not feel fulfilled.
“I felt in my gut that I wanted to do something with more meaning and that I wasn’t being fulfilled by my job,” Gabriel explained. “Once you start reflecting on how quickly time passes, you start to wonder why you’re spending any time doing something that isn’t meaningful.”
Over the next eight years, Gabriel used her marketing skills at six different jobs, ranging from sales associate at Kohl’s to marketing manager at an all-girls school in Raleigh. Although each experience was different, her passion for food issues grew. She found herself reading articles each night about the inhuman treatment of animals, statistics on excessive food waste, and food systems as a whole. When Gabriel attended a Leadership in Sustainable Food System Certificate Program at the University of Vermont in June 2014, she felt all the pieces coming together as she learned different ways food is grown, harvested, consumed and disposed.
“It just all started to take shape in my mind — this whole cycle of food systems, how it is all connected and what it really means,” Gabriel said.
Cobblestone Farmer’s Market in Winston-Salem has largely contributed to Gabriel’s exploration of food systems. Working at the Farmer Foodshare table connected Gabriel to local farmers and deepened her sense of community here in Winston. At the end of her first summer working there, Gabriel’s dedication and organized were noticed and the market manager offered Gabriel a job working at Beta Verde. This is where she channels most of her energy now, working with other community members on food projects supporting local businesses and community building through shared food spaces, like the Winston-Salem Shared Kitchen Project.
Eric Gabriel, Misty’s husband, believes her biggest strength is her persistence. “She never just settled,” he said. “A lot of people in their jobs just settle in. For her, she was never satisfied with that. She still isn’t. She wakes up and talks everyday about having a bigger impact.”
Each day, Gabriel does make a bigger impact. She credits her good listening skills as part of the big reason she can help the Winston-Salem community and has enjoyed watching different parts of the community come together to help increase access to food for people who typically don’t have these opportunities. While Gabriel initiates the shared use kitchen space, Cobblestone Farmer’s Market and the Farmer Foodshare Table are also expanding to include a full week market and to include more farmers.
Gabriel also teaches vinyasa yoga at Dancing Dogs in Greensboro. For her, yoga is a holistic approach to physical wellbeing and aligns with her health values. Training to become a yoga teacher helped her move past her tendency to overthink and eased some anxieties she had about the future.
“One of the big things I took away from yoga teacher training is not to ‘should’ on yourself,” Gabriel said. “I used to be really hard on myself. Now I just keep trying to make progress every day and trust that I am going somewhere. I am moving.”
Becky Filar, one of Gabriel’s closest and oldest friends, credits Gabriel’s passion as her biggest strength. “When Misty gets excited about something, you’re going to know she is excited about something. And then she will make sure you get excited about that too.”
Gabriel’s longer-term goal is to open a holistic wellness center featuring yoga classes, nutrition counseling and a shared kitchen space. She hopes it can be a place where people come together to share a passion for food and healthy life choices.
“I still question every day,” she said. “Where can I go next? Am I doing enough? I think that’s natural for anyone who starts to feel passionately about something. I am always moving to the next step.”
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