☀️ Third episode of the special curated Summer Series of Do The “_” Thing Podcast: Capital Meets Impact. 🌻 I sit down with Dishaun Harris, founder of RootLife.org, for a deeply rooted conversation about food, land, health, community, and what it means to build impact from within. So far in this Summer series, we have explored capital through fundraising, profit-with-purpose entrepreneurship, and investment. In this episode, Dishaun expands the conversation in a deeply necessary way by reminding us that capital is not only money. Capital can also be food, land, trust, community wisdom, local labor, cultural knowledge, and the infrastructure that allows a community to feed, heal, and sustain itself. Dishaun is a food systems entrepreneur and community-rooted infrastructure builder working at the intersection of food justice, health, land access, and local economic resilience. Born and raised in New Haven, Connecticut, Dishaun began noticing a painful pattern in his community: people he loved were passing away from diet-related illnesses, yet these losses were often overlooked or treated as isolated tragedies. Through his lived experience, community relationships, and growing understanding of public health and food systems, he began asking a different question: What would it look like to rebuild health, food access, and local power from the ground up? Through RootLife.org, Dishaun is not simply growing food. He is helping create community infrastructure — gardens, education, local food systems, value-added products, healing spaces, youth engagement, and pathways for people to reconnect with the land and with one another. In this conversation, we explore: • How grassroots work often begins before formal structures arrive • Why community ownership matters in food, health, and social entrepreneurship • The connection between land access, health disparities, systemic racism, and capital • Why Dishaun sees agriculture as both survival and superpower • How documenting authentic work can attract the right kind of support • What it means to build infrastructure where money, skills, food, and care circulate within the community Dishaun reminds us that impact is not always about becoming the hero of a community. Sometimes, it is about helping create the conditions where everyone can grow, contribute, feed one another, and build something that lasts. RootLife.org is a beautiful example of what happens when lived experience, ancestral wisdom, systems thinking, and community care come together. Dear Listeners, If something in this conversation resonated, feel free to share your reflections. Warmly, Sheela Sometimes the purpose we’re called to do begins long before we know how to name it.
