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Oral Histories

The SFA oral history program documents life stories from the American South. Collecting these stories, we honor the people whose labor defines the region. If you would like to contribute to SFA’s oral history collections, please send your ideas for oral history along with your CV or Resume and a portfolio of prior oral history work to info@southernfoodways.org.

< Back to Oral History project: Charleston Chewies

< Back to Oral History project: Southern Baking

ORAL HISTORY

Faith DeLeon Alston

Elegant Treats Bakery

Faith DeLeon Alston is the owner of Elegant Treats Bakery, and she currently lives and bakes her wildly creative variations of chewies in Moncks Corner, South Carolina. Her family roots, however, run deep in neighboring Mount Pleasant. She spent much of her early childhood there, enjoying food home-cooked food by her grandmother, Pearl Manigault. Alston often feels her ancestor’s spirits (including Manigault’s) guiding her in the kitchen, and she considers her baking and her life rooted in her spirituality. She offers a wide variety of sweet treats, including 66 flavor variations of chewies, which range from orange cranberry to snickerdoodle and cookies-and-cream. Although Alston closed Elegant Treats Bakery’s retail storefront in Moncks Corner, she does offer online ordering, with pick up or delivery for her baked goods.

Date of interview:
2023-06-08

Interviewer:
Stephanie Burt

Photographer:
Jonathan Cooper

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