We will support sustainable practices for healthier communities and landscapes.
There’s okra, grits, sweet corn and some of the finest beef around. There’s chocolate from Ghana, Little Debbies, Chattanooga Whiskey, James Beard-nominated chefs, three sisters gardens, homegrown bread, mobile markets, local neighborhood grocery stores, four generations of hinterland farmers, markets, mocktails and a deli straight out of New York City.
Can we offer you a taste of the ways food creates our community?
Let’s start with Crabtree Farms, a 22-acre urban farm in Clifton Hills, a neighborhood populated with all the signs of generational poverty: pawn shops, liquor stores, used car lots.
In the past, Crabtree Farms was the largest slave-holding plantation in Hamilton County. Home to forced removal, the land has a history in tremendous violence.
Today, Crabtree leaders set an intention: build community and heal.
In 2020, they began asking a series of questions:
What if we engaged the predominantly Black and Latino populations outside our door?
Through cooking classes, language classes and steadily knocking on doors, leaders slowly built relationships and trust.
Black farmers are endangered in the South; today, only 1% of American farmers identify as Black. Crabtree leaders gave him a 100 x 100 plot of land with instructions: let’s see how much food you can grow.
He formed a chakra garden, then, more importantly, invited others to join him. Over time, he introduced some 80 new people to farming, many of whom told him: I’m going home and growing my own food now. It was a turning point.
Thanks to this man, Crabtree created an Emerging Farmers program, which offers four 50x100 plots to farmers who wouldn’t otherwise have access.
In these plots, people grow communally, not separately. Crabtree partners with nonprofit groups in the region, who bring clients and friends to the farm.
“There is no program that I have ever seen throughout the 10 countries I’ve been to that has such an accessible and inclusive gardening program like Crabtree Farms,” one woman said.
Today, Crabtree represents one of the most inclusive agricultural sites in Hamilton County, if not the entire South.
Southerners and Chattanoogans are dangerously obese and unhealthy. We face obstacles to fresh, local food. Generational stigmas remain among many families of color, who distance themselves from the land and farming. Farmers of all races are losing farmland at an astonishing rate, and the barriers to entry are equally discouraging.
We cannot solve all these problems.
What if local food and farm-to-table agriculture held top priority in the minds of everyday Chattanoogans and the policies of elected Chattanoogans?
What if we created a centralized food hub, giving growers and buyers a legitimate place to expand connection and services?
We have champions across the city: nonprofits, families, public and private leaders, gutsy, DIY individuals who start working, come hell or high water.
A 22-acre urban farm offering community gardens, market vegetables and fruits and educational opportunities for all Chattanoogans.
