Grow Hope Urban Farm + Hope for the Inner City

Hope for the Inner City is an organization that serves those who are economically and/or spiritually poor in East Chattanooga by engaging, investing, and empowering them to be relieved of poverty for good. Part of what makes this area susceptible to remaining in the cycle of poverty is the lack of food systems in East Chattanooga. They strive to fight this through food distribution as well as their Grow Hope Urban Farm.

Our $3,000 grant went to purchase materials and supplies as well as rent machinery to move soil and compost. Material needs will also consist of seeds, plants, permanent beds, perennial borders, and pollinator strips for the 2023 season. Let’s get excited for the 37404 and 37406 community. This summer they can come together over produce, herbs and the journey to health equity.

Growing More Food on Main St | Taking Root Community Garden

Being able to feed our working class families right now is more crucial than ever. Back in September 2018 we funded Taking Root Community Garden to build garden beds for refugees and Highland Park residents at St. Paul's Episcopal Church on Main St. Consider this months grant phase 2, two years later. Our $3,000 went to build out more beds and add a rainwater cistern that are already being used for Fall planting. Growing familiar foods as well as the non judgmental, social interaction in a garden cannot be reproduced anywhere else. Making sure refugees who are new to our area can make a successful transition and become contributing members of the community will benefit Chattanooga as a whole.

City Farms Grower Training Workshops | Joel Tippins

Justice through food? Just call him Justice Joel.  Joel Tippens’ involvement with urban agriculture in Chattanooga began in 2011 with the purpose of developing new food gardens with low-income residents of the city.  His work has been intentionally concentrated in historic, predominately African American neighborhoods of the center city and has included growing food in backyards, vacant lots, in schoolyards, on church lawns, and parking lots; in raised beds, buckets and tires, and even in the bed of an old pick-up truck! City Farms Grower Coalition, a new initiative will address issues of food justice through hands-on training workshops. City Farms is an urban farm school with a variety of campuses located all across Chattanooga. Each site provides training opportunities in a variety of urban farming applications. The education is informal but invaluable, with a curriculum informed by seasoned, experienced, local organic farmers. 

The $3,000 UNFoundation grant will launch the pilot project in the neighborhoods surrounding Glass Street in East Chattanooga with 10-12 participants. The grant award provides funding to facilitate four monthly hands-on Grower Training Workshops beginning in March and continuing in April, May, and June, as well as cover the costs of installing ten new raised bed gardens. Food sustains us and we can grow it ourselves. Thanks Joel.

Soil Resources | NEEMA Community Garden

We have a saint among us. Her name is Charlene Nash. Read about her work helping farmers in Africa here. After a recent trip to Madagascar, Charlene will be assisting Father Peter Kanyi build out the community garden of NEEMA, the Kiswahili name for grace. NEEMA promotes self-sufficiency for refugee and immigrant individuals and families by providing advocacy, support and education in the Chattanooga area. The community garden on Main St is in need of building materials to make it more productive and a more comfortable gathering place, while still remaining mobile if it needed to move, for the immigrant farmers growing foods familiar to them in their home country.

This $3,000 grant benefits all refugees who garden at NEEMA as well as those in the neighborhood with beds of their own. With all the services NEEMA provides (culture counseling, housing, medical care, pastoral care, transportation, translation, ESL classes, etc), the garden just adds another human, friendly dimension to an already confusing transition for many refugees/immigrants. Growing familiar foods as well as the non judgmental, social interaction in a garden cannot be reproduced anywhere else. Making sure these people who are new to our area can make a successful transition and become contributing members of the community will benefit Chattanooga as a whole.

Pollinator Garden

With pollinators facing threat from colony collapse, habitat loss, and reduced biodiversity, Crabtree farms is taking steps to increase public awareness and provide a habitat for our pollinator species like honey bees, butterflies, and even birds. Without these species, we'd be unable to cultivate 1/3 of our food crops, so for a nonprofit farm to encourage protection of these important species is a thoughtful and potent endeavor. 

Grow Hope Youth Farm December 2014

Recipient: Brenda Trigg | Grow Hope Urban Farm

Grow Hope Urban Youth Farm, in partnership with Hope For the Inner City,  is not only providing food that's good for the neighborhood, but also serves as a gang-prevention activity, empowers young people to give back to the community, gain pre-employment skills, and moves the good food revolution one step closer to food justice. We are pumped about the good work this crew is doing out in East Chattanooga! So pumped that we are helping fund a water catchment project to expand their production in the spring of 2015. We also plan to volunteer at their MLK Day of Service project-- more details to come! Please join us. 

Hill City Gardens August 2013

Recipient: Hill City Neighborhood Association 

The UnFoundation loves awesome neighborhoods, and we were so excited about this grant for the Hill City Neighborhood Association. The residents recognized the need for a safe and beautiful gathering place in the area, so they banded together and built a neighborhood garden on unused land. To keep their garden growing, the dedicated volunteers decided to add a neighborhood composting service. The UnFoundation provided the funds to pass out 100 compost buckets to residents and to spread the word about the service.  Volunteers pick up the buckets weekly, literally turning their trash into a neighborhood treasure.

Westside Community Garden January 2012

Recipient: Tonya Rooks

Our first grant was to Tonya Rooks with the College Hill Courts Residency Council, headed by Tonya Rooks.  The UNfoundation granted towards the implementation of a community garden that now belongs to the West Side residents. The graden was created to meet the need created by the ever increasing ‘food desert’ scenario in the Westside. Raised beds were built to grow fresh produce to be consumed by the residents of the neighborhood.  As a first project, we were really thrilled, and this quality set the tone for what was to come from The UnFoundation.