August 2025 Grant Winner

Food Forest at the East Lake Neighborhood Association Community Center

A coalition of parents, teachers, students, and neighbors is transforming unused outdoor space at the East Lake Neighborhood Association Community Center into something powerful: a thriving food forest rooted in education, equity, and ecological care.

This community-led project brings together Lane Lake Montessori School, Nature Kin Farm and Forest School, the East Lake Neighborhood Association, an after-school tutoring program, and local residents who already use the site as a shared gathering place. Together, they are creating a living classroom and free food resource that will serve the neighborhood for years to come.

The Food Forest will provide:

• Free, fresh fruit for the surrounding community

• An outdoor learning space for students of all ages

• Habitat for native pollinators and wildlife

• Long-term soil health and environmental remediation

Beyond food, this project grows justice. The East Lake neighborhood has a long history of disinvestment due to redlining, resulting in lower tree canopy and environmental inequities that persist today. This food forest is a small but meaningful step toward restoring access to green space, education, and nourishment in a historically underserved community.

By expanding local wildlife corridors, reducing runoff and heat, sequestering carbon, and creating a beautiful place to gather, the Food Forest at East Lake makes Chattanooga greener, healthier, and more connected—one tree, one lesson, and one shared harvest at a time.

Back to Work | Re-Wake

With nearly one in three adults in the United States having some sort of criminal conviction, odds are you know somebody who has been convicted of a crime or suffered as a result of someone else's offense.

Re-wake is a non-profit organization that assists families that are justice-involved. What is justice-involved? The term "justice-involved" is used to describe people who have had contact with the criminal justice system, either as a victim, offender, or both. This can include people who have been arrested, charged with a crime, convicted of a crime, incarcerated, or on probation or parole. The term "justice-involved" is often used in place of terms like "criminal" or "felon" because it is seen as more respectful and less stigmatizing. It also recognizes that people who have been involved in the criminal justice system are still human beings who deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.

So how do they assist these families? With mentoring, counseling, coaching, and wellness. Those who complete the program and become employed will receive a pair of work boots. With our $3,000 grant, they will be able to provide 60 pairs of steel-toe boots to those who are justice-involved entering the workforce.

ICYMI: The founder of Re-Wake is City Council Member Demetrus Coonrod. In 2008, she was a scared returning citizen.  There were no resources available to assist with re-entry into society after she left prison. She found herself alone.  Re-wake was born from her lived experience.  The organization focuses on the whole family to break mental incarceration.

Cinematics Film Series

What can film offer as a tool to shape the larder public conscience? Not as a high-dollar mental escape in a cool dark room, but as the centerpiece for a lively meeting of the minds?

Society of Work and The Chattery have teamed up to begin a year-long film series they're calling Cinematics. Each free public screening with present a film around a theme followed by a panel discussion to explore how that month's theme plays out in our own community...and they'll have pizza and beer just for the heck of it. Our $2000 grant will fund the screening fees for each of the six Cinematics experiences scheduled so far. 

With its first event partnering with The Women's Fund of Greater Chattanooga to show The Hunting Ground, a film about sexual assault on college campuses in the US, we're excited for the meaningful conversation around sensitive issues. And really, isn't cultivating empathy and citizen engagement through relationships what it's all about?