| Name | Joel |
|---|---|
| Last Name | Tippens |
| Home Address | 1800 Roanoke Ave NA Chattanooga, Tennessee 37406 United States |
| Organization Name | City Farms Grower Coalition |
| Describe Your Role In The Organization | I am the founder and Executive Director of City Farms Grower Coalition |
| Organization Address | 1800 Roanoke Ave NA Chattanooga, Tennessee 37406 United States |
| Website | https://www.wedigcityfarms.org/ |
| Best Phone Number To Reach You | 4239913388 |
| Alternate Phone Number | |
| Email Address | joel@wedigcityfarms.org |
| Alternate Email Address | brendajtrigg@gmail.com |
| Please Describe Your Project In Detail | Summary City Farms Grower Coalition is requesting funding for the reclamation of the land originally utilized by The Chattanooga Area Food Bank (CAFB) Community Garden Program on Gateway Avenue in the Westside. City Farms will use these resources to update and renovate the greenhouse, install a solar array to alleviate the energy costs currently shouldered by the Chattanooga Housing Authority (CHA), and expand the garden for increased production. City Farms will utilize these grounds as a micro-teaching farm, providing additional education and training to UTC students, Howard High School Students, and Westside community members. In 2011, Joel Tippens, Executive Director of City Farms, was given use of the greenhouse at the Westside Community Gardens by CAFB and CHA. He has been growing plants and seedlings for various garden projects and plant sales across the city. In 2019, Joel launched City Farms Grower Coalition and has been utilizing the Westside greenhouse for each of his farm projects at Howard, The Bethlehem Center, and Hope For the Inner City. In essence, City Farms has carried on the original vision of The Chattanooga Food Bank Community Garden Program. In the fall of 1985, Bill Johnson, Executive Director of CAFB envisioned a self help program for neighborhood food gardens. With the help of others in the community the CAFB began the process to bring this vision to reality. Bill encouraged Chattanooga business leaders and organizations to lend their support. Donations of tools, seed suppliers, labor, and monies were soon provided for the community garden program. With the cooperation of Chattanooga Housing Authority, the first gardens, including the Golden Gateway Garden, were planted in the summer of 1986. Under Bill’s leadership, the community garden program became a permanent part of the CAFB’s mission to alleviate hunger in the area. The Bill Johnson Community Greenhouse was completed in 1990 with a grant from the Maclellan Foundation and other generous donors. Bill remained a committed advocate of this program until his death in 1991. City Farms Grower Coalition is a collaborative endeavor designed to address food justice issues in our city, moving individuals beyond charity toward greater self-reliance. We envision a community of empowered self determined people breaking down barriers of race, class, and culture to defeat poverty and hunger in Chattanooga. City Farms does this by providing education, training, and healthy fruits and vegetables to our neighbors in marginalized communities across Chattanooga. City Farms was organized as a result of what we learned from our work in these four areas over the last 10 years: Investing in historically underserved neighborhoods Addressing racial and socioeconomic disparities in public health outcomes Supporting youth development with intentional support and opportunities Ensuring all Chattanoogans have access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food City Farms has built intentional partnerships with organizations targeting low income black communities including Hope For the Inner City in East Chattanooga, The Bethlehem Center in Alton Park, and the Historic Howard High School. City Farms has also developed a relationship with the University of Tennessee Chattanooga, building an experiential learning collaborative across multiple disciplines within the University (Environmental Science, Environmental Philosophy, Community Writing, and various independent study projects focused on local sustainability). In 2019, City Farms Grower Coalition reestablished farm projects at The Bethlehem Center and Hope For the Inner City, facilitating the sharing of time, energy, and resources between the organizations. Beginning in 2020, City Farms brought UTC to Hope for the Inner City, reclaiming overgrown land that previously served as the Grow Hope Urban Farm. UTC students with various backgrounds, including environmental science, philosophy, and sociology, came together to work at Grow Hope. A class instructed by Dr. Lucy Schultz allowed students to learn about environmental philosophy and employ these teachings hands-on through community involvement. This partnership proved a success as at least five students have gone on to pursue food systems related ventures, in an urban farming position at the Bethlehem Center, a farming position at an organic blueberry farm in West Virginia, an internship at the Chattanooga Food Center, and senior-level theses. In the Spring semester of 2021, Howard’s Environmental Science teacher Amy Johnson and School Social Worker Michelle Williams began a relationship with Joel Tippens, when he was invited to serve as the agricultural advisor to the school garden project, The Howard Roots Youth Farm. The Howard School was founded in 1865 and is known as the oldest Black public school in the South. Today, this 9-12 school has grown to a student body of 1120, which is 50.6 % Hispanic, 47.2% Black, and 1.7% White. As the garden program at Howard grows, City Farms will oversee the construction of new garden beds and the Culinary Arts class will begin to incorporate some produce into their classroom. City Farms has provided enrichment for Howard’s Environmental Science class through experiential learning, youth empowerment, and leadership development. In 2021, City Farms and the Bethlehem Center launched the Alton Park Saturday Farmers Market, selling produce sourced from the Grow Hope Urban Farm and the CommUNITY Urban Farm. As work on each of these farm projects has developed, it has attracted the attention of numerous community members, including longtime urban agricultural activists from the East Chattanooga neighborhood. They have spent a considerable amount of time at Grow Hope and the commUNITY Urban Farm, cultivating land, leading canning classes, etc. All of this collaborative work has led to the creation of the Chattanooga Low-Income Community Food Coalition. This project on the Westside has been designed strategically for specific measurable outcomes. The project targets youth to build the program sustainably and to lay the foundation for the development of productive urban agricultural projects throughout the city. It also targets neighborhood residents, inviting them to be trained on the Westside and take their newly acquired knowledge to other marginalized communities of color across the city. Lao Tzu has said “If you tell me, I will listen. If you show me, I will see. If you let me experience it, I will learn!” Experiential learning leads to changes, not just in knowledge and skills, but motivation and attitudes. It has the potential to empower our communities with increased competency, self-reliance, personal self-value, and visions for sustainable solutions. It empowers our neighbors with decision making authority to address health disparities and economic development in their community through urban agro-ecology and enterprise development. Employing this strategy moves the community closer to food sovereignty. The same principle applies in the vendor incubator project. Both students and neighbors will be able to take the principles they have learned and apply them to the development of other projects and share their experiences with the community to gain new interest, and new participants. Objectives for this project: Objective 1: Provide entrepreneurial skills and hands-on enterprise training for Howard Roots Youth Farm participants, UTC students, and low-income residents of the Westside. Objective 2: Expand the operation and production at the Chattanooga Area Food Bank Community Garden. Objective 3: Expand the use of the greenhouse on the Westside to support growing efforts in the Westside, East Chattanooga, and Alton Park. Objective 4: Provide both short-term and long-term stability for food insecure residents of marginalized communities across the city. Project Activities: Recruit participants (Howard & UTC students and community members) for urban agriculture training. Conduct hands-on experiential learning experience in urban agriculture (including greenhouse operation, cultivation, treating for diseases and pests, composting, harvesting, storing food, etc.). Provide training on general principles of business and value-added product development, including food safety principles, branding, marketing strategy, pricing, record-keeping, etc. This project will maximize the use and impact of the Westside garden space. In order to bring the site up to date there are multiple infrastructure improvements that require funding. Project Budget includes: Staff time (Executive Director of City Farms Grower Coalition and Howard Roots Youth Farm Manager) Stipends for Howard Youth Farm participants Additional tools and refrigerator to accommodate increase in number of participants Greenhouse refurbishment Replace broken windows Install multiple fans Greenhouse production materials and build-out (tables, signage, etc) Rainwater Catchment Install new 3500 gallon rainwater totes Build connected catchment system that funnels into a larger cistern Solar Power Array Install ground mounted solar array Transfer power off grid Irrigation System Install irrigation system Install solar powered pump to move water from catchment system Hoop House Construction Source materials Build complementary growing space for additional off season growing |
| Please explain how your project meets the requirements of the American Rescue Plan | Our low income communities of color rank among the highest in Hamilton county for rates of diabetes, chronic disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, obesity, diabetes and hypertension according to TN Health Data Reports. Lack of access to affordable healthy foods exploits these health determinants. Most of these neighborhoods are considered food deserts, predominantly stretching through center-city communities of color. Your address should not determine the wellness of your family. The Pandemic has disproportionately impacted low-income communities of color in our city and has exacerbated these already troubling public health dynamics in these two communities. The program addresses unemployed workers by providing training and development of a host of new skills, including urban agriculture, sales and marketing, product development, etc. The program addresses households by providing healthy fruits and vegetables to multiple low-income neighborhoods. |
| Where would your project take place? | The CAFB Community Garden site on Gateway Avenue in the Westside. |
| How much will your project cost in total? | 150000 |
| Do you have any matching funding sources from other local governments, private entities, non-profits, or philanthropic entities for your project? | Yes |
| Please describe the source and list amounts of any other funding. | $20,000 From partner organizations, Hope For the Inner City and The Bethlehem Center $3,000 Unfoundation Various small individual donations from Board members and other individuals around Chattanooga |
| What portion of the project are you asking the city to fund? | 50%. We will continue to fundraise from other sources to match any funding the city can provide. |
| If funded, when would your project start? | July 1, 2022 |
| How long would your project take to complete? | 1 year |
| What milestones would you use to measure your project’s progress? | Reclamation of the raised beds already in existence on the Westside and a significant increase of fruits and vegetables grown there. Beautification of the property Renovation of the Greenhouse Re Engagement of the residents of the apartments in the Westside. Dozens of students motivated to use urban agriculture empower disenfranchised residents of low-income communities of color. |
| How would you ensure accountability and transparency throughout the project lifecycle? | City Farms Grower Coalition implements a model that requires accountability in order to function as an organization. City Farms only operates successfully if it supports the mission and work of the organizations with whom it collaborates. City Farms is wholly dependent on the partnerships it develops and works within the guidelines established by its partner organizations. In order for this particular project on the Westside to flourish, City Farms will need approval from the Chattanooga Housing Authority and will be subject to the guidelines established by both parties. |
| If successful, how would your project benefit the community? | Material well being is often the indicator used to measure the health of a community. Oftentimes however, there are much deeper causes that lead to lack of material well being experienced by residents of low income communities. Physical weakness, isolation, vulnerability, and powerlessness are all factors that lead to material poverty and the work of City Farms uniquely and intentionally addresses each of these factors in low-income communities of color in our city. Participants in City Farms work are working with their hands, experiencing the satisfaction of accomplishing tasks and seeing the fruits of their labor while becoming physically stronger. Participants connect with people across generational, racial, geographical, and socioeconomic lines breaking down the isolation that exists in our city. Through those connections participants are able to build relationships, share ideas, fears, and challenges, making low-income residents less vulnerable to those who benefit from taking advantage of them. Finally, participants are empowered to make decisions about how they access food, spend their time, and plan for their future. It is our contention that this kind of empowerment is needed in the Westside, and, for that matter, in East Chattanooga, Alton Park, East Lake, and across our city. |
| How will you attract community buy-in for your project? | City Farms is already connected to a host of residents in the Westside, many of whom have been utilizing garden space at that location over the years. City Farms also has a strong relationship with the CHA employee who allows our organization to utilize the space. If allowed to expand the operation there, City Farms will re-engage residents around the growth of the micro farm and encourage them to invite other neighbors. |
| Name | Dr. Lucy Schultz (UTC) |
| Contact Information | 7185707278 |
| Name | Tim Mahla (Hope For the Inner City) |
| Contact Information | 4234246734 |
| Is there anything else you would like us to know about your project? | Thank you so much for your consideration of our request. We are grateful for the city's One Chattanooga Plan and its focus on serving black communities and marginalized communities in our city. We will continue to work toward unity in our city through urban agriculture. |