Fair Share’s Nooga.com Coverage

Fair Share Urban Growers want to convert vacant lots into urban gardens. Dozens of volunteers worked on a garden behind Hope for the Inner City Monday. Many Avondale residents have limited choices when it comes to buying food.

Either way, access to fresh produce in this East Chattanooga neighborhood is sparse and hard to come by, according to Brenda Trigg and Joel Tippens. Their nonprofit organization, Fair Share Urban Growers, hopes its model of converting vacant lots into urban gardens will catch on and start to put a dent in the city’s food deserts.

“It’s a big problem,” Trigg said. “And we’re not pretending this is going to solve that problem. This is to get people to start thinking about it.”

She and dozens of volunteers worked Monday morning to convert the lot behind Hope for the Inner City into an urban garden. Some shoveled dirt or painted a makeshift chicken coop. Others drove nails or contributed light carpentry work.

The garden will be up and running by spring. Its produce will be selected through a community survey. The nonprofit plans to staff the project with area youth, ages 16 and up, who will grow and harvest produce and eggs. They will sell food to neighbors from a portable stand.

Because the neighborhood includes many low-income residents, the organization is exploring a model similar to a CSA in which members pay weekly instead of a large, upfront fee. It also plans to accept EBT cards for payment.

The motley garden is being constructed with found materials. Vegetables will grow in buckets instead of pots. Where you would expect to see raised cedar beds, there are rows of empty tires. It’s all part of a low-cost strategy intended to provide a much-needed service with minimal overhead. And it’s a project that can be easily and cheaply replicated.

“It’s not like a traditional farmer out there. You don’t need to buy tractors. You don’t need to buy land,” Trigg said. “Here, your grandmother has a vacant lot next to her. You can grow a lot of food in a vacant lot. And Chattanooga has lots of vacant lots.”