Starting this month, local nonprofit Hope for the Inner City will begin recruiting an army of chickens to aid in the nonprofit’s mission to bring fresh produce to low-income households, but recruiters say they still need community support.
Since early this summer, Hope for the Inner City has been asking community members for donations of $25 to sponsor laying hens whose fresh eggs would be sold to residents in East Chattanooga, which is still reeling from the loss of its last grocery store, Scarbrough’s Produce, in 2015.
Now considered a food desert, the neighborhood’s nearest supermarket is 3 miles away, making it that much more difficult for struggling families to bring healthy options to the table.
“You have to take three buses to get to a grocery store from this neighborhood,” said Joel Tippens, director of Grow Hope Urban Farm, Hope for the Inner City’s homegrown solution to bring food accessibility to the area.
The Grow Hope Urban Farm will soon start selling eggs like these to residents in East Chattanooga’s food desert when the nonprofit outreach obtains its laying hens in September. (Contributed photo)
Community volunteers work at the Grow Hope Urban Farm in Avondale, which provides fresh fruits and vegetables to those in East Chattanooga. The garden was started in summer 2014 as part of a youth program for local nonprofit Hope for the Inner City. (Contributed photo)Since starting as a summer youth program in 2014, Grow Hope Urban Farm has sprouted into a community-wide project that has provided fresh fruits and vegetables to those in East Chattanooga. The new “Chickens with a Mission” campaign will contribute to the enterprise by adding eggs to the list of products available, and more hens will be added as more donations come in.