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The ZIP code 37915 lacks a grocery store, according to Wilson and Elliott. That number, pulled from the 2017 USDA Census of Agriculture, is down from 1 million a century ago. Department of Agriculture, 48,697 out of 3.4 million growers in the United States identified as Black in 2017, including Elliott and Wilson. Mission centered in 3795 ZIP codes in East KnoxvilleĪccording to the U.S. Wilson said that her idea to make space at her own home, equipped with community beds, birthed a vision with which she and Elliott hit the ground running: providing a safe space for the community to learn or begin to garden. This goal includes other community gardens at sites like Payne Avenue Missionary Baptist Church which is in the works. The goal by the end of 2023 is to have 100 beds in the community. Knowing many people are without access to the resources to plant their own food, including space and tools, Laila Malik, a fellow gardener and organizer, began a community garden in back of Wilson’s house in East Knoxville.įrom there, they have mobilized others willing to donate garden bed space, and have acquired more than 50 garden beds across East Knoxville. Obviously, we have other food organizations and other justice organizations that operate within the city, but we felt it was best that we speak on this issue and bring it to light by way of community," Elliott said.īlessed with green thumbs, Elliott and Wilson knew the answer was to start with gardening. “I felt like we could do more toward food and land justice, and as a collective we felt we were really the only ones qualified to speak on this.
In her eyes, the game-changer is helping children and families learn to grow their own food. Elliott felt that they could do more and take things further as a movement. None of you all are talking to people who are going through this, so how dare you think that you can solve this problem without the people who are suffering?' So I think the fact that we are Black-led speaks volumes because we are equipped as Black people to solve our own problems.”įighting food insecurity is one of those problems that Rooted East, along with Chris Battle of Battlefield Farm and Gardens, is trying to solve. "I've been blessed enough to walk into a room and say, 'Hey, none of you all live on this side of town. “We want people to know this because far too often people are sitting around tables talking about Black people's disparity, and Black people and those struggling are not even at the table," Wilson said.
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