Nashville’s spring ushers in more than just warm weather and blooming gardens: It marks the start of a new chapter in community-powered food justice. As the last frost melted away in early April, seasoned gardeners and first-timers alike rolled up their sleeves, eager to tend the soil and nurture the possibilities growing there.
This spring, The Nashville Food Project is proud to launch a new, multi-year partnership with Brooklyn Heights Community Garden and Cosecha Community Development, made possible by a USDA Community Food Projects Grants Program. Through this grant, the three organizations are working together to increase community members’ access to fresh fruits and vegetables. That includes some free produce boxes, new produce markets, and new gardening and wellness educational opportunities. It’s a major milestone for our city — the first time Brooklyn Heights, Cosecha, or TNFP have received federal funding. This grant recognizes the essential work grassroots organizations are doing to build a more just, inclusive, and resilient food system. It also signals Nashville’s growing potential to become a national leader in urban and community agriculture.
This work is especially urgent in North and South Nashville, where many neighbors still face barriers to fresh, healthy food because of a long history of redlining, displacement, and disinvestment. From North Nash and Jefferson Street to Nolensville Road and out to Antioch — Black, immigrant, and refugee families are often surrounded by fast food and convenience stores instead of grocery stores.
These overlapping food deserts (neighborhoods without easy access to fresh, affordable food) and food swamps (areas crowded with fast food and convenience stores) contribute to high rates of chronic illness. That is why it matters so much that Brooklyn Heights and Cosecha are part of this project — they are right at the heart of where change is needed most.
Recently Brooklyn Heights Community Garden hosted a spring kickoff to set the tone for what’s to come. Children ran through the garden laughing, while local chef Mariah Ragland of Radical Rabbit fed the community mouthwatering vegan soul food nachos. In the background stood a new hoop house — a structure that will help feed neighbors through a free CSA program later this season.
Soon after, The Nashville Food Project opened its Community Farm at Mill Ridge with a community work day, plant sale, and lunch where community gardeners gathered to get to know each other. At that site, more than 60 families grow food through rented plots. On any given day, you can hear many different languages spoken and see varieties of vegetables growing from around the world.
The stories behind this work are just as vibrant as the gardens themselves. At Cosecha Community Development, Celia manages the school garden at Whitsitt Elementary. A quiet, consistent presence in the community, Celia is known not just for maintaining crops, but for being a source of knowledge and comfort. "What can I plant for a stomach ache?" neighbors ask her.
Celia is deeply woven into the school community — coordinating lesson plans with teachers, helping students learn about pollinators and plant life cycles, and guiding families through their first gardening experiences. Her four children all attended Whitsitt, and today she works alongside the school’s family engagement team to make the garden an interactive classroom for hundreds of children. Teachers have guided students through harvesting potatoes and picking and tasting hot chilis — inviting them to experience the full spectrum of tastes and sensations food can offer.
Brooklyn Heights has a parallel story. Ms. Pearl, a longtime resident, first bought a home on Haynes Street, then another across from it, and then the lot next door — that land is now the Brooklyn Heights Community Garden. Bridget Bryant, one of TNFP’s former growers at Mill Ridge Farm, now serves as the site’s garden manager. She plans crops, maintains the space, and hosts monthly workshops. Their Healing in the Garden series uses yoga, meditation, and medicinal herbs to support mental and physical health. These third spaces — neither home nor work — offer refuge, connection, and healing for isolated neighbors.
Recent surveys of local gardeners affirm what we know to be true: 95% reported building meaningful relationships through their time in the garden. Every participant said gardening improved their connection to the land and to one another.
“I’ve started harvesting and drying herbs to make homemade soap. I never thought I’d have the tools or confidence to do something like this”
The beauty of this work lies in the people. In a neighbor offering compost tips to someone new. In a shared bowl of freshly picked greens. In a parent showing their child how to water seeds. These small, powerful acts are what transform a garden into a gathering place — and a meal into a movement.
As we look to the months ahead, The Nashville Food Project will launch the Growing Together Farmers Market on May 3 — Antioch’s first-ever farmers market, featuring SNAP/EBT access, multilingual signage, and culturally relevant produce grown by immigrant and refugee farmers. These growers earned significant income last year through CSA and direct-to-consumer sales, demonstrating what’s possible when land, opportunity, and community intersect. The Nashville Food Project’s new farmers market reflects the vision this grant helps make possible.
Even amid national rhetoric that threatens to divide, this work keeps us focused on what matters. The Nashville Food Project sees food as a powerful tool for justice, resilience, and belonging. In a time when national support for community-led change can feel uncertain, our gardens stand as living proof of what a community can achieve when rooted in care, courage, and collaboration — and we are deeply grateful for the USDA’s support in building a more equitable food future for Nashville through community gardens.
As this partnership between The Nashville Food Project, Cosecha Community Development, and Brooklyn Heights Community Garden blooms and our gardens open their gates, you are invited to take part. There is a place for everyone in this movement.
You might join a community volunteer day — what we call an Energy Exchange Workday or experience healing events like Healing & Wellness: Reiki Soundscape at Brooklyn Heights. You can check out the new Growing Together Farmers Market, sign up for TNFP’s CSA, lend a hand in one of Cosecha’s community gardens, or shop the market at Cosecha Community Development.
There are so many ways to get involved at The Nashville Food Project and join a movement reshaping what is possible for food access in Nashville. Together, we aren’t just growing vegetables — we are cultivating a future where everyone has a place at the table.