Statements

Mission

To build community by reconnecting with nature and growing our own food.

Background

The founder and Executive Director of Brooklyn Heights Community Garden (BHCG) Nella "Ms. Pearl" Frierson has always been able to take a little and create plenty. Ms. Pearl, a grandmother of 6, grew up in South Nashville public housing. In 1998, she and her daughters moved to Brooklyn Heights in North Nashville.

Ms. Pearl had the vision for Brooklyn Heights Community Garden over a decade ago. In 2009, she bought 1833 & 1835 Haynes St, which at the time were vacant lots across the street from her home. She started growing a garden on the land and inviting people to join her. In 2014, she registered BHCG as a nonprofit. In 2019, she bought the house next to the garden to use as a work-housing space for garden workers, interns, artists, etc. BHCG is registered with the USDA Farm Service Agency as an urban farm.

The creation of this garden stemmed from a deep need for the community to get back to its roots of connection between our elders and our young people, to rebuild and reconstruct self­-awareness, self-pride, and self-esteem, and to remind people of all ages how to play in the dirt. BHCG provides team building opportunities and promotes the teaching of sustainability and healthy living through nurturing plants and human beings.

Impact

Some community members who came to work at the garden regularly were addicted to drugs, but after spending some time self-esteem building, eating healthy, and with some encouragement from other garden volunteers, they walked away from these bad habits. The garden hosts programming for adults, families, and children and participants report that the healthy food cooked from the garden tasted better than at the restaurants. Participants said they felt a sense of pride in planting the seeds, watching them grow, and harvesting the food. And they said it made them feel good to be outside in nature.

We did a year-end fundraiser in 2020 and were able to raise over $5000 from 80+ local donors. Also in 2020, the Nashville Scene published a cover story on Black farmers in Middle Tennessee that featured the garden.

In 2021, we hope to grow the capacity of the garden and to engage all 200 families in the neighborhood. We recently did a community survey to determine what fruit and vegetables that people like to eat so we can plant more of those, and also grow seedlings to distribute for neighbors to plant in their yards. We aim to be community-driven in what the garden produces.

Needs

BHCG is a .56 acre urban farm located in a historically Black and low-income neighborhood that experiences food apartheid. Because of our proximity to downtown, the neighborhood is also experiencing gentrification. Due to environmental racism, this area has poor soil quality and low biodiversity. Our neighborhood has been overtaken by invasive plants like bush honeysuckle, periwinkle, and ivy. There are very few fruit/nut trees or even native tree diversity to support wildlife. Most of the yards are lawns with a few exotic ornamentals, if there are any pollinator plants at all. There are several nearby industries that threaten the health of the neighborhood's soil, air, water, and general well-being with toxic pollutants.

A single community garden cannot be the totality of a food security solution or create enough food to feed an entire community, but it can act as catalyst to produce plant starts for neighbors, train and educate community members on how and why to grow their own food and assist them in propagating their own plants, experiment with new growing methods, increase the variety of foods grown, and provide exposure to new types of food and plants.

Service Categories
Primary Category:	Food, Agriculture & Nutrition  - Agricultural Programs
Secondary Category:	Civil Rights, Social Action, Advocacy  - Minority Rights
Tertiary Category:	Arts, Culture & Humanities  - Cultural & Ethnic Awareness

Areas Served

There are approximately 200 households living in our neighborhood, plus a constant flow of students. Our neighborhood is both culturally important and chronically under resourced. HBCU American Baptist College (ABC), just .3 miles from the community garden, is where student activists planned the Nashville sit-ins that inspired nonviolent protest across the south and is a stop on the US Civil Rights Trail. The Nashville Community Bail Fund is located on ABC-owned property across the street

TN - Davidson