In Memphis they’re pressing hard against their food problems. Organizations such as the Healthy Memphis Common Table are creating Famers’ Markets that accept SNAP benefits and offer dollar-matching programs. The non-profit Grow Memphis is securing funding for community gardens in some of the poorest parts of the city. The Green Machine is bringing fresh foods in a mobile food market to 15 targeted locations throughout the city.
Since he was hired in 2011 to lead Shelby County Schools’ food service program, Tony Geraci has created a farm-to-school program, started an after-school supper program, expanded the breakfast program and used the department’s huge central kitchen to return to scratch cooking. He’s started more than 20 school gardens and more are on the way.
In 2008 Miles McMath radically re-invented the food service program at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. He and the team that feeds St. Jude represent a new generation of trained chefs who apply the ethic of fresh, locally grown, healthier food to a large, international hospital where bland institutional cooking was the standard until five years ago. Today, nearly 40 percent of what’s cooked is locally grown and represents about a $1 million annual economic boost for the region. This is all news that should be shared widely in an area that continually ranks as one of the unhealthiest in the country.
