Gaining Ground

We are beyond excited to share that Kenyatta Ashford will be the featured chef for our upcoming spring dinner, Gather and Grow. If you have ever wondered what a Neutral Ground meets Gaining Ground event could look like, then you must come to the dinner! Chef Kenyatta shares our commitment to quality food from local farms and a care and concern for the environment- and you can taste the difference because it's also superbly delicious. Thank you to everyone that has purchased tickets to the event! If you'd like a ticket you can find the link below.

https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/gather-and-grow

👉A little more about Kenyatta: Chef Kenyatta Ashford studied at the renowned Culinary Institute of America in New York. Before returning to Chattanooga, he gained experience and inspiration while working in New Orleans, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. He is enthused about the expanding food scene in Chattanooga. He recently was awarded Jean-Louis Palladin Professional Work/Study Grant by the James Beard Foundation that he used to study cuisines of the African American diaspora and West Africa. Chef Ashford recently co-founded a new dinner series called "4 Courses and." He has been featured in Travel Noire, New York Times, and The Chattanooga Times Free Press.

Crabtree Farms is gearing up for their annual Spring Plant sale!

Crabtree is one of our Double Up Food Bucks program partners, which means they accept EBT payments at their farm stand and plant sales and double those transactions, dollar for dollar, up to $20 per person per day.

And the best part? Those Double Up Food Bucks tokens can be spent on plants! That means your tokens can redeem locally-grown plant starts like herbs, tomatoes, and berry bushes to grow in your garden.

Stop by Crabtree Farms and support their work from 9 AM-3 PM on Friday and Saturday and 11 AM-3 PM on Sunday! 🍓🥬🥕🍅

You are invited!
https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/gather-and-grow

https://www.instagram.com/p/DWzlUkzGLWW/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Hi Friends! You are enthusiastically invited to our first ever fundraising dinner. We will celebrate the culinary delights of spring with dishes prepared by chefkenyattaashford in the beautiful courtyard of @graceepiscopalchatt. Come dine with us and hear about the future of Gaining Ground as we envision our new home and expand on opportunities to gather and grow with our community. 🌱 Tickets are linked in our bio and they are limited, we hope you will join us! Sponsorship opportunities are available, please reach out to [email protected] with inquiries.

Gaining Ground had a wonderful time tabling at East Lake Elementary’s STEAM night! We led kids in a spring seed planting activity.

Our organization loves supporting our local Hamilton County Schools and teaching students about our mission: preparing and eating nutritious foods, supporting local agriculture and growing initiatives in the area, and building a food ecosystem within Chattanooga that improves access for all.

As we prepare to enter the busy spring season, we thought we’d share one of the awesome collaborations we’ve been working on behind the scenes since last year + the beginning of 2026.

With the help of our talented friend Jessie (), we provided the ingredients and education needed to teach a class of students from the Howard Culinary program how to safely can/preserve goods like homemade salsa and tomato jam.

The next steps in our partnership with Howard will result in student-made products available for sale within the following year. We can’t wait to share more about this exciting collaboration with you all🍴

It's Giving Tuesday! Check out our Giving Tuesday newsletter with ways to support us this holiday season. 🌲🌱✨

Celebrating a Day of Generosity It’s Giving Tuesday, the international day of generosity when donors are matched with causes they care about in an effort to make positive change in their communities. We are always grateful to this amazing place we live in. This holiday season we encourage you to give where you live and support c...

Happy fall, everyone! We had a wonderful September full of nutrition education opportunities.

We’ve highlighted a few of our favorite moments from the past month in the post above — working with the kids at East Lake Elementary, hosting a group of seniors from Outdoor Chatt at Gaining Ground, and a lesson on traditional Guatemalan cooking with the Howard Culinary Program! 🍁🍂

It was a hot and rainy June in Chattanooga! We hosted two delicious food demonstrations: Guatemalan tostadas with our friends Velvet and Irie, and a blueberry crostini with roasted shish*tos and pecan dukkah at Crabtree Farms made by Chef Jess of Mac’s Kitchen and Bar.

We said goodbye to Thomas, our beloved Grocery Manager, as he embarks on his next journey to North Carolina with his wife. We’re so excited to announce that Callie, our former Grocery Assistant, is taking his position and looking forward to introducing you to Emma, our newest hire!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend from the Chatt Food Center! We’ve had an awesome May so far, and hope you are too!

We had our last cooking class of the semester with Calvin Donaldson Elementary, hosted Chef Jess at Gaining Ground Grocery for a spring salad demo, made granola at Second Saturday with Chatt Food Kids, and gave the Glenwood Center folks a grocery tour!

Have a safe long weekend, and see you in June for more programming (or on the 31st for our Walking Club at Sculpture Fields!)

Happy Wellness Wednesday, everyone!

What do all of these locally sourced ingredients have in common? They make a delicious Italian soup, also known as Zuppa toscana! Swipe to the last pic to see how to make it 😁

Want a physical copy of the recipe? Stop by to grab one from the community board after picking up all of the ingredients you need 🥔🧅🥬