By Bill Harless
July 10, 2006

In an unlikely turn involving the local food scene, a North Nashville street corner in walking distance of several public housing projects has become one of the city’s most popular sites for buying organic produce.

“Peaches, tomatoes, zucchinis, squash, you name it — if it’s growing, we’re trying to sell it in this area,” counted off Darcy Freedman, a Vanderbilt University grad student who helped launch the River West Produce Stand earlier this summer. Of note, Freedman said the stand sold out of produce during its first day of operation, a Saturday in mid-June.

The stand, which will operate every Saturday from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. for the next several weeks, is a partial answer to this problem: there are no grocery stores within walking distance of the Hadley Park, Preston Taylor and Tomorrow’s Hope neighborhoods of North Nashville.

Because many of the area’s residents lack cars, a Kroger located a few miles away on Charlotte Pike is often of minimal use.

“How would you get over there to buy food?” Joyce Searcy, executive director of the Bethlehem Centers of Nashville, said in an interview last week.

The result, Searcy said, is that many residents patronize smaller markets not known for a large selection of nutritious offerings.

“They end up eating high-fat foods,” Searcy said, listing the readily available potted meat, beer, processed white bread, and snack food.

“All of that contributes to obesity and coronary disorders,” Searcy lamented. “And if a woman is pregnant, then there’s mental disorders and physical disorders for the child.”

Freedman said the River West stand, which is manned by neighborhood teenagers Dominique Moore and Corey Hemming, was her idea but that it is “a response to the community.” Since 2003, Vanderbilt has staffed a small center that has partnered with North Nashville neighborhood associations to improve the area, and the dearth of produce has been a subject of study since its inception.

The River West stand cost slightly less than $10,000 to set up, according to Freedman, who said the fruits and vegetables are purchased primarily from Smiley’s Produce at the Nashville Farmer’s Market and from Franklin-based organic farm Delvin Farms. And soon, the Bethlehem Centers will start sending produce from its volunteer-tended two-acre farm at Camp Dogwood near Ashland City.

Rev. Thomas Henderson, who directs the Camp Dogwood project for Bethlehem, said he has been lecturing at community organizations across town for four years about the “food security” problem. Finally, he said, some action is being taken.

The stand’s produce is selling primarily at market prices, “so it’s not a give-away program,” Freedman said, adding that the first-week sell-out has refuted a notion “that people in this low-income community wouldn’t spend their money on produce.”

“We are meeting a need that is a desperate issue for this community.”