The South Memphis Revitalization Action Plan & Farmers Market

1. The South Memphis Revitalization Action Plan & Farmers Market Building a More Vibrant, Sustainable and Just Community

2. 1920 1960: South Memphis became one of the city’s most attractive, desirable and vibrant communities; featuring a mix of attractive single and small, multi-family housing units, a series of convenient neighborhood-oriented retail centers, and a network of excellent public schools • individuals and families employed in the nearby factories • public school teachers and their principals • a wide variety of municipal workers

3. 1960 – 1970’s: Significant changes. Racial tensions within the city escalated as… • More African-Americans moved to Memphis, displaced by the mechanization and decline of Mississippi Delta agriculture, in search of living wage jobs and better lives. • Integration of Memphis’ neighborhoods and schools prompted “white flight”, intensified following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. • A dramatic collapse of local manufacturing

4. Impact: In less than 25 years, South Memphis went from being one of Memphis’ cleanest, safest, and most vibrant communities to being one of its most troubled. • loss of neighborhood retail services • deteriorating housing values and conditions, street violence fueled by an active drug trade, declining public schools • a lack of municipal investment in infrastructure and human service systems

5. Impact: Poverty • AMHI - $27,000; 40% that of the City of Memphis and 60% below that of Shelby County. • 40% of the area’s households in poverty • Major contributor: high percentage of single parent households with children

6. Memphis is characterized by… Poor Health • High rates of coronary heart disease, hypertension, cancer, diabetes, • higher rates of obesity, inactivity, and smoking • Among the highest infant mortality rates in the country • higher rates of unemployment, dropouts, teen pregnancy, all disproportionately affecting African-Americans

7. Poor Health • Lack of physical activity, greater acceptance of body size, and limited access to healthy affordable food and safe places to exercise. • Less greenspace than most cities of its size, a low “walkability” score; few existing bike lanes and routes

8. Poor Health • High number of fast food restaurants • Unequal distribution of grocery stores; less attractive, functional grocery stores in predominantly A-A, inner-city neighborhoods • High proportion of people not consuming five servings of fruit and vegetables each day • Fewer farmers markets and urban gardens • High rates of unhealthy food/fitness behavior among children

9. SouthMemphis is representative of… • The highest chronic disease burden • The fewest resources for healthy lifestyles • the fewest parks, few or no full-service grocery stores, no bike lanes • comparatively high rates of blight, brownfields, vacancy, and crime • concentrated chronic disease prevalence and morbidity.

10. In spite of these problems, long-time residents of South Memphis maintained a deep affection for the area that had nurtured many of the city’s most important educators, politicians, pastors, and musicians; including Aretha Franklin, David Porter, Booker T., and Al Green

11. The Catalyzing Institutional Asset: St. Andrew A.M.E. Church Enterprise • A collection of programs of the St. Andrew A.M.E. Church and its affiliated secular non-profit organizations • A powerful engine for social change in South Memphis and the City. • A vehicle for taking South Memphis revitalization to the next level over the coming decades.

13. The Catalyzing Institutional Asset: St. Andrew A.M.E. Church Enterprise • The Works, Inc. • Social Ministries • Community Life Center • Ernestine Rivers Child Care Center • Circles of Success Learning Academy • The South Memphis Renaissance Collaborative

14. South Memphis Renaissance Collaborative (SMRC) – The University of Memphis, Hyde Family Foundations, Memphis Regional Design Center, Self-Tucker Architects, the ConsilienceConsulting Group • To mobilizeneighborhood, city-wide, state, and federal assets and todevise and implement a comprehensive redevelopment strategy to improve the community’s overall quality of life. • SMRC recruited representatives from nearly two dozen local institutions to serve on the Sponsoring Committee of the South Memphis Revitalization Action Plan (SoMeRAP)

15. The Sponsoring Committee of the South Memphis Revitalization Action Plan (SoMeRAP) • The Saint Andrew Enterprise • Four other churches • The Victor-Kerr Neighborhood Association • Ruth Tate Senior Citizens Center • Marcus MosiahGarvey Teaching and Learning Academy • The Memphian Club

16. A bottom-up, bottom-sideways planning effort… working with faculty from the University of Memphis’ Department of Anthropology and Graduate Division of City and Regional Planning to: • design the research methodology • prepare the plan • serve as the planning process’s public spokespersons, encourage neighbors to participate, and publicly defend the effort from both public and private entities who felt threatened by a resident-driven and community-controlled planning effort

17. The Process: • Archival research documenting South Memphis’ rich social history • Demographic analysis based upon Census records documenting local population, education, employment, income, housing, and commute patterns; • Physical inspection of more than 2,000 building parcels and structures to determine current land uses, occupancy levels, structural conditions, and site maintenance levels

19. The Process: • Interviewswith more than forty local institutional leaders regarding their perception of the area and future development potential • Focus groups to elicit the view of important, but often hard to involve stakeholder groups, including youth, seniors, small business owners, and the very poor, even the homeless • Interviews with 174 heads of households to learn more about their quality of life and hopes for the neighborhood’s future The 240-page SoMeRAP document was distributed via email to the majority of the 1,000 local stakeholders who participated in the planning process

20. What is unique about SoMeRAP? • Participatory Planning: Resident-led visioning and planning processes • On the street data gathering • Asset-based property survey • Institutional stakeholder input • Door-to-door resident interviews • Social, Economic and Educational Development • Emphasis on implementation • Issue-specific, targeted projects • Detailed action strategies • Partnerships - participation & input • Neighborhood • City Agencies • University • CDCs

21. SoMe RAP Goal Overall Neighborhood Improvement Goal of SoMeRAP To transform South Memphis into one of our region’s premier urban neighborhoods of choice! Among the nine Planning Objectives of SoMeRAP: To address the critical health challenges facing local residents by developing an ambitious health and wellness education and action campaign

22. The First Steps / Our First Stabs… Two Targets For Priority Action • The establishment of a Farmers Market to provide local residents with access to fresh, affordable, and culturally appropriate food • The design of South Parkway East to enhance its appearance and pedestrian and bicycle safety

23. The South Memphis Farmers Market South Memphis: The Sahara of Urban Food Deserts • Absence of a full-service supermarket within our study area • Cascade of Social, Familial and Logistical Implications • Challenges faced and highlighted by seniors • Challenges faced by families without automobiles, to shop for food • Challenges faced by single women with children doing weekly shopping using the local bus system

24. …. Taking the bus generally required a transfer to get to nearby supermarkets • transporting a week’s worth of food on the bus while managing one or more children • resulting need to hire a taxi to travel to the supermarket, further • limiting the number of trips they could make to the store • reducing the funds they had available to spend on food. • Forcing residents to shop at local convenience stores that sell • prepared and highly processed foods, high in salt content and calories • foods that are more expensive

25. Five neighborhood-oriented retail centers within the study area… • None contained a single full-service supermarket • 90% of South Memphis residents required to travel between two and three miles, often by bus or private car service, to purchase their weekly groceries • Residents identified the need to “open a full-service supermarket,” immediately after calling for improved public safety and better public schools

26. Local Area Retail Market Study • Area could support approximately 38,000 additional square feet of general grocery store space, • However.. Opinion that the industry would never build a supermarket in a severely distressed urban neighborhood such as South Memphis • Perceived risk associated with such an investment. • The region’s major food store chains and commercial location consultants confirmed the market’s lack of interest in this investment opportunity

27. SoMeRAP’sSponsoring Committee decided to address their food security problem in a developmental manner – Decision to establish an open-air Farmers Market • To meet the fresh food needs of local residents • To illustrate to the private sector effective local demand for high quality, fresh foods. • Planners: Neighborhood Association, Senior Citizen Center, neighborhood churches and the Cooper-Young Farmers Market • Powered and staffed by the St. Andrew Enterprise/The SMRC.

28. Saint Andrew’s overflow parking lot located at the corner of one of the city’s busiest intersections as a temporary location • Transformed the parking lot into a code compliant open-air market facility • Site improvements required by the City Office of Planning and Development and the County Health Department: signage, port-a-sans, a dumpster, ballards to separate the Market’s parking areas from its vender area; and stripping for vender stalls. • Collaborators: Healthy Memphis Common Table, Memphis Electric Light Gas and Water, GrowMemphis, Memphis Farmers Market: Downtown, Cooper Young Farmers Market Association, Tennessee State University Cooperative Extension Service

29. Working Elements • Formed an Advisory Committee • Recruited 25 community and campus volunteers - to open the Market • Researched applicable local, county, and state health regulations • Secured a Special Permit to run the market within a highway commercial zone • Elicited the assistance of design professionals from the Memphis Regional Design Center • Prepared a detailed site plan and narrative • Ran a no/low-cost consumer marketing campaign

30. City of Memphis/Shelby County Land Use Control Board, City Council approvals • A local artist/member of St. Andrew recruited to paint the outlines for a farm-themed mural to adorn the side of the market structure to attract attention and patrons • Mobilized area youth to paint the mural • Installed banner signage on the building • Identified and recruited representatives from area food-related, non-profit organizations to share information regarding their health and wellness programs

31. Sought T.A. from other local farmers markets • Recruited participating farmers • Recruitedcustomers with an attractive logo, web-placement, a model church bulletin insert, a model pulpit announcement, door-to-door knocking website, flicker page, and twitter portals • Presentations to local stakeholders, banners, events at the market, press coverage

32. Major Grand Opening

33. Ms. Heather Peeler, Chief Strategic Officer for the Corporation for Community and Public Service, visiting from Washington D.C., offer greetings and well wishes from First Lady Michelle Obama – synergy with her “Lets Move” Campaign • Local Officials • Ms. Lacey, the long-time community leader of a very successful community garden at a neighborhood church introduced one of the neighborhood’s first organizers who has devoted more than fifty years to promoting positive change within the South Memphis community

34. Brisk Business!

35. Success! • A marvelous assortment of fresh fruits and vegetables • Items grown and harvested less than 75 miles from South Memphis • Consumer response - overwhelmingly positive One neighborhood elder remarked with glee that she had not seen some of the varieties of greens, tomatoes, and peppers being sold at the market “since she was a girl living in Clarksdale, Mississippi!” One middle-aged sister pointing to a zucchini asked a farmer what that strange fruit was!

36. Initial Success: > 600 customers braved 100 degree temperatures, thrilled to see their plans to address the neighborhood’s food access problem come to fruition in such a concrete manner Sustained Success: • Average of 6 - and a maximum of 8 - area farmers came to sell locally grown fruits and vegetables as well as a limited number of processed food items such as jellies and jams. • Average # of shoppers - between 200 and 300, over a 6-hour operating period (up from 4-hours) • Better attendance than at a larger market in a more affluent, middle-class neighborhood on most weeks - great evidence for desire for access. • Vendors reported selling at least as much at our market as others, and on many days outsold other neighborhood markets.

37. Great press coverage for the neighborhood drew non-residents in and changed some perceptions about South Memphis -- NPR report, newspaper features, White House Blog • Rough estimate of market’s gross sales for the first year - $40,000, and $60,000 in direct sales • All of the first-year farmers who originally signed up for monthly leases renewed their leases throughout the Summer and Fall. • All of the farmers who participated in last year’s market season are returning for its second season • Planned expansion of the number of farmers stalls from ten to fifteen

38. Community Development Benefits • A $250,000 grant to support SoMeRAP’s Intermediate and Long-Term Improvement Projects, coincident with the market’s positive impact on community’s health and welfare • Leverage with two other Foundations to consider major grants • Experience identifying the barriers / the degree to which the City’s former and recently adopted zoning ordinances were hostile to community gardens and farmers market • Prompted city planners to amend the recently proposed and adopted Uniform Development Code, making it more supportive of urban food system improvements • Formation of a Countywide Food Policy Council • Health Department to explore ways to increase the number of farmers selling fresh fruits and vegetables at farmers markets who are eligible to accept state and federal food vouchers for low-income individuals and families

39. Planning for Urban Food Security: Lessons Learned • Access to high quality, affordable and culturally appropriate foods is a serious problem affecting significant segments of American cities • Data demonstrating the existence of effective consumer demand for fresh foods within inner city neighborhoods will not stimulate the market to address this need • Farmers Markets can serve as a meaningful first step towards restoring basic access to fruits and vegetables in low-income urban communities

40. Lessons Learned… • The ability of a small-scale networks of CBOs representing extremely poor communities, to successfully launch farmers markets - without significant outside funding and part-time staff - highlights the potential widespread replication of this economic and community development strategy. • The ability to replicate farmers markets and community gardens on a city-wide basis is heavily dependent upon a community’s zoning, building regulations and health ordinances, many of which are holdovers from an earlier historic period. • Comprehensive planning in low-income communities facing serious nutritional, exercise and health care problems significantly benefits from multidisciplinary involvement and investment

41. Action Projects Renaissance Farmers Market • Reclaim the abandoned car wash at Kerr and South Parkway • Marketplace for sale of local food and handmade crafts • Mobile health units from regional medical centers provide information and screening

43. Action Projects Neighborhood Beautification • Return to City Beautiful Principles • Renewal of South Parkway • Neighborhood entryway treatments

44. City of Memphis hired one of the grad students that help write our plan as its newly created Bike-Ped Coordinator. • Memphis received $2,823,044 grant from the Dept of Transportation to repave three streets. South Parkway is one of those included, with @ 1/3 of the grant dedicated to the Parkway • City Engineer has reserved space for an 11-foot median that will be installed when funding can be identified. The current estimate is for $600,000 to construct and plant the median. • Received an $85,000 urban arts grant • Entered into negotiations with a non-profit primary health care provider to locate an FQHC in the neighborhood • Received a multi-year $750,000 from a major foundation to further holistic healthy development / community development! • Prospects of significant funding from two other foundations regarding the health and wellness component of SoMeRAP, and its broader community development plans