Our Story
North Memphis has always been a place of work, organizing, and resilience. From industrial boom to deindustrialization, from backyard gardens to urban farms, residents have used food as a tool of survival, resistance, and dignity.
Laying The Groundwork
The North Memphis Food Power Plan aims to document how disinvestment and policy have shaped food access in the community.
Our goal is to establish a self-sustaining food system that is governed by, accountable to, and economically beneficial for the people of North Memphis.
We also aim to transform the North Memphis food system by reclaiming food sovereignty and restoring the community's pre-corporate control. It is a homegrown roadmap that builds from the bottom up, tapping into local strengths and traditions.
From Factory Wages to Vacant Land
In the mid-twentieth century, major employers like Firestone Tire & Rubber, Velsicol Chemical, Buckeye Cellulose, and Quaker Oats provided steady jobs in and around New Chicago and other North Memphis neighborhoods. At the same time, these facilities left behind serious environmental damage.
From the 1970s onward, plant closures and relocations brought waves of job loss and economic decline. By the 1990s, North Memphis was marked by vacant lots, contaminated land, and crumbling infrastructure — the result of deliberate disinvestment, segregationist planning, and policies that favored suburban development over neighborhood repair.
Beyond “Food Desert”: Naming Food Apartheid
North Memphis is often labeled a “food desert,” but a desert is a natural landscape. The conditions here are not natural. They are the product of corporate disinvestment, racist planning, and structural barriers to land ownership and business development.
This plan uses the language of food injustice and food apartheid, recognizing that today’s conditions result from policy choices — not from community failure.
A Legacy of Feeding Ourselves
vacant lots could support food production, but only twelve active gardens and programs currently serve the area.
A Legacy of Feeding Ourselves
Even as industry left and resources disappeared, North Memphis residents organized.
Churches ran free meal programs and food pantries before federal programs existed.
In the 1960s and 70s, local activists linked labor organizing and civil rights, including participation in the 1968 sanitation workers’ strike.
Community organizations like Black Seeds, The Time is Now Douglass, and G.A.M.E. Changers continue this legacy, leading the current fight for food power.
We have over 50 years or 100 years of combined experience in producing food for the community. At one time, the Douglass community had over 600 gardens
Andre Mathews
North Memphis Farmer
Youth at the Center of Change
Young people in North Memphis have always been part of the movement — from historic youth action centers to today’s youth-led programs. Photos from G.A.M.E. Changers and other groups show youth organizing, learning, and leading, proving that food power is intergenerational work.
Image row: “North Memphis Youth Making an Impact” and community action photos.
Food, Land, and Resistance (1920–2025)
Food has always been a form of resistance in North Memphis. Families kept gardens for pride as much as survival. When industry left and lots went vacant, that knowledge stayed in the community — ready to rise again.
Black families grow and trade food despite segregation.
1920s–50s
Food and land tied to liberation through movements like Fannie Lou Hamer’s Freedom Farm.
1960s–70s
Factory closures reshape North Memphis.
1980s–90s
Urban gardens and markets return.
2000s–10s
COVID-19 exposes inequities; the Food Power Plan emerges
2020–25
I was born and raised in Douglass. We created the garden so the elders wouldn’t have to hitch multiple buses just to buy groceries.
Chasidy Harris – Founder, Five Senses Farming & Youth Garden Program