FeedBack Nashville (FBN) spent the month of June hosting a series of Community Listening Sessions to understand how people are experiencing food in Nashville and get feedback on the findings of the FeedBack Nashville food system survey: a city-wide survey that received more than 600 responses.
FBN partnered with Network for Sustainable Solutions to meet with community members throughout Nashville to share the initial themes from our city-wide survey, and receive community members’ feedback and suggestions on preliminary findings. In addition to multiple virtual sessions, several FeedBack Nashville Steering Committee members’ hosted in person events at their organizations, including the Tennessee Justice Center, Urban Housing Solutions, and Healing Minds and Souls. These events enabled FBN to tap into the community knowledge present throughout these networks.
At each community listening session, community members were asked to share their perspectives and responses to two key stories and themes that emerged from synthesizing survey responses. One story, “The Story of Two Nashvilles,” highlights stark differences between two different Nashvilles. In one Nashville, people have access to plentiful, fresh, local, and delicious food. In this Nashville people own cars and can drive to grocery stores, farmers’ markets, and diverse restaurants that are abundant near their homes. In the other Nashville, almost everything about food is hard. There aren't many places close to people’s homes to buy food, especially if they don’t have a car. To get food in these parts of the city, community members often have to drive far, walk, or take public transportation, which is limited. In this Nashville, people also sometimes go hungry, and they are less likely to easily find and afford foods that match with their culture and background.
The second story, “Community Powered Food,” showcases our community’s vision for a better food future for our city, one that is defined by community agriculture, abundant and accessible local produce, limited food waste, and food accessibility and affordability for all. The story posits that this future is made possible by the 2024 Nashville residents, residents who banded together, determined to take action now to work towards a better future. The work did not happen overnight or through some perfect process; it happened through people building affordable housing that prioritized community gardens and proximity to farmers’ markets, through health care systems recognizing the importance of food as medicine and helping people access culturally relevant foods, and through everyday conversations with friends and neighbors. Understanding both what separates and what connects these two Nashvilles and how we move forward together towards our community’s vision of “community powered food” is a vital part of working together as a community to bring forth a better food future for all Nashville residents.
These sessions were filled with delicious refreshments, fruitful conversations, and poignant insights on how FeedBack Nashville’s work should move forward. Community members shared that the story of “two Nashvilles” feels accurate to them, but they also want to highlight that this division was built intentionally, that there has been a systemic prioritization of some communities and interests at the expense of others. They also shared that, because of Nashville’s explosive growth, economic and climate related volatility, and a growing number of motivated community members, the time to take substantive action towards a better food future is now.
The feedback gained at these listening sessions is now being used to identify and design a series of transformational actions our community can take in the coming years to build the future we're envisioning together.