Gaining Ground

I guess you could say we've gained some ground since we started @gaininggroundgrocery in 2020. For those of you that have supported us, partnered with us, or just believed in us from afar, we are SO appreciative! Thanks to you we've kept growing and if you've been in the grocery lately you know it is tight- we've maxed out our space! Come join us for our fundraising dinner and learn more about the future of Gaining Ground, and our mission of food access, nutrition education, and engaging in local agriculture. 💚

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 a link to purchase in our bio. 👉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! 🍓🥬🥕🍅

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.

You're invited to our Spring Second Saturday at @gaininggroundgrocery We'll have a wonderful lineup of activities, a spring Tasting Table highlighting some spring produce inspired dishes with Chef Jess Revels from @macs_on_dodds , local vendors, and yes there will be coffee! We hope to see you there.🌱 Happy Spring!

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 (@feathersandfruit ), 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 @gaininggroundgrocery within the following year. We can’t wait to share more about this exciting collaboration with you all🍴

Happy New Year's Eve! Gaining Ground Grocery will be closed today and tomorrow this week, open Friday and Saturday. Have a safe holiday and enjoy the last party of this holiday season.🎉

Happy Holidays from the Gaining Ground team! We're celebrating locally sourced food and community this weekend with a free cooking demonstration and tasting from 12-2 PM at Gaining Ground Grocery. Come grab a hot bowl of chili made by our friend and talented cook, Shadi Kermanian. We hope to see you there 🍽

🌱We're celebrating this Giving Tuesday by being thankful for all our community support and we hope for many more years of making a positive impact on the local food system. 🥦If you would like to donate, learn more, or find other ways to support us check out the links in our bio. Happy Giving Tuesday!

WE HAVE NEWS! We are officially changing the name of the Chattanooga Food Center to Gaining Ground. The mission of the organization stays the same: to increase access to locally grown food, provide nutrition education, and inspire engagement in regional agriculture. You'll see some changes to our logo and branding- @gaininggroundgrocery will also get an updated logo to match the main brand but everything else is the same. Since 2019 we have believed that food is a way to bring people together and creating a community around good food for all and caring for one another in this way will make for a better Chattanooga. The last few weeks have proven this as we have received gifts and donations from many of our supporters to assist in feeding our friends and neighbors in the midst of the SNAP cuts this month. We are grateful for the support- we will use the funds to help our SNAP customers at the grocery and also purchase food to help stock the @chattanoogacommunityfridge around the corner from us on Beech St. We will continue to share resources and ways to help during this challenging time where everyone that has a desire to help can do so in a way that is meaningful to them. 💚 We would also like to invite you to our last Second Saturday of the year featuring a seasonal food tasting with Chef Whipple of the Howard School's Culinary Program, featured art from artists at @standrewscenter St. Andrews Center, @fullcirclerefillery , a Thanksgiving children's activity, and a food drive to fill the Community Fridge. Thank you for caring for your community and we'll see you Saturday!

NEW EVENT DROPPED ‼️‼️‼️ Join us to learn about local market opportunities and how you as a grower can optimize your sales through better planning with your buyers. Holly Martin and Callie Bennett of Gaining Ground will share about how the grocery sources from local farmers and plans to grow their farmer network. You’ll also hear from Laura Damron of The Food Hub about what she has learned through many years of building relationships with local farmers and buyers. We will begin the event with a talk from our presenters, and then move into some social and networking time. A light dinner will be provided, so please let us know through this form if you have any food allergies or dietary restrictions.  Questions? Please reach out to Emily Dudley with the Southeast TN Young Farmers at [email protected] This event is being offered through support from TN Local Food and the Tennessee Department of Agriculture SIGN UP AT THE LINK IN OUR BIO #setnyf #farmers #localfood #chattanoogafoodsystem