Growing Roots manages a garden space in downtown residential Tracy City, offering a hands-on opportunity for our community to engage in the efforts of food access and food sovereignty. Located on land owned by the Tracy City First United Methodist Church, the Growing Roots team “broke ground” at this garden plot in Fall of 2020, planting a crop of collards and garlic to overwinter, giving us our first community harvest in Spring 2021. Individual or groups of volunteers can join us in tending & harvesting the community food plots, or they can adopt a "GYO" ("Grow Your Own") raised bed.

Growing Roots resources the “teaching gardens”, located behind the South Cumberland Learning and Development Center. This space is an essential tool in providing garden-based STEAM education to youth participants in the After School Initiative.

Growing Roots community members regularly share food with our neighborhoods! In addition to an “open garden” policy, where individuals can harvest food from the Community Garden as needed (just let us know if you need a lesson on how to harvest produce!), we are glad to celebrate the abundance through regular food distributions, potlucks, group campfires, and more.

Growing Roots is committed to the principles of justice and equity, and is in partnership with experienced facilitators to help craft and lead workshops and programming focused around topics such as Community Equity and Service, Leadership Awareness and Healing, and Self-Care in Volunteer Settings. In addition to providing these opportunities to members of the Growing Roots community, we also arrange workshops for organizations, clubs, or groups looking to engage in these discussions. Please contact us at stephanie@growhealthyroots.org so that we can discuss which workshop and approach might be the right fit for the individuals in your group. To honor the work and experience that our facilitators bring, external organizations will be charged facilitation fees.

Growing Roots seeks to increase community engagement and accessibility when it comes to food utility. The Roots After Hours project has run every summer and fall harvesting season since the summer of 2021 and is one of the ways in which Growing Roots educates the surrounding community on the uses, processing, and various applications of homegrown herbs. This project is one of several programs run by Growing Roots that encourage independent value-added creation.

Fresh Mess Market Mondays @ Harton Park, Monteagle (center of town, down Main Street)

Every Monday (except for those holiday-days), 4pm - 6pm

Join us after work & after school to hang out in the playground, and to buy / sell / barter fresh produce, crafts, clothing, jams, candles, boutique goods, flowers, and other creative things 🍞🌱🍅👚🌻🖼️

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FAQ:

** Who does this? // We’re an ad-hoc, rag-tag, volunteer bunch of craft & farmer’s market -lovers. Semi-formally organized by community members of Growing Roots & council members of the Town of Monteagle, but 1000% supported by our amazing vendors & general town folk.

** What are holiday-days, aka when are you NOT going to market? // In 2023, Fresh Mess Market will NOT happen on May 29 (Memorial Day), July 03 (our mountain’s unofficial pre-July 4th Holiday), and Sep 04 (Labor Day). Why? Because we also love holidays 😉

** How much for a booth? // No charge! Just come & set up. We do accept vendor donations (usually around $5) to organize Facebook advertising, music, and other support services. Supporting orgs, like Growing Roots, typically put in a lead donation to help those things along.

Growing Roots connects with area schools and youth programs to offer STEAM-based garden learning to youth in grades K-8 for subjects like plant biology, earth sciences, place-based history, engineering, art, creative writing, and the culinary arts. Guided by Growing Roots volunteers, youth programming allows kids to connect the wonders of being in a garden with important learning concepts. Interested teachers can reach out to the Growing Roots to schedule time in your classroom / club, or groups can field trip to visit one of the Growing Roots gardens in Grundy County, TN.

Backyard Basics is a culinary event where Growing Roots leads a lunchtime cook-along with community partner Grundy County UT-Extension to talk culinary techniques, recipes, and cultural connections. Residents and fellow laborers are welcome to join for free food & fun giveaways.

In 2020 our team, under the “Healthy Roots” banner, joined up with the South Cumberland Summer Meal Program (SMP), a collaborative partnership between the University of the South, South Cumberland Community Fund, and the project’s community partners. SMP served meals to over 2000 local families affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. We served as a connection hub for service members that were operating different meal sites in Grundy County, and offered temporary food storage space as needed.