The Knox County Community Gardens and Growers Alliance held its May monthly membership meeting somewhere a little different, stepping inside the future home of The ONE FIVE, the community-owned grocery store taking shape under Battlefield Farms’ vision for a more food-sovereign Knoxville.
The site visit gave Alliance members an early, up-close look at the space where Chris Battle, founder of Battlefield Farms and CEO of the Alliance, laid out what The ONE FIVE is, what it is becoming, and what it will take to get there.
Battle walked members through the expanded vision for The ONE FIVE. The project converts the former Dollar General at 2265 McCalla Ave. into a full-service brick and mortar, community-centered grocery store and community space designed to address food access and eliminate the food desert in East Knoxville while honoring the city’s legacy of a Black-led, agricultural tradition. The store’s name carries its own meaning, a nod to the 37915 zip code, as well as selling items at just a nickel over cost. This straight forward principle of a small margin of only a nickel between the cost of an item and its sales price will keep the store sustainable without pricing out the community.
The $1.5 million fundraising campaign is now officially underway. Battle outlined the campaign’s goals and the role community investment will play in getting the store from a promising space to an open door.
The ONE FIVE is targeting a 2027 opening, and the fundraising campaign is the critical next step. Battle encouraged members to share the campaign widely and to think about how their networks, personal, professional, and civic, can help move the needle. The Alliance will continue to play a role in supporting The ONE FIVE as the project develops.
