On March 16, 2026, Robbie Cook contacted the Knox County Community Gardens and Growers Alliance, on behalf of Central Baptist Church of Fountain City and nine other churches forming the Fountain City Community Garden Ministry, seeking help in launching a community garden.
Five months later on the morning of Saturday, August 15, volunteers gathered early to avoid the heat and built and installed 20 raised beds at 3200 Garden Drive, each measuring 4 feet by 8 feet. The lumber was purchased at a reduced rate from 84 Lumber Company, as was the soil, a half-and-half mix of loam and mushroom compost, from George Brothers Excavating & Construction LLC.
It’s the latest project in an ongoing, multi-church effort to address food insecurity in North Knoxville.
A Shared Mission Takes Root
The garden sits on land provided by Agape Outreach Homes Inc. under a memorandum of understanding with the church coalition: Agape contributes the site, while the churches supply the labor, materials, and ongoing care. The workday turned an open plot into 20 raised beds ready for planting, and organizers say it reflects a growing partnership among Fountain City and North Knoxville congregations looking for practical, sustained ways to respond to hunger and food insecurity in their community.
Rather than a one-time service project, the garden is designed to produce food on an ongoing basis. The plan is to grow vegetables throughout the season and funnel the harvest directly into the participating churches’ food pantries, putting fresh food within reach of the neighbors who need it most.
The site also carries a fitting history: the land at Agape Outreach Homes once held a vegetable garden of its own. Bringing a working garden back to that ground gives the project a sense of continuity – the restoration of the former use of the land.
Another Step in a Longer Fight
For the churches involved, the Garden project is not a standalone effort. It is part of a broader strategy that has taken shape as congregations across North Knoxville have joined forces around food access. Church leaders and volunteers describe hunger as a persistent, structural issue in the area, one no single congregation can solve alone but that a coalition of churches, pooling volunteers, land, and resources, can begin to address.
That approach is what made the Agape Outreach Homes site possible in the first place, and the Alliance welcomed the opportunity to serve as a consultant on the project and further fulfill its mission of serving and supporting community gardens and growers across Knox County to eliminate food insecurity by providing its experience and expertise in planning and building raised bed, community gardens.
