I owe some folks an apology. I made a mistake.  

In Sunday's story on funding National Park City ideas, I mistakenly wrote that there had been attempts at a food hub here, but they never materialized.

I was wrong.

There was a food hub, apparently. It had support from the Benwood and Footprint foundations, was housed at the Chattanooga Area Food Bank and modeled after a version in South Carolina.

The food hub lasted a few years, roughly up to 2017, according to a few people involved with it.

"It struggled to operate sustainably," one reader recalled.

I apologize. We've added a correction to Sunday's story.

Knowing this, in a way, stings even more.

On Monday morning, my phone rang. Another reader was calling about the story.

"I think we need to rally," she said. "I think we need to present as many ideas as we can."

She has been in this work for 40 years in this town. If my memory and involvement stretched back 20 years, hers doubled that. And she knows the sadness — is grief the right word? — when so many efforts from so many people don't quite go far enough.

But today?

"I am hopeful," she said.

There's a new effort, led by David Littlejohn, to gather and fund 100 of the best ideas, or Seeds, as he's calling them, to further make real our National Park City identity.

Food, David said, can be at the heart of this.

Are there farmers and local food advocates interested in presenting their ideas for funding?

(See more here.)

The question I'm struggling with, and I hope it's a fair question, and not a negative one: does our region care about local food and farms?

Does it care enough to support a food hub? Or food policy?

So many people build wholesome things in this region that aren't received well. Is it because the creative architecture is lacking? Or the demand?

Monday night, a friend — he was at the heart of the food hub work — told me this story, as I remember it:

He was speaking to a local restaurant owner. Someone you'd know. Someone who owns multiple well-known restaurants.

My food hub friend was trying to get him to participate, to purchase food hub produce, meat and eggs.

"You know," the restaurant owner said, "in all my years, I've never had a guest come into my restaurant and ask: where did this chicken come from? Where was this lettuce grown? Who are the farmers that grew your food?

"No one ever asks."

In the end, the restaurant owner didn't participate in the food hub.

Story ideas, questions, feedback? Interested in partnering with us? Email: david@foodasaverb.com

This story is 100% human generated; no AI chatbot was used in the creation of this content.

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