Nashville’s food systems need some fresh thinking, as local orgs reach a milestone in their 2-year visioning process

Feedback Nashville, a citywide initiative, wants to learn how residents experience food. So, it’s asking them:

Where do you buy food? How do you get there? How does change happen in Nashville?

The two-year project is working to redefine the city’s food systems — a goal that has no clear end in sight. Because according to the chief program officer at the Nashville Food Project (one of the groups involved in the effort), the work is really only just getting started.

“When we talk about systems change, that is a lifetime of a pursuit or sometimes generations of pursuit,” Hanes Motsinger says. “And so Feedback Nashville is a two-year initiative in the sense that we’re laying the foundation in two years.”

Fueled by pandemic relief dollars, a group of local organizations — which includes the Nashville Food Project, The Store, Brooklyn Heights Community Garden, Tennessee Local Food Summit, Porter Road Grocery, Nashville Community Garden Coalition, and the Metro Nashville Human Relations Commission — came together to understand how people access and experience food in Nashville.

“What are challenges in getting it?” Motsinger asks. “Do we not have enough grocery stores? Is our transit system not working well? Is it related to the lack of affordable housing, or underemployment?”

One way they are doing this is through a survey, which is set to close this weekend.

After gathering Nashvillian’s experiences, the initiative will then lay the foundation for possible improvements.

“We might not need more or different solutions. We might just need to figure out how to better work together,” Motsinger says. “But, if we do need new things, we want to go to our community and have them tell us what is needed.”

The survey will be accessible online through May 12.

In September, the group plans to present their findings and recommendations to the city, before entering the second phase of the project.