SERVING OUR COMMUNITY: Food, Care, And Community Connection

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) – For more than 50 years, Hope for the Inner City has been working to serve East Chattanooga by connecting residents with food, affordable healthcare and other resources designed to help meet everyday needs.

The faith-based nonprofit’s mission focuses on reducing poverty and fostering long-term economic stability, while offering programs that support individuals and families throughout the community.

Food distribution is one of the organization’s largest outreach efforts. Hope for the Inner City distributes 25 meal bags each Tuesday and 25 each Thursday, with every bag containing enough food for about 10 meals. 

The nonprofit partners with Whole Foods, Panera Bread and Chick-fil-A to provide fresh produce, dairy products, bread, pastries and chicken that help stock those meal bags. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization distributed more than 150,000 meals.

Executive Director Anthony Watkins said every service is centered on meeting people where they are.

“Hope’s been around for sometime and our mission is to try to change lives in our community so everybody’s lives a little different and we try to look at people one by one in the mist kind of what we have and provide and if we do enough of that we have a community that actually changes… We partner with the organizations here in Chattanooga that allow us to distribute not just food, but we’re very intentional we’re actually providing meals.”

Hope for the Inner City also operates dental and vision clinics that help make healthcare more affordable. 

The dental clinic uses a sliding fee scale based on income, while the vision clinic partners with the Lions Club to provide eye exams and prescription glasses at a reduced cost.

“We partner with the Lions Club locally here and their foundation… they’ll walk out with a pair of glasses… their cost is only $15… The dental clinic works on a sliding scale starting at the poverty line… we will discount in such a way that it’s affordable,” Watkins said.

Beyond food and healthcare, the nonprofit maintains a 5½-acre campus that includes a community garden where fresh produce is grown for meal distributions. 

The organization also offers gardening classes and hosts volunteer mission teams from out of state, as well as local churches and school groups, who help tend the garden, prepare meal bags and complete projects around the property.

“We sit on about 5 1/2 acres and we have a large garden… The food that we grow goes in our bags and is distributed as well. These mission teams come in during the summertime and it enlarges our team,” Watkins said.

Watkins said volunteer groups can accomplish projects in a single day that would otherwise take the nonprofit weeks to complete.

“Silverdale Baptist is one of those groups… those coaches have brought their teams here throughout the years… we get 60 young men… what they do in a day takes us a month to do.”

The nonprofit also serves the community through seasonal programs, including its annual Turkey for Two initiative, which provided 1,260 Turkey packages to families.

Resident caterer and BBQ Rowe owner Pat Rowe said Hope for the Inner City offers far more than many people realize.

“That’s what we’re all about. We try to make sure here at Hope that between the food distributions twice a week, between the produce that comes out of the garden that goes back into the food distributions, the dental clinic, the vision clinic… just all of the things we do.”

Rowe hopes more people become familiar with the nonprofit’s work.

“I think the biggest thing is just making sure that people understand what Hope is. It sits here in the community… a lot of people ride by like what is that building and they don’t realize all of that stuff happens right here.”

From meal distributions and affordable healthcare to volunteer service and community partnerships, Hope for the Inner City continues its mission of helping meet immediate needs while investing in the well-being of East Chattanooga residents.