A new partnership between Whole Child Strategies and Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) is creating more access to healthy food for Klondike and Smokey City residents.

Since July 17, MATA has been offering those residents free bus rides two days a week — Tuesdays and Saturdays — to the Downtown Farmer’s Market, Cash Saver and Catholic Charities.

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Whole Child Strategies Executive Director Natalie McKinney said the initiative came together after numerous conversations with neighborhood residents wanting greater access to fresh food.

“Part of our work is unmuting the voices that a lot of these policies and systems impact,” McKinney said. “They are the best purveyors of data and information. They can give us the information that we need in order to inform how the very systems that impact them should be revamped or transformed.”

Transportation to grocers in other parts of the city can be a hurdle for residents trying to access healthful foods, especially in an area where one in three people live below the poverty line, according to U.S. Census data.

Whole Child Strategies’ mission is to support neighborhoods in Memphis that are disproportionately affected by poverty. It has spent the past several years entrenched in the Klondike and Smokey City area empowering neighborhood-led solutions to address root causes of poverty, primarily through its partnership with the Klondike-Smokey City Neighborhood Council.

“I want people to understand that while we all know transportation, food, access to health care — both physical and mental health care — those are things people need to thrive not just survive ... we have to pay honor to how people in different communities prioritize those needs,” McKinney said.

“Every community is different. While they may be the same needs, they are prioritized differently, and we must begin to understand that and be responsive to that.”

MATA buses pick up Klondike and Smokey City residents along three stops: the former Northside High School building, Humes Middle School and Dave Wells Community Center. They are transported to the grocery stores and return to their communities about an hour later.

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“I think it’s very important for MATA to be involved in solutions to issues within our community,” MATA CEO Gary Rosenfeld said. “Whether it be education, crime, food deserts, poverty or access to medical care … there’s a transportation component.

“If we can be part of that solution and enable people to have extended opportunities, options to solve their personal dilemmas and issues they might have, I think MATA should be involved wherever it can be.”

Rosenfeld said beyond the cost of bus fuel, the pilot program’s cost is minimal, which made the project feasible.

Now that the service is available, work is ongoing to ensure people take advantage of the free bus rides. Whole Child Strategies is enlisting help from the organization’s “neighborhood captains” such as lifelong Smokey City resident Mary Wainwright, 62, to tell neighbors about the program.

“This way, we can get people right to the food, and if people eat healthy, they think better, they have better health,” Wainwright said. “This is one of the best programs that we have had.”

While greater access to healthy foods through MATA buses is a good short-term solution, Wainwright hopes the neighborhood can eventually lure grocers to the area.

“Whatever it takes for our community to thrive, that’s what I’m willing to do and I’m willing to go all the way with that,” she said. “I got a deep love for my community. I remember how it was. I see how it is now. I want to get it back not to where it used to be, but as good as it used to be.”