They came in waves.

Saturday morning, the flow of cars waxed and waned in Douglass Park for a mobile food pantry. The first wave came at the start, around 10 a.m. 

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Volunteers, all people who have grown up in the neighborhood, packed each car with 14 days’ worth of groceries for a family of four. 

Once the cars slowed down, volunteers took to Facebook Live to let people know to get food. One volunteer said she’d been telling everyone at the nearby dollar store to come and get some food. 

Then, the second wave. 

They received bags and crates containing various types of meat, from tripe to chicken breasts, produce including papayas and cabbage, and miscellaneous foods, including packs of mushrooms and hot chips. 

The Time is Now Douglass Redevelopment Corp., a local nonprofit, started the mobile pantry with donations from Mid-South Food Bank in April 2020 due to a need exacerbated by the pandemic. They did the giveaways through September 2021 until they felt the need was met. 

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Now, with rising living costs and inflation, the group’s executive director Kathy Temple said the need is back. The group will do these giveaways monthly. 

Robert Perry, who founded The Time is Now alongside his brother, first as a barber shop, said they usually get enough food to feed about 300 people. 

The area is what’s commonly considered a food desert, an area with inadequate access to affordable and nutritious food. 

But Temple said she does not like to use that term.

“A desert is naturally occurring,” she said. “This is intentional.” 

The work is a nod to Douglass’ past. 

During the Great Depression, Douglass School principal Lucky C. Sharpe started a Live at Home program. Students turned vacant lots around the neighborhood into community gardens and canned food to be used for their school lunches. Neighborhood residents were also allowed to use the canning equipment for their own food with the condition that they give the school one out of every six cans. 

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According to a 1937 issue of the Memphis World, the Douglass community had in and around its territory a total of 682 gardens. That year, the community produced 100,000 cans for residents and 5,000 for the school. 

That’s the spirit of Douglass.

The formerly enslaved Rev. William Rush-Plummer established the neighborhood with about 40 acres of land given to him after he was freed, and named it after Frederick Douglass. The community attracted Black homeowners endowed with a sense of pride. 

Along with the community gardens during the Depression, Douglass held home improvement contests, and sewing committees ensured no one went without. Now, with folks like the volunteers at the food pantry, residents are trying to tap into that spirit.

Perry leads a blight crew that takes inventory of blight in the neighborhood and cuts the lawns. They also cut senior residents’ lawns for free. Inside the Douglass community center, they’ve established a permanent food pantry. They’ve called for garbage cans to help with litter and got a real-time camera set up to monitor crime. 

That self-reliant nature, Temple said, is the spirit that inspired the food drives. 

“We’re trying to motivate people to tap into their own skills, and tap into their own hope,” Temple said. “We have to start somewhere.”