A new farmer’s market scheduled to open in North Memphis aims to serve the Hollywood-Hyde Park neighborhood and build community pride.

Mia Madison is launching the Chelsea Avenue Farmers’ Market on April 20, on a vacant lot at the intersection of Chelsea Avenue and Springdale Street.

Madison grew up in the Hollywood-Hyde Park neighborhood and still has relatives there. A longtime advocate for improvement and reinvestment in North Memphis, she knows the area struggles with food insecurity. 

One of her relatives owns the site for the market, and Madison thought she could use it to increase the neighborhood’s access to locally-grown food and retail.

“This farmers' market initiative is really space and opportunity in its truest sense,” she said.

The market will run Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. through October, and offer fresh fruit, vegetables, farm-fresh meat and space for local vendors. The site is roughly 3.5 miles from the nearest full-service grocery store and would serve adjacent communities like Klondike-Smokey City and northern Vollintine-Evergreen.

It’s also 2.6 miles from the former Overton Park Community Farmer’s Market, which ended operations in October 2018. Rhodes College launched the market in 2012 as part of a food-justice initiative, holding it at several locations before moving to its final home in the park.

Madison was a customer at the Overton Park market. When she decided to start the Chelsea market, she went to Kimberly Kasper, an assistant professor of anthropology at Rhodes College and the former faculty manager of the Overton Park market, for guidance. Now its leaders are giving Madison guidance and connections to local vendors. 

“We knew, from the feedback we’d received through the years, that there was a community want and need for a farmer’s market in North Memphis,” Kasper said. “We can use our knowledge and resources to support innovative, collaborative ways to increase food access across the city and within specific neighborhoods,” she said.

Madison, a fourth-generation North Memphian, has a bachelor's degree in geography and a master's degree in anthropology from the University of Memphis.

She previously worked as a director of community information for the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis, as an analyst for Memphis Housing and Community Development, and for the U.S. Census Bureau.

Madison hopes launching the market will spark additional investment in North Memphis. She'd like to see more vacant lots developed and a focus on quality, affordable housing.

"That is what this community deserves," she said.

Madison will invite nonprofits, schools, community agencies and city leaders to set up information tables at the Cheslsea market. And, she would like the site to become a location for seasonal celebrations, such as a neighborhood Easter egg hunt.

“I want this to be a community space where all people feel comfortable coming,” she said, “and it will offer amenities to a community that has not seen any new development in quite some time."

Madison is a member of a community advisory board for the Neighborhood Collaborative for Resilience (NCR), which is focusing on increasing mobility, access to resources, healthy neighborhoods and community engagement in areas, including North Memphis.

Madison said her work at the NCR gave her the idea to launch a market, and she received a joint letter of support from the NCR’s health work group and the health steering committee.

Madison and a handful of volunteers started preparing the site by removing a tree, mowing, and picking up litter and debris. She is seeking growers, farmers and vendors, and posted an application here. She's also seeking volunteers to help her finish site work. While she is currently covering expenses for the market, she's seeking donations and grants.

Late last year, nonprofit Ambassadors of Memphis partnered with Madison to apply for a Strong, Prosperous, and Resilient Community Challenge (SPARCC) grant to cover the market’s operating expenses, site preparation, and more. SPARCC denied the grant application. However, the organization named the market one of six community projects included in a $20,000 technical assistance grant from SPARCC-NCR.

Memphis Tilth, an organization that supports the local food system, also has provided Madison with information on community growers and farmers, and available market resources. Memphis Tilth executive director Carole Colter said she has worked with Madison on community projects in the past.

“When she reached out to me last fall about starting the market, I knew the Overton Park market was closing. I hated to see it go, but I was thrilled to hear a potential new farmers' market could serve North Memphis,” Colter said.

“It will provide an opportunity for community members to access a market space in a walkable and bikeable way, and that is really important,” she said.

Madison said she hopes the Chelsea Avenue market showcases North Memphis pride to the larger community.

“I want people from across the county to come here and find value in the farmers’ market and find value in the people here, too. I want people to feel as good about this community as I do,” she said.

 This story originally appeared at High Ground News, Memphis’ source for neighborhood reporting. Sign up for the newsletter here.