It was an evening of competition, culture, and education at the second Greens Tasting in Frayser, hosted by the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine Board of Visitors and the Office of Community Health Engagement.
The event brought together small business owners, members of the Frayser Community PTSA, and community members to highlight produce from the Frayser Community Garden and to learn more about becoming invested and involved in the garden.
The Frayser Community Garden launched in 2021 as a collaboration of the UTHSC College of Medicine and its Board of Visitors advisory council; the residents of Frayser; the City of Memphis Division of Parks and Neighborhoods, which offered the land for the garden; and the University of Tennessee Extension Institute of Agriculture. Today, the garden continues to improve access to free, locally grown, nutritional foods for residents of a community commonly seen as a food desert.
This year, 37 people attended the cook-off at the Frayser Connect Center, which was more than double the attendance at last year’s inaugural event. The attendees enjoyed samplings of the greens and cornbread cooked by nine contestants, an increase from six last year. Some of the greens the contestants cooked were picked from the Frayser Community Garden.
The contestants were judged by Brett Lawson, executive director of Frayser Community Schools; Claudia Jones of the Frayser Community PTSA; and Arnita Kimbro and Christopher Williams from the UTHSC Center for Youth Advocacy and Well-Being.
