Going from Farm to Table with Charlotte Tolley

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
Welcome everybody to another episode of Connect the Knox.
I'm your host Julia Hurley, connecting Knoxville to the nation.
Today's guest is Charlotte Tolley.
CEO of Nourish Knoxville, a not for profit organization connecting
Knoxville with nourishing foods through farmers markets and donations.

(00:30):
We want to get really into this, Charlotte, because this is something
that is very interesting, especially in parts of a lot of communities
that have food deserts and even Knoxville has a couple of those.
So please introduce yourself and let people
know exactly what is Nourish Knoxville.
I'm Charlotte Tolley.
Um, I helped found the Market Square Farmers
Market in downtown Knoxville in 2004.

(00:51):
So Nourish Knoxville is, grew out of that work.
Working with local farmers and food producers, you know,
peaches just don't ripen on Fridays, so there are a lot of
other places that we work with beyond just farmer's market.
Our non profit started in 2013, so we have been working in local food in the
Knoxville area for over 20 years and are really not just farmers markets.

(01:16):
While we operate Market Square and New Harvest Farmers Markets at this
point, we also produce the East Tennessee Local Food Guide to help
people find farmers markets or other local food sources near them.
We also work with other farmers markets and direct selling
farm sites to offer SNAP doubling, so accepting food stamps
and doubling those dollars for fresh fruits and vegetables.

(01:36):
We do a Kids Program and a Moves Program, which both incentivize people to
come to the market and get dollars to spend on fresh fruits and vegetables.
And then we also do a food recovery and donation program where we, you
know, during peach season, sometimes there's a lot more peaches than can
be sold at a market, we work with farmers to purchase those goods to go
to communities in need who may not have a lot of access to fresh produce.

(01:57):
That is a lot that you have taken on to build.
It is a lot.
Yeah, it sounds like you do quite a bit, and
that's, it's an unbelievable undertaking.
I did not know you started the Farmer's Market.
I lived in downtown Knoxville for four
years, and that was where I got all my food.
Lived in a very small condo, so we either ate out every night with

(02:17):
the very small handful of restaurants that were available back
then, or we made our food from the farmer's market every weekend.
So that's that's pretty amazing.
Thank you for starting that because it has turned into one of
the largest and most sought after farmer's markets in this area.
That's huge.
Yeah.
Do me a favor and take us step-by-step through each of these programs because
there's several of these I don't know anything about, and when people relocate

(02:41):
here, this is one of the most listened to podcasts for new people moving in.
I think that's very relevant information for them.
So yeah, people know the MarketSquare Farmers Market now generally.
If you are relocating in Knoxville, we've had multiple people come up to us and
say like, "Oh, this is one of the reasons I felt like I can move to Knoxville."
Like there's a vibrant downtown.
I look at farmer's markets when I travel.

(03:02):
You know, it means that there's like a maker scene and a food scene in a city.
So of course we have our flagship market, which is on
Saturdays, which is essentially year round at this point.
We close for holidays, but we're downtown pretty much
year round, but we also are there on Wednesdays in season.
And we run the New Harvest Farmer's Market, which is in East Knoxville.
We're not at all the only farmer's market in the area.

(03:25):
Most towns have their own, so Maryville has a farmer's market, Oak Ridge
has a farmer's market, you know, there's a Morgan County farmer's market.
I know there's one in Farragut, and the Oak Ridge farmer's market's massive.
And we accidentally came across that going to the Lavender
Festival last year, and it backed up to the Oak Ridge Farmer's
Market, and I thought, "This is almost as big as Knoxville's is."

(03:47):
Yeah, and it's been running over 40 years, so the group that
runs that market also operates one at Ebenezer Road in West
Knoxville, and one in Clinton, so that's the same group.
And if you are a farmer's market frequenter, you would
see a lot of familiar faces if you go to these markets,
because like I said, peaches don't just ripen on Friday.
So you can't just have a Saturday morning market.

(04:08):
There's a Tuesday market, a Wednesday market, Thursday market, Saturday market.
And so we started in that world, but we do
feel like we want to float all the boats.
Like, we want, need our farmers to be successful.
We want all of these farmers markets to survive and for these farmers to
have multiple outlets, including restaurants and grocers and, you know, CSA
programs or other ways that they would be selling their produce to folks.

(04:30):
What is a CSA program?
CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture.
So the idea is you give literal seed money to a farmer.
So in the beginning of the season, they would say, you know, we
would like 60 people to like buy a share of the farm, and you
give upfront money so that they can purchase all those inputs,
and then throughout the season, you get a share of that harvest.

(04:52):
There's a lot of different models.
There's some that are a meat CSA.
There's some that have add-ons or are short
seasons, and so we promote those as well.
And so that's where we started the East Tennessee Local Food Guide.
It's both online and in print where it's for direct selling farmers.
So if you were to pick one up, you would see farms that you can
call directly and find them at a farmer's market or on their farm.

(05:15):
They also list restaurants or grocers and other
farmers markets in the area in a 33 county region.
This asset, where can you find this?
You can go to the online version on our website.
So, nourishknoxville.org, and you can enter
search terms, so you can enter a county.
So if you're in Morgan County, you can look for firms in Morgan County, or
if you look at farmers markets in Morgan County, or if you're just like, I

(05:37):
really want to be able to find this certain product, like who has local honey?
That's something we asked out about a lot.
You can put in honey and then you can look for things near you,
groceries that carry it and be able to find those products.
So the next one of our flagship programs, when food
stamps went to an online card based system, that really
cut out a lot of farmers from being able to accept those.

(05:58):
So we, across Tennessee, helped other farmers markets as well
accept SNAP through a script based system, which is a very technical
term, but essentially people come to our centralized information
booth and are able to swipe their card, take out however much
they want, and in their own SNAP dollars and their benefits.
And then we double those dollars up to 20 per day for
fresh fruits and vegetables so that SNAP recipients

(06:20):
are able to extend their food budget for healthy foods.
Is that statewide?
It is not currently statewide.
There are other markets across the state who have programs.
Ours is called Double Up Food Bucks.
You heard it here first, we have a grant
application in for a straight statewide program.
Like we are working towards statewide.
East Tennessee has a pretty strong program.
From Chattanooga to Bristol, there's I think over

(06:42):
30 sites now that are accepting SNAP and doubling.
So we also do our kids program at our markets
and a few partner markets across East Tennessee.
So kids come to our booth, we get them to try a fresh
fruit or vegetable, and they get five dollars to spend at
the market on the fruits and vegetables of their choice.
Clever!
That's a great way to get kids to start eating fresh vegetables.

(07:03):
I like that.
Yeah, it's interesting, you know, introducing things to them, because
of course, when you say like, "Oh, have you had a strawberry before?"
Most of them have tried a strawberry, but your like, in season farmer's
market strawberry is probably different than the one that you had in February.
So even if it is something that kids are used to, they may have
tried it before and not liked it because it wasn't as good.
And so, yeah, and we've had a lot of feedback that, you know,

(07:24):
kids are more likely to try when we're just casually giving
it to them than their parent trying to force it upon them.
And from parents saying like, "You need to do this for adults!
My partner doesn't ever try my vegetables."
I'm like, "You're welcome to try this raw okra."
I love raw okra.
I don't know if people have tried it before.
So that sampling piece is a really big component of what we do.
Honest to goodness, before you came on the podcast,

(07:47):
I did not know anything about this program.
So I am actually learning as if I were
listening to this podcast and relocating here.
And you've been here since 2004.
Tell us, okay, so you've got the double up Food Bucks, you've
got the Nourish Kids, and then what is the Nourish Moves?
So that one is encouraging physical activity.
We kind of started because there was a big

(08:07):
trend in like the workplace wellness world.
We were asked like, "Oh, could you start a farmer's market at our work site?
Can you do this?"
And we're like, you know what we did?
Bring a farmer's market to a lot of work sites in downtown.
We just need to do a better job about connecting to those wellness
programs and encouraging people to get out of the office in
the middle of the day, take a little walk, buy some produce.

(08:27):
Started really that way.
We do it at our New Harvest and our Wednesday Farmer's Market at every market.
People can come pick up a pedometer and walk around and bring it back, and
they get three dollars to spend on fresh fruits and vegetables at the market.
Every Wednesday and every Thursday at New Harvest.
Really neat.
Okay, so Wednesdays, Thursdays, if you work downtown, Come get a pedometer.

(08:50):
How many steps do they have to get in?
We do not require a certain amount of steps.
We are just encouraging you to get more steps than you were.
We used to, like, have a threshold, but we
really also wanted to be accessible to anyone.
Our new harvest market is actually in East Knoxville
by the Target, which is usually what we tell people.
So it's in a county park, and it has a really lovely walking trail.

(09:11):
We have a lot of kids that participate in that, and sometimes it's real hot.
And kids are having a very tiny meltdown at four in the afternoon, and
so we were like, you know what, let's just encourage people to come,
you know, if you made it out and you tried it all, like, we're really
proud of you, especially on those like, oh, it's 100 degrees outside,
like, we're not going to make you walk a thousand steps or whatever.

(09:33):
Yeah, like, please don't, actually.
I understand.
Okay, so I'm going to, my gosh, I don't even know.
There's just so many things.
Tell us about your not for profit.
Tell us about how that's going.
What do you need?
How can Knoxville better support you?
Tell me about everything you're trying to do and what you are doing.
So, you know, we're still a pretty small non profit.
We have a staff of six at this point.

(09:54):
We run three events a week, basically, in season, with our farmers markets.
And then, you know, we do all of these programs plus some
others and some fundraisers and try to participate in as
many community events as we can in this realm as well.
So we are relatively young, but we're not that young anymore.
It does take a lot of time.
So we do rely really heavily on volunteers as well,

(10:17):
especially for our Kids and our Moves Programs.
So we have volunteer opportunities at our markets, especially
Wednesday and Thursday, where we are just happy to have people come
and help us do crowd counts, help the people with those programs.
But like you said, you know, you weren't familiar with our organization.
People know about the Market Square Farmers
Market, but they don't know how it happens at all.

(10:37):
Like a lot of people think it's city run, and obviously
we have a really strong partnership with the city, but it
is our non profit and we are not, it's not city funded.
So I think a little bit of just raising the awareness about our organization
and all of these other programs that we do to increase food access.
Always helpful.
And obviously money is appreciated.

(10:59):
Give this woman some money.
Money is always appreciated.
We, you know, we have a donation program for our friends program.
A lot of our funding come at this point comes from grant funding
from the state for these nutrition incentive programs in particular,
but we also rely on an individual donors and like foundations.
Um, in the area.
And we work really closely with other organizations to ensure

(11:20):
that we have been able to serve more people with local food.
And one of the things that we didn't talk about
a lot yet was our Nourish Community Program.
And that is the one where we purchase from
farmers and then donate to other organizations.
So we rely really heavily on other partners in the community
that are serving the community their clients really well.
We work with Beardsley Farm and Battlefield Farm and the

(11:41):
United Way and Wesley House, Dream Center, so Pride Center.
There's all these people doing really great work in
the community, and we really have to work together.
We all know that real estate is location, location, location.
Our team at Just Homes Group has the true expertise,
pairing buyers and sellers with the right opportunities.

(12:02):
Whether you're looking to buy or sell a home right here
in Knoxville, Lenoir City, Clinton, or Farragut, we have
the expertise throughout every Knoxville surrounding area.
Call Just Homes Group today.
So our, our organization that I am part of is called
Charity Chicks and we do a lot with Wesley House.

(12:23):
I love that.
I love that we have that in common.
And that tells me we're on the right track with engaging in
different aspects of the community for all of the right places.
That's good to know.
Now I know that you have some fundraisers throughout the year.
We do.
How can people get involved in that?
Is it like a, uh, it's like a dinner?
Is it a, well, tell me about these.
So we have a couple things.

(12:44):
Our longest running is called Winter Warmer, and it is a
fundraising dinner, and no shade to any other fundraisers,
but it's unlikely that you will have a chicken breast at ours.
It is a more of a farm to table experience.
So we do work with local- with all of our
fundraisers, it is also still a part of our mission.
And since we have a food-related mission, when we have

(13:05):
a food fundraiser, we're trying to make sure that we're
including local ingredients in those meals as well.
And people are perhaps even able to learn a little something
about a local farmer or a new product that they aren't used to.
So Winter Warmer is in February.
This year it'll be February 21st, 2025.
And it's our 10th year.
So we actually are moving to a bigger venue.

(13:26):
We were at the Standard, which has housed us most
of the time, and we're moving to the Mill Mine.
So, it's still not a huge, we're like 225 people.
It's a plated dinner.
So, ticketed, obviously.
We have sponsorship opportunities, and then we have a
pretty amazing silent auction if I do say so myself.
Mostly if you like food.
There's a lot of really wonderful, like, one of a kind experiences as well.

(13:50):
Just like, a cocktail class, or a dumpling making class, or
like, you know, distillery tour, and that is both online.
So even if you're not attending the event, you can bid on these like in home
dinner with one of, you know, Knoxville's Blackberry Farm graduate chefs.
Really wonderful.
So yeah, we really enjoy that event.
We're working on that one right now.
We just finished, it's not really an event, we

(14:11):
can call it an event, but we do Restaurant Week.
So that one's pretty new.
Last year was the 20th anniversary of our Market Square Farmer's Market.
So, we started it then and really enjoyed doing it, and the
restaurants we worked with gave us a lot of really great feedback.
So essentially, we just ask the restaurants, cafes, bars, to
make an item for their menu that includes local ingredients.

(14:32):
So there's some that we work with that, no problem, they may
feature something that always features a local ingredient,
or they may make a special that they are featuring.
And that week, a percentage of those sales go to our organization.
So it's a really easy way to give back.
You just have to go get a cocktail at Fly by Night.
Pretty low, low barrier.
So that's in August every year.

(14:53):
So we just finished that one, and those are our main events.
Otherwise, we do our appreciation event.
So in October, we have our annual appreciation event for our donors,
our market vendors, you know, those restaurants that participated
in Restaurant Week, our sponsors, it's just people, volunteers,
people who've given stuff to our organization over the year.

(15:13):
We go to Strongstock Farm, which is in East Knox County.
It's a beautiful, over 900 acre working farm.
We have a cakewalk, delicious snacks, per usual, drinks.
So basically, you're Donate to your organization.
There's always going to be food and there's going to be great food.
Yes.
I love that.
I love this.
Add us to the list for February.
I love that idea.
And I want to connect you.

(15:34):
I'm sure you already know the Chicken Librarian.
Yeah.
I'm familiar with her.
Yes.
Yes.
I have her on my podcast.
I guess it was a couple of months ago, and I've taken a few of her classes.
I think that getting her to donate to your silent auction on
one of her cheesemaking classes would probably be really cool.
So I'll make that connection.
Absolutely.
Yes, we'll take it.
Okay, so I want to make sure that I got this right.
We do.

(15:54):
Well, you do the whole, you do all the farmer's markets now.
I'll give a book of all the farmer's markets,
but you started the Knoxville farmer's market.
Downtown Knoxville, which is the biggest one.
It is huge.
That's now on Wednesdays.
It is huge, that farmer's market.
I remember when it started, there was, I mean,
there were farmers there, but it is massive.
Your farmer's market is huge.
I remember when Mark moved the Old City Java for the first time, I, because

(16:18):
I get old, I used to get Old City Java every morning, every morning.
That man, I probably bought a house from him at one point.
That's how much money I gave that company.
But I remember when he brought a food truck, his coffee truck, to
do the hand poured coffee for the first time at the farmer's market.
And I said, oh my gosh, you know, this was so long ago.
I was like, Knoxville's gotten bougie.

(16:39):
Honestly, part of the reason that they did that, I mean, Old City Jamba
was already open in the Old City, but we literally could not get a cup
of coffee at the opening time at 9 am, like in the Market Square area.
There just wasn't anybody selling you coffee.
And so we're like, we need a coffee vendor, like all of these
vendors are showing up and being like, can I get coffee?
And there was like Pete's maybe, but a lot

(16:59):
of them didn't open until like 9 or whatever.
So yeah, that was part of the reason we're like, can you
just come up here and make us coffee in the morning, please?
Yeah, it was, it was the best addition because it got us out of bed early.
It got us to the farmer's market early.
We could have breakfast.
We could have coffee.
We actually went earlier and spent more time, which equated to more money.
So that was a win for everybody.

(17:21):
Having Mark there was a great thing.
I'll tell you a story.
I can't remember the name of the trolley, the flower
trolley, the lady that does the fresh cut flowers.
We've had a couple of different ones.
We have a new one now.
And I remember there was a flower, I swear
to gosh, this flower was the size of my face.
It was this, it was so beautiful.
I couldn't pass it up.
I got it, I put it in my condo, I come downstairs, I go

(17:43):
to smell it, I lean in to smell it, and a spider, the
size of the flower, comes crawling off the side of it.
I smacked that thing across, I [laughs] ran downstairs, and I was
screaming, and the next time I saw her, she gave me free flowers,
cause she was like, well, this is real flowers with no pesticides.
Came straight from the farm.

(18:03):
And it was so beautiful.
Still to this day, the most beautiful flower I've ever seen in my life.
But I will never, I'll never forget that.
I will never forget sharing that story with her and her giving me new flowers.
There are people who are always like, I'm real sorry about the spider.
Please just take another one.
I'm so sorry.
Flower, I'm sorry you pelted it across the kitchen.
So there's, there's so many good stories to,

(18:25):
that are connected to your farmer's market.
It brings families together.
It's a reason for people to visit Knoxville when they're here.
They don't know what we have to offer and that is a place, a gathering
place, to bring people together to get to know what local farmers there are
because I was unaware that that were that many and that had those, those many
different forms of food available year round until, until you built that out.

(18:49):
So I really appreciate everything that you've done for that.
Would you please Would you quickly go back through each
program you offer and how people can find you, donate
to you, and enjoy this, uh, this event in February?
I'm going to push that up.
I may end up selling your tickets out for you.
I'm really excited about that.
That's why we moved to a larger venue.
It does tend to sell out.

(19:09):
So one of the perks of donating at $150 and more is
that you get advanced ticket notice for our events.
You know, a little plug for that.
Yeah, so our website is nourishnoxville.org.
There you can find, you know, links to our East Tennessee Local
Food Guide, both a PDF version and the searchable online version.
You can find information there about our Nourish Kids

(19:30):
program and the other markets at which we offer those.
You can find information about SNAP Doubling and also
the other markets that accept SNAP and offer Doubling.
You can find information about our Moves Program and where we do that.
You can also find information about how to volunteer, or if you
are someone that wants to sponsor or have a non profit organization
that wants to work with our kids, activity leads, there's a lot

(19:53):
of other partnerships that you can find out about on our website.
Obviously, there are plenty of ways that you can
send money to us through the website as well.
And then information about Friends and Farmers, our appreciation event
is there, and as well as what we know so far about Winter Warmer.
But yes, if, you know, if donors at $150 and above or who
volunteer 10 hours or more receive, are invited to Friends and

(20:15):
Farmers and receive those advance ticket notifications as well.
Charlotte, I have Absolutely enjoyed learning about Nourish Knoxville with
you today, and it means the world that you took time out to be on our podcast.
I know that this is going to be an extremely popular one.
Um, we're at a little under 14,000 listens a month, so
we're starting to climb the ranks for Knoxville podcasting,

(20:37):
but it's really just means a lot that you took the time.
I know you're very busy, and I know that you're
very focused, and it's farm time right now.
Season for some corn.
Everything's going great.
Like let's go.
I won't take too much more of your time,
but I want to say thank you so very much.
And it means the world to us that you spent time with us today.
So everybody thank you so much for tuning
into another episode of Connect the Knox.

(20:58):
I'm Julia Hurley.
Connecting Knoxville to the nation.
Until next time.
Thank you for tuning into the show.
Make sure to like and subscribe.
Leave a five star review on your podcast player of choice.
And if you would like information on moving
to Knoxville, send me a private message.
As always, this is Julia Hurley connecting Knoxville to the nation.

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