New Ground GARDENS

Beardsley provides space on-site for 65 refugee families to grow food each year. The farm staff helps to prep the soil, provide access to water, and distribute seeds and plants to gardeners who maintain large tracts of land. Gardeners are primarily from The Republic of Congo and Burundi, and they grow foods that are not available in nearby grocery stores, such as intore and lenga-lenga. Gardens provide a sense of home and cultural connection.

Beardsley compensates Sodela and local refugees to help run this program through translation services, plant distributions, and more.

PERISHABLE FOODS DELIVERY

Beardsley Farm organizes the farm-to-door distributions of approximately 75 bags of produce twice a month to families nominated by Bridge Refugee case managers. Since January 2022, we have distributed 56,332 pounds of produce directly to refugees, including Beardsley Farm grown intore (a crop of cultural importance to many of Knoxville’s refugees, which can’t be found sold locally).