Food insecurities (or “food deserts”) are an all-too-common problem in the Mid-South, but one local pastor is seeking to face this problem head-on, using the farmland he had inherited from his late father.
Pastor Hosea Houston of Pleasant Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in Memphis has everything at Houston Farms and Community Development from goats and chickens to fruits and vegetables, but his real mission is to provide children in the area with knowledge of self-sufficient farming while also giving of his harvest to community food deserts.
“So it’s my desire to put fresh food, coming straight from the ground, going to the table, coming from the ground, going to the school,” Pastor Houston said. “We’ve given away probably about another 200,000 pounds of fresh squash, fresh okra, corn, tomatoes.”
Students from nearby Northaven Elementary School recently had the chance to tour Houston’s farm and learn about agriculture, sowing seeds of hope for the next generation.
For anyone interested, Houston Farms and Community Development is located at 5550 Ramsey Road, Memphis, TN 38127, and Pastor Houston can be reached at Lifebuilding2@aol.com.
