Pastor Leaves His Church to Feed the Hungry on His Urban Farm: ‘It’s Literally Saving Lives’
“I tell people, ‘I pastor okra now — okra doesn’t give me as many problems as some people do,’” Chris Battle tells PEOPLE
By Johnny Dodd
People
January 13, 2024
Excerpt:
On a Sunday morning, Chris Battle, clad in dirt-smudged overalls, sits on a lawn chair under a box elder tree in a vacant lot in East Knoxville, Tenn. As he puffs on his pipe while reading from the Bible, members of his congregation warm themselves beside a small fire.
Behind them sit piles of okra, cabbage and onions, freshly picked from garden beds on the half-acre property and ready to be transported to a nearby farmers market once the service ends. “We meet here whenever God says it’s okay — meaning whenever it’s not raining or too cold,” Battle tells PEOPLE with a hearty laugh. “We’ve got atheists here, gay, trans and straight people. I think we’ve even got a witch.”
Four years have passed since Battle, 62, left his job as senior pastor at the Tabernacle Baptist Church — one of Knoxville’s oldest Black Baptist congregations — to grow and deliver fresh produce to residents of a city neighborhood where healthy food is scarce.
“I’m doing something that’s meeting a significant need in our community,” says Battle, who lives with wife Tomma, 58, and four of the 19 children he has raised over the years. “I think it’s literally saving people’s lives.”
