Knowledge Quest’s Green Leaf Learning Farm expands

Knowledge Quest’s Green Leaf Learning Farm is expanding, thanks in part to partnerships with The City of Memphis Division of Housing and Community Development and Valero Energy, an international maker and marketer of transportation fuels that operates a refinery in Memphis.

“Congratulate Knowledge Quest, and thank them,” Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said. “Your commitment to the community of South Memphis is commended and your initiative of expanding the Green Leaf Learning Farm, a three-acre urban, organic micofarm designed to support the nutritional needs of the South Memphis community, bolsters my profound sense of optimism about what can be accomplished if we work together. We are grateful to have contributed $100,000 from our Community Block Development Grant program to support the creation of this community asset.”

The farm started in 2010 with the goal to support the nutritional needs of the South Memphis community. Green Leaf now operates as a USDA Certified Organic farm where students and family members can learn how to grow foods for the community. The farm uses repurposed, vacant, blighted lots in South Memphis.

“Mayor Strickland has been a longstanding supporter of Knowledge Quest,” said Marlon Foster, founder and executive director of Knowledge Quest. “A lot of these efforts have been born out of a lot of his vision casting for the city around blight remediation. This is 30 vacant lots, four repurposed buildings.”

The expansion has also been helped along by Valero Energy, which announced at the opening ceremony that it would donate another $100,000 to Knowledge Quest to add to the $100,000 Valero donated in the last year.

“I just came back to Memphis in 2020, during the height of Covid,” said Eric Brown, vice president and general manager of the Valero Memphis Refinery. “One of the first people I met when I came to the city, with masks on, was Marlon [Foster]. And I was proud to really get to know him and really hear his vision for Knowledge Quest. To go over to the facility, to see what he’s done with this location, from acquiring the store on the corner to all the lots and building these great facilities that really are here for our youth.”

Gina Butkovich covers South Memphis, Desoto County, storytelling and general news. She can be reached at gina.butkovich@commercialappeal.com.