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

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.”

Battle’s decision to step down from the pulpit and focus on feeding others comes at a time when church attendance across the nation has declined — about half of Americans now say they are members of a congregation, down from 70 percent in 2000, according to Gallup.

“His ministry now,” says Dasha Lundy, a Knox County commissioner, “is gathering people together and feeding a community where the poverty rate among Blacks is 42 percent.

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Battle’s journey from clergy to food activist started in college, when he first felt a calling to preach.

“My life goal was to pastor, to be of service to others, and then retire,” he says. But after nearly 30 years at churches in several states, he became convinced that he could do more for the struggling community in East Knoxville, which had no grocery store, where he’d been working since 2008.

“Learning that people here could not get access to food to nourish their bodies felt ridiculous to me,” he says. He’s describing the phenomenon known as a “food desert,” where whole neighborhoods have limited access to affordable fresh foods and instead rely on processed foods that can lead to high rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

"It started messing with my head," he adds.

For more on Battle's journey, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribe here.

In 2018 Battle, who recalls first “putting seeds in the ground and watching stuff grow” when he was a boy, planted a small garden on a piece of land owned by his church and gave away the produce to whoever wanted it. Before long, more people, including many who hadn’t attended church, began  dropping by to help out as he weeded and watered his crops.

“That’s when it dawned on me that they won’t come to my church, but they will come to my garden,” says Battle. “I knew we needed to find a way to merge the two.”

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Within a year Battle had quit his job, had helped start a Sunday farmers market and was delivering produce supplied by food banks — more than a ton each week — to residents of public housing. Soon he established four more community gardens where locals can grow their own food, including his  flagship BattleField Farm & Gardens, where, weather permitting, he also holds his informal services every Sunday.

Battle insists that his crusade to transform his neighborhood with collard greens, sweet potatoes and beets is just getting started.

“I’ve never been happier,” he says. “I don’t miss pastoring. I tell people, ‘I pastor okra now—okra doesn’t give me as many problems as some people do.’ ”

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